Page i, Front Matter

Table of Contents

• Front Matter

• Basic Principles of Lasers
• Principle of a Laser

• Spontaneous and Stimulated Emission

• Optical Pumping: Three- and Four-Level Systems

• Cross Sections and Level Lifetimes

• Transition Bandwidths

• Calculating Laser Gain

• Gain Saturation

• Homogeneous vs. Inhomogeneous Saturation

• Spatial Hole Burning

• Threshold and Slope Efficiency

• Power Efficiency

• Amplified Spontaneous Emission

• Characteristics of Laser Light

• Laser Beams
• Temporal Coherence of Laser Radiation

• Spatial Coherence

• Gaussian Beams

• Laser Beam Quality

• Brightness or Radiance of Laser Beams

• Optical Resonators
• Basic Structure of an Optical Resonator

• Resonator Modes

• Resonance Frequencies

• Bandwidth and Finesse of a Resonator

• Stability Zones of a Resonator

• Unstable Resonators

• Resonator Design

• Waveguides
• Principle of Waveguiding

• Waveguide Modes

• Optical Fibers

• Planar and Channel Waveguides

• Semiconductor Lasers
• Semiconductor Lasers

• Light Amplification in Semiconductors

• Low-Power Edge-Emitting Laser Diodes

• External-Cavity Diode Lasers

• Broad-Area Laser Diodes

• Diode Bars

• Diode Stacks

• Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers

• Vertical-External-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers

• Fiber-Coupled Diode Lasers

• Properties of Diode Lasers

• Quantum Cascade Lasers

• Solid-State Bulk Lasers
• Solid-State Bulk Lasers

• Rare-Earth-Doped Gain Media

• Transition-Metal-Doped Gain Media

• Properties of Host Crystals

• Effective Cross Sections

• Phonon Effects in Solid-State Gain Media

• Quasi-Three-Level Laser Transitions

• Lamp Pumping vs. Diode Pumping

• Side Pumping vs. End Pumping

• Linear vs. Ring Laser Resonators

• Thermal Effects in Laser Crystals and Glasses

• Rod Lasers

• Slab Lasers

• Thin-Disk Lasers

• Monolithic Lasers and Microchip Lasers

• Composite Laser Gain Media

• Cryogenic Lasers

• Beam Quality of Solid-State Lasers

• Properties of Solid-State Bulk Lasers

• Fiber and Waveguide Lasers
• Fiber and Waveguide Lasers

• Rare-Earth-Doped Fibers

• Types of Fiber Laser Resonators

• DBR and DFB Fiber Lasers

• Double-Clad High-Power Fiber Devices

• Polarization Issues

• Other Waveguide Lasers

• Upconversion Fiber Lasers

• Properties of Fiber Lasers

• Dye Lasers
• Dye Lasers

• Properties of Dye Lasers

• Gas Lasers
• Gas Lasers

• Helium-Neon Lasers

• Argon-Ion Lasers

• Properties of Ion Lasers

• Carbon-Dioxide Lasers

• Properties of Carbon-Dioxide Lasers

• Excimer Lasers

• Properties of Excimer Lasers

• Other Types of Lasers
• Raman Lasers

• Free-Electron Lasers

• Chemically and Nuclear-Pumped Lasers

• Narrow-Linewidth Operation
• Single-Mode vs. Multimode Operation

• Intracavity Etalons and Other Filters

• Examples of Single-Frequency Lasers

• Injection Locking

• Tunable Lasers
• Principles of Wavelength Tuning

• Tunable Diode Lasers

• Tunable Solid-State Bulk and Fiber Lasers

• Other Tunable Laser Sources

• Q Switching
• Q Switching

• Active vs. Passive Q Switching

• Gain Switching
• Gain Switching

• Mode Locking
• Active Mode Locking

• Passive Mode Locking

• Examples of Mode-Locked Solid-State Lasers

• Cavity Dumping
• Cavity Dumping

• Nonlinear Frequency Conversion
• Frequency Doubling

• Sum and Difference Frequency Generation

• Frequency Tripling and Quadrupling

• Optical Parametric Oscillators

• Laser Noise
• Forms and Origins of Laser Noise

• Relaxation Oscillations and Spiking

• Noise Specifications

• Schawlow-Townes Linewidth

• Laser Stabilization

• Laser Safety
• Overview on Laser Hazards

• Safe Working Practices

• Common Challenges for Laser Safety

• Design and Development
• Designing a Laser

• Laser Modeling

• The Development Process

• Power Scaling

• Equation Summary

• Back Matter