optical sweep generator

May 14, 2020 91 Replies

No, No, No, Not classical FTIR. Pain in the neck to process.

Your on the right track though.

The easy way is to use a HENE laser or these days, EDCL diode laser, and the Unknown laser into a Michelson Interferometer with the beams one above another. The interferometer is built with prisms and cube beam split ters, not mirrors, because they are cheap and self aligning. One prism o f the interferometer is moving on a flexure, a linear bearing, or in case o f one famous publication, a HO scale flat car and track. All you need is two photodiodes and two TTL counters at the output of the interferometer, the ratio of the known wavelength to the unknown wavelength gives you the d ata. With care in the design of the counters, you can even get it to read out directly in nanometers. Used, they used to be a few hundred Dollars, bu t a quick check on Ebay shows that the price is now outrageous.

The other way is a interferometer built of a reference plate and a t ilted wedge. You shine the reference laser into it using a flip mirror an d measure the fringes with a linear CCD. The reference laser beam is moved and the beam to be measured is routed into the system. The ratio of the di stances from fringe peak to peak gives you the data to solve for the wavel ength. I have one of those setting in the garage, but I don't have the ISA card for it, nor the software. I can route the signal into a storage scope , but have never bothered to go further. It is just two pieces of coated, very accurately made glass, and a tiny single mode HENE laser in the base. That is the preferred way for a pulsed laser.

One day I was out visiting a friend, and was told to go next door and get any gear I could use as the lab's occupant had passed away. Her last reque st was seeing that her gear was used for Education, otherwise her employer was tossing it. So I have a Wavemeter, but their IT department took the PC s before I got there. :-(

Steve

FTIR has a couple of big SNR advantages over monochromators, though: first, they detect signal at all frequencies all the time (the Fellgett advantage) and, second, in an interferometer you don't need a narrow slit to get good resolution--the length and width of the entrance aperture cause error only quadratically, like slit length in a monochromator.

With weak thermal sources the difference can be very striking--factors of 1E5 are not uncommon.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Dr Philip C D Hobbs Principal Consultant ElectroOptical Innovations LLC / Hobbs ElectroOptics Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 http://electrooptical.net http://hobbs-eo.com

you know what wavelengths the diodes were when ordered, you can buy a narro w bandpass, say 20 to 40 nm wide, and find out.

with an upconversion phosphor. Not bad for 1000$. Considering used FIND-R

-SCOPES are going for nearly a grand on Ebay these days, that is not too ba d. A grating and a brand new FIND-R-SCOPE with the 1550 option would cost Mr Larkin 2900....

ll. Optical bandpass filters usually have less then 5% loss on "Laser Line " grade units.

oconductive detectors for the IR spectrum.

You need to look at the interference filters.. those will have sharp edges...I'll find one if someone else hasn't posted a link.

GH

you know what wavelengths the diodes were when ordered, you can buy a narro w bandpass, say 20 to 40 nm wide, and find out.

with an upconversion phosphor. Not bad for 1000$. Considering used FIND-R

-SCOPES are going for nearly a grand on Ebay these days, that is not too ba d. A grating and a brand new FIND-R-SCOPE with the 1550 option would cost Mr Larkin 2900....

ll. Optical bandpass filters usually have less then 5% loss on "Laser Line " grade units.

oconductive detectors for the IR spectrum.

Oh yes, a spectrometer gives you much more information

George H.

f you know what wavelengths the diodes were when ordered, you can buy a nar row bandpass, say 20 to 40 nm wide, and find out.

D with an upconversion phosphor. Not bad for 1000$. Considering used FIND

-R-SCOPES are going for nearly a grand on Ebay these days, that is not too bad. A grating and a brand new FIND-R-SCOPE with the 1550 option would cos t Mr Larkin 2900....

kill. Optical bandpass filters usually have less then 5% loss on "Laser Li ne" grade units.

otoconductive detectors for the IR spectrum.

50

OK one of these might work... but they are narrow..~12 nm FWHM

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try the 1300 range. Or the 1550 nm range. FL051550-40 is only $50. If you tilt an interference filter it passes a shorter wavelength.

George H.

Phil or Steve may know better IF vendors, I bought from intor in the past.

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GH

For non-stock things I usually use Omega Filters.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Dr Philip C D Hobbs Principal Consultant ElectroOptical Innovations LLC / Hobbs ElectroOptics Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 http://electrooptical.net http://hobbs-eo.com

We just ordered a 1:3 WDM fiber splitter that will separate our three wavelengths. $650. That, and three of our o/e converters, should work to check our lasers.

John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc Science teaches us to doubt. Claude Bernard

Why reinvent the wheel?

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Bargain price on EBAY today

Right. $22,699, used.

John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc Science teaches us to doubt. Claude Bernard

I'll let you know when the prototype is done on this end. I still think there is a market for a low end, no frills, "voltmeter" style spectrograph. Steve

Wrong $5k is a bargain

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That's strike 2 John. Try to be better pls.

That one only covers 1450 to 1650 nm.

This is 600 to 1750 nm:

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Try not to be an obnoxious jerk.

John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc picosecond timing precision measurement jlarkin att highlandtechnology dott com http://www.highlandtechnology.com

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