Lecture

Principles of Lasers: Optical Tweezers

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In course

CH-417: Optical methods in chemistry

Introduction and application of photon based tools for chemical sciences: from basic concepts to optical and x-ray lasers ...

Description

This lecture covers the principles of lasers, including lasing transitions, the particle character of light, and various laser applications such as optical tweezers, microscopy, manipulation, and spectroscopy. Specific examples like the Helium Neon Laser and different types of molecular gas lasers are discussed. The lecture also delves into topics like X-ray sources, diffraction, imaging, and spectroscopy. The instructor emphasizes the importance of understanding laser principles for various fields like research, manufacturing, medical applications, navigation, and communications.

Instructor

Christoph Bostedt

Teaching & PhD PhD Students Eloisa Florence Manetti, Wenyi Jiang, Hankai Zhang, Loïc Lucien Cédric Bassement, Silas Strebel, Eliot Jermann Past EPFL PhD Students Jonas Knurr, Ningchen Yang Courses Optical methods in chemistry CH-417 Introduction and application of photon based tools for chemical sciences: from basic concepts to optical and x-ray lasers Physical Chemistry Seminar 1: Trends CH-643 Students can learn about the broader research in Phyiscal Chemistry and broaden

Official source

Ontological neighbourhood

Physics

Optics: Lasers

Related concepts (32)

Laser

A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word laser is an anacronym that originated as an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. The first laser was built in 1960 by Theodore Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories, based on theoretical work by Charles H. Townes and Arthur Leonard Schawlow. A laser differs from other sources of light in that it emits light that is coherent.

Optics

Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light. Because light is an electromagnetic wave, other forms of electromagnetic radiation such as X-rays, microwaves, and radio waves exhibit similar properties.

Physical optics

In physics, physical optics, or wave optics, is the branch of optics that studies interference, diffraction, polarization, and other phenomena for which the ray approximation of geometric optics is not valid. This usage tends not to include effects such as quantum noise in optical communication, which is studied in the sub-branch of coherence theory. Physical optics is also the name of an approximation commonly used in optics, electrical engineering and applied physics.

Geometrical optics

Geometrical optics, or ray optics, is a model of optics that describes light propagation in terms of rays. The ray in geometrical optics is an abstraction useful for approximating the paths along which light propagates under certain circumstances. The simplifying assumptions of geometrical optics include that light rays: propagate in straight-line paths as they travel in a homogeneous medium bend, and in particular circumstances may split in two, at the interface between two dissimilar media follow curved paths in a medium in which the refractive index changes may be absorbed or reflected.

Laser diode

A laser diode (LD, also injection laser diode or ILD, or diode laser) is a semiconductor device similar to a light-emitting diode in which a diode pumped directly with electrical current can create lasing conditions at the diode's junction. Driven by voltage, the doped p–n-transition allows for recombination of an electron with a hole. Due to the drop of the electron from a higher energy level to a lower one, radiation, in the form of an emitted photon is generated. This is spontaneous emission.

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