HMW due 04/11/2016

1. Compute the FWHM frequency linewidth for a plane-parallel Fabry-Perot interferometer

with two identical mirrors, separated by a distance of 1 cm, with air between the mirrors.
Assume mirror reflectiveness of 99.99%, 95%, and 70%. Determine the cavity Q for these
three cases if the output of a GaAs diode laser operating at 800 nm is transmitted through
the interferometer.
2. An argon ion laser beam operating at 488 nm is passed through a Fabry-Perot cavity in air
at normal incidence with no reduction in its intensity. The cavity has a mirror separation of
0.3 m, mirror reflectivities of 95% at the laser wavelength, and no absorption losses. What
is the minimum distance the mirror separation would have to be changed in order to reduce
the transmitted intensity to one half of the input intensity?
3. Show that, for TEM00 mode passing between two laser mirrors, the transverse displacement
E E0 e

/ w2

from the center axis, where (according to eqn.

) the intensity reaches a
maximum, to the location where the intensity of the mode has a value of 1/e2 of the
maximum corresponds to the value w in (
distribution).

E E0 e

/ w2

) for a Gaussian mode

4. A 0.1-m-long Nd:YAG laser rod is coated with a 99% reflector on one end and a 95%
reflector on the other end. Determine the longitudinal mode spacing. How many modes
could be operating if the gain bandwidth is a Lorentzian shape with a FWHM of 0.45 nm
and a peak at 1.06 m? (Assume that all possible modes are lasing.) The maximum signal
gain is 10% at the peak of the emission spectrum and that the cavity losses (in addition to
mirror losses) are 2% per pass. The index of refraction of Nd:YAG at 1.06 m is 1.82.
Note: Since the transmission losses are different at each mirror, you must consider the total
round- trip gain and loss.
5. If a laser-pumping light source emits a power of 10 W at a wavelength of 500 nm, and if
we assume that 10% of the photons are absorbed by the laser gain material within the
useful mode volume of the laser that is being pumped, then how many photons per second
are absorbed in the material?
6. In problem 5, how many upper laser level species would accumulate within an upper laser
level lifetime of 5 ns (dye laser), 3.8 s (titanium: sapphire laser), 230 s (Nd:YAG laser),
and 3 ms (ruby laser)? Assume that one upper laser level species is produced for every
pump photon absorbed within the material.