Solid State Quantum Optics Lab

Educational

Tutorial Videos

This section provides material to aid students in getting started on various experimental techniques commonly found in optics laboratories.

1) How to conveniently and efficiently couple a laser beam into a single mode optical fiber

With a core diameter of just a few micrometers, single mode fibers are considerably more difficult to couple than multimode fibers. This video introduces students to a procedure that is simple and achieves high coupling efficiency in a short period of time using just two mirrors and a fiber collimator. Video produced by B. Petrak, M. Peiris and K. Konthasinghe.

2) How to align an external cavity diode laser (ECDL) in Littrow configuration

ECDLs are simple, low-cost and high-quality sources of frequency-tunable laser light. Alignment of an ECDL in Littrow configuration is illustrated on a table-top setup. Video produced by B. Petrak, M. Peiris, K. Konthasinghe, and D. Lage.

3) How to set up and align a scanning Fabry-Perot interferometer

The scanning Fabry-Perot interferometer is a valuable laboratory tool for the measurement of spectra with a resolution that can be much higher than that of other spectroscopic instruments such as grating spectrometers. This video describes a simple construction of a non-confocal scanning Fabry-Perot interferometer and the mode-matching of an external input beam (here a single mode fiber) to the TEM00 modes of the Fabry-Perot resonator. Video produced by B. Petrak, M. Peiris, and K. Konthasinghe.

4) How to set up and align an optical Faraday Isolator

In high-resolution spectroscopy the Faraday isolator is an essential tool used for minimizing unwanted back-reflections that tend to perturb the operation of lasers. This video explains how to quickly setup a Faraday isolator in free space. Video produced by B. Petrak, M. Peiris, and K. Konthasinghe.

5) How to set up and align a long-range scanning Michelson interferometer with high fringe visibility

In the present tutorial video, it is shown how such an interferometer can be constructed for the case where a long scanning range is needed. Video produced by Y. Nieves and M. Peiris.

6) How to set up and align a multipass cavity

When it is desirable to enhance light matter interactions without involving a resonance condition, multipass cavities can be employed. This video describes the alignment of a multipass cavity built from two concave mirrors. Here the light source is a Helium Neon laser. However, spatially multimode and spectrally impure light can be introduced as well. Video produced by J. Singh.

7) Identifying common household chemicals with feedback-assisted multipass Raman scattering

This video illustrates the high sensitivity, versatility, and responsiveness of feedback-assisted multipass spontaneous Raman scattering. Daily use items such as windex, markers, whipped cream generate gases with unique signatures that can be unambiguously identified and quantified at trace levels (parts-per-million and below). Video produced by J. Singh.