Coaxial alignment of laser beams for perturbation experiments

Area of Science:

• Optical Engineering
• Laser Physics

Background:

• Coaxial alignment of multiple laser types is crucial for synchronized experiments.
• Pulsed lasers, like neodymium glass lasers, require precise beam overlap for accurate measurements.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and describe an instrument for coaxial alignment of a continuous wave helium-neon laser with a pulsed neodymium glass laser.
• To enable observation of events before, during, and after pulsed laser operation.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a continuous wave helium-neon laser as a reference beam.
• Aligned the helium-neon laser coaxially with a pulsed neodymium glass laser.
• Conducted tests primarily at the 1.06 µm wavelength, with design considerations for 1.35 µm sidebands.

Main Results:

• Successfully developed an instrument for coaxial laser alignment.
• Observed interference from a residual nonlinearly polarized component of the pulsed laser light.
• This interference prevented low-level detection of perturbation effects.

Conclusions:

• The developed instrument facilitates coaxial alignment for synchronized laser experiments.
• Nonlinear polarization effects in pulsed neodymium lasers pose a challenge for sensitive detection.
• Further refinement is needed to overcome polarization-induced disturbances for low-level measurements.