Laser Spectroscopy

📖 The Scoop

The impact of lasers on spectroscopy can hardly be overestimated. Lasers re present intense light sources with spectral energy densities which may exceed those of i ncoheren t sources by severa 1 orders of magnitude. Furthermore be cause of their extremely small bandwidth, single-mode lasers allow a spectral resolution which far exceeds that of conventional spectrometers. Many experi ments which could not be done before the application of lasers because of lack of intensity or insufficient resol ution are readily performed wi th lasers. Now several thousands of laser lines are known which span the whole spec tral range from the vacuum-ultraviolet to the far-infrared region. Of parti cular interest are the continuously tunable lasers which may in many cases replace wavelength-selecting elements, such as spectrometers or interferome ters. In combination with optical frequency mixing, techniques such conti nuously tunable monochromatic coherent light sources are available at nearly any desired wavelength above 100 nm.

Genre: Science / Physics / Optics & Light (fancy, right?)