Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Downloaded 27 Mar 2013 to 146.201.208.22. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissions
JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS VOLUME 36, NUMBER 1 JANUARY 1965
Buildup and decay transients were observed when polar or nonpolar liquid cells were placed within the
resonator of a helium-neon laser operating in the red at 6328 A. Similar but smaller effects were also ob-
served with two solids. Time constants were the order of a few seconds for all materials, which suggests a
thermal phenOlnenon, but general heating effects were ruled out by the strong localization of the phenome-
non. Transverse motion of the cell by about one beam width caused new transients similar to the initial ones.
It is believed that the effects are caused by absorption of the red light in the material, producing a local
heating in the vicinity of the beam and a lens effect arising from the transverse gradient of refractive index .
.-\bsorptions of 10-3 to 10-4 parts per centimeter are sufficient to produce the effects, and are believed to be
reasonable values for the materials studied. One of the most important applications may in fact be for the
measurement of small absorbancies.
The experiments are described, and analysis of the lens effect from absorption is given. Alternate explana-
tions which were considered are stated briefly.
Downloaded 27 Mar 2013 to 146.201.208.22. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissions
4 GORDON et at.
Downloaded 27 Mar 2013 to 146.201.208.22. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissions
LONG-TRANSIENT EFFECTS IN LASERS 5
t/tc=',
ization. This yields a dn/dT of the order of (-10-3). 24.5'\ ' .......
(For example, the value for carbon disulfide at 20C \ ....................
is found 4 as -0.794Xl()-3.) Thus a change in index of
............
6 7 8 9 10
Downloaded 27 Mar 2013 to 146.201.208.22. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissions
6 GORDON et at.
6~-----------------------'
The curves of Fig. 5 show several important points.
The first is that for all values of time, temperature drops 5
off very rapidly outside the beam. For small times, the
temperature distribution is essentially the Gaussian loss
distribution as expected, but even in the steady state
the temperature at 2wo is less than half that at the
center. Observation 4 of Sec. II is consistent with this
2
strong localization of excess temperature, and observa-
tion 11 is explainable by the localization and the small -------~~==~------~
temperature changes.
A second point shown by the curves is that a para- ~~--~----~2----~3----~4----~5
bolic approximation holds fairly well up to r=wo. Since
87% of the light energy is concentrated within this
FIG. 6. Focal length vs time curve.
radius, the resulting lens should have little spherical
aberration, and Eq. (1) should give a good approxima-
tion to its focal length. For a temperature rise !::.T, the nisms to explain this, the absorption accompanying
corresponding index of refraction is Raman scattering is estimated at 10-12 jcm, so is much
too low. Some absorption from impurities in the
n(r,t) no+ (dnj dT)!::'T(r,t) ; liquids could be imagined, but tests were duplicated
over a fair range of impurity. The breaking of molecular
thus using the parabolic approximation (A13) from clusters 5,6 is a possibility, but values for this are not
Appendix A, known. Most likely is the tail of the strong ultraviolet
absorption which is about the same for all liquids tested
dn)0.06bP
n(r,t)=no+ ( - --- except water. Water has an ultraviolet absorption edge
dT 'Irk at shorter wavelengths, and, consistent with this,
showed smaller transients.
(7) It was most interesting that the time constants of the
observed transients vary so little for the different ma-
terials tested. This also may be understood from the
Since dnjdT is small, the first term in the brackets characteristic time defined by (5), which is the basic
adds only a negligible part to the r-independent nand parameter in heat buildup (Fig. 5) and the lens effect
can be dropped. Equation (7) is then of the form (1) (Fig. 6). Theoretical values for several materials are
with shown on Table F and it is seen that they are re-
0.12bP(dn) 8Dt markably grouped around 2 or 3 seconds.
(8)
(j= - n ok7r dT wo2 +8Dt'
IV. POWER CHANGES PRODUCED BY THE
LENS EFFECT
The focal length, from (3) is then
The discussion has so far concentrated on the lens
te] effect from localized absorption and heating. Time con-
F(t)
0.24bPl(dn/dT) (8Dt)
Foo [ 1+ 2t ' (9)
stants and localization in space have seemed consistent
where with the observations. It is clear in a general way how
a varying lens introduced in the oscillator path can
F co = k1rnowNO.24bPI(dnjdT). (10) cause power changes, but this should be examined in
Figure 6 shows a plot of focal length versus time, and somewhat more detail.
it is seen that it approaches the asymptote F in only <>0
Referring to Fig. 1, it appeared that the finallimita-
a few times te
(i.e., in a few seconds) even though it tion in power was by the size of beam at aperture # 2,
takes much longer for the temperature distributions of which is the tube end, and is 4 mm in diameter. The
Fig. 5 to approach the steady state. Thus an effect based size of the spot on mirror # 2 was consistent with this.
upon varying focal length is consistent with the build- The lens produced by the liquid cell and mirror # 1 can
up times of 2 to 8 sec observed. roughly be considered together as a plane reflector. Thus
The equation of Fco in (10) allows calculation of the it is believed that the limiting power is that in which
absorption b if F is known. With the following esti- the lens focal length just adjusts so that diffraction
mates, F=-l m, P=0.8 W, wo=0.05 em, dnjdT losses at aperture # 2 equal the laser gain. This is of
=-10-3, no=1.5, 1=1 em, and k=4X1Q-4, 5 J. Frenkel, Kinetic Theory of Liquids (Oxford University Press
b=7rnokwNO.24FPI (dn/dT) =2.5X lQ-4 em-I. Oxford, England, 1946), p. 302 et seq. '
6 H. S. Green, The Molecular Theory of Fluids (North-Holland
Considering the estimates, the expected range of Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1952), p. 64 et seq
b would be 10-3 to lQ-4. In looking at absorption mecha- 7 Ref. 4, p. 2439. .
Downloaded 27 Mar 2013 to 146.201.208.22. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissions
LO~G-TRANSIENT EFFECTS IN LASERS 7
TABLE I. Thermal constants and calculated values of te. (k = ther- the heat generated per unit length will be proportional
mal conductivity, p=density, cp=specific heat, te=characteristic
time.) to the square of this,
Downloaded 27 Mar 2013 to 146.201.208.22. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissions
8 GORDON et at.
Curves from this equation are plotted in Fig. 5 vs timeter per second] and by b, the fractional dissipation
r/wo for various tlte, where te is defined by (5) and is per centimeter.
around 2 sec for the materials studied. Q(r)=0.Z4bw(r).
The infinite model has the weakness that !:J.T ~ 00
Total beam power is
as t ~ 00. This is because the gradient approaches 1/r
in the steady state, and with !:J.T=O at r= 00, tempera-
a fa 21rrA ( -2r2)
ture integrates to infinity at all finite radii. Reference
10, Sec. 55, gives the corresponding Green's function
P= fo 21rrw(r)dr = --exp
O.24b
- dr
wo
0
2
This may be integrated again [the second term 0.06bP[ ( SDt) 16Dt r2 ]
tJ.T(r,t)~-- In 1+- - . (A13)
2
utilizing 31Z(5d) of Ref. 13J. The result, with boundary k wo wo2+SDt wo2
condition !:J.T=O at r=a is
Similarly for the steady-state solution of the bounded
2 rJ
- - -Ei (za
region,
AW02[ Ei (Zr2) --- )-21n-.
!:J.T(r)=-
Sk wo2 wo2 a
(A9)
tJ.T(r)~--
O.06bP[
In -
(z'Ya
)
2
2r2]
-- . (A14)
k wo2 wo2
The curve for this steady state is shown dashed in
Fig. 5. The last equation is plotted as a dotted curve in
The constant A may be related to total power and Fig. 5, and is seen to be a good approximation up to
the rate of dissipation. The heat density of (Al) is r/wo approaching unity.
the power density in watts per square centimeter mul- 13 W. Grobner and N. Hofreiter, Integraltafel (Springer-Verlag,
tiplied by 0.24 [to convert to calories per square cen- Berlin, 1949).
Downloaded 27 Mar 2013 to 146.201.208.22. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://jap.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissions