Abstract
Publisher Summary This chapter discusses laser as a light source. Several types of interferometers require a point source of monochromatic light. For many years, the closest approximation to such a source was a pinhole illuminated by a mercury vapor lamp. However, such thermal sources had two major drawbacks. One was the very small amount of light available and the other was the limited spatial and temporal coherence of the light. The chapter also describes some lasers that are commonly used for interferometry— Helium–Neon lasers, Argon ion lasers, diode lasers, dye lasers, and carbon dioxide lasers. The chapter discusses the wavelength stabilization of lasers. The most common method of wavelength stabilization with a He-Ne laser involves locking the output wavelength to the center of the gain curve. Techniques commonly used for this purpose include polarization stabilization, transverse Zeeman stabilization, and longitudinal Zeeman stabilization.
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