The goal of Laser Building is to provide students with an understanding of the steps involved in the design of a commercial laser system. The first part of the course discusses user requirements and the implications for cavity design. The second part covers structural, mechanical, thermal, and electrical considerations. The final part of the course deals with the steps required to turn the laser design into a fully tested reliable product. Special attention will be paid to the complex interaction of multiple disciplines – some academic, some business-related, some related purely to human factors – that ultimately define if and how a laser system may be brought forward as a useful product. Homework will include Case Studies in which groups of students address real-world problems ranging broadly from integrating rate equations for particularly challenging laser systems through identifying trade-offs in a component-level decision making process.

Pre-requisite:

• Graduate Standing.

Textbook:

• "Opto-Mechanical Systems Design" by Paul Yoder, 3rd Edition, SPIE Press.

Additional Reading (Optional):

• “Solid State Laser Engineering” by Walter Koechner, Springer-Verlag.
• “Lasers” by Anthony Siegman, University Science Books.

List of topics

• Rate equations for first-order analysis of laser performance
• Generation, propagation, and diagnostics less-than-ideal beam outputs

Systems Engineering

• Definition of user needs and requirements – managing expectations and outside-world interfaces
• Design for operation over severe environments
• Identification of architectural alternatives
• Alignment insensitive configurations
• Structured decision making

Device Engineering

• Designing the physicist out of the laser production and operation processes
• Component mounting for real-world environments
• Structural material alternatives and selection
• Basics of structural design: geometrical forms and their performance implications
• Mounting of optical components for real-world environments
• Alignment and adjustment mechanisms
• Contamination management… sealing dirt and moisture in or out?
• Support engineering functions – electronics, electrical power conditioning, control, thermal management

Assembly and Alignment Processes

• Material selection – the good, the bad, and the ugly
• Cleaning and handling of optics and mechanical parts
• Assembly processes
• Tooling and test equipment design

Testing

• In-process verification – fail early, fail often to avoid big problems at a late stage of builds
• Acceptance testing
• Environmental qualification testing