Quantum Optics Lab 180Q

Week 1 - Basic Skills Lab

The goal of this lab is to familiarize you with basic skills for safe use and handling of
optics and lasers, manipulating laser beams, and taking simple measurements. You will learn
how to position a laser beam in space, properly align a beam through optical components (like
lenses for example), and the use a photodiode and oscilloscope. These skills will become
second nature as you gain experience with optical hardware.

Pre-lab
Answer the following questions. These must be completed and graded before you can start
the lab. Some helpful course materials for completing this are available on the course website.
1. Laser safety. Answer the following questions:
a. Define Class I,II,III,IV lasers, Optical Density, and MPE.
b. The value of the MPE depends on exposure time. When working with a visible
laser beam the time it takes to blink is obviously a reasonable time-scale to judge
if the laser intensity is dangerous or not. What is the MPE for a 650 nm laser for
the time it takes an average human to blink?
c. What areas of the eye are most susceptible to damage?
d. What region of the light spectrum is most dangerous to the eye?
e. How should you select laser safety goggles?
2. Back-reflection from optics. Optics are made of dielectric materials with 1,
therefore some amount of light is always reflected (Fresnel reflection) from any optic
(e.g. lenses, windows, prisms). Modern high-quality optics are often made from fused
silica. Estimate the amount of power reflected at the entrance of a typical optic for a
635 nm laser beam. How much power is lost from the same beam in going through a
typical lens?
3. Photodiodes. You will be using the THOR labs PD model DET36A to measure laser
power. If this photodiode is producing 4 V into 100 k termination impedance, when a
635 nm laser beam is impinging on the detector, how much power is in the laser beam?
Why is this laser power and not energy?
4. Please read and sign the following if you agree to what is written: I understand that
the equipment in this laboratory class is both potentially dangerous and extremely
expensive. I will therefore work diligently to ensure safety of my lab partner, the
equipment, and myself. If I have any questions about how to proceed I will ask the TA or
the professor BEFORE I act. (Sign and date in the space below.)

Materials
The TA will provide the necessary materials.

Laser system
Laser safety goggles. Wear them!
Two apertures (These will be pre-bolted to the table. Do not adjust.)
Two kinematic mirrors and assembly
Photodiode, BNC cable, variable impedance terminator, and oscilloscope
One Lens and assembly
One PBS and assembly

Procedure
1. Setup the laser. The laser should already be mounted in a kinematic mount, with two
adjustment knobs. Attach this mount to a 3in. by 1in. post, and secure the assembly to
the table with a clamping fork. The laser beam should be parallel to the table.
2. Aligning a laser beam through two points in space. In this lab, you will direct a beam
through two apertures. The TA will have already bolted these apertures to the optics
table. Do not move or touch them. You will need 4 degrees of freedom to align your
beam through these apertures. The vertical and horizontal position of the beam needs
to be correct on each aperture, giving 4 degrees of freedom. One way to do this is
bounce the laser off of two mirrors. The mirrors have two adjustment knobs, giving you
the required degrees of freedom to align the beam.
a. Mount two kinematic mirror mounts on 3 posts, then position and fasten them
on the table such that the laser bounces off both mirrors. (Tip: Align the first
mirror so that the beam approximately follows a row of holes lengthwise down
the table. This will make later alignments easier. Then add the second mirror to
direct the light approximately through the apertures.) Make sure the beam is
roughly level with the table. You do not want the beam shooting way up or

down. If it is not level adjust the vertical knob of each mirror mount (one at a
time) to approximately level the beam. (A ruler, box, or card is a good way to
check for a level beam.)
b. Use these two mirrors to align the laser beam through the apertures. There is an
algorithm that will always place the beam between two points:
i. Using the upstream mirror (the mirror closest to the laser) center the
beam on the upstream aperture.
ii. Using the downstream mirror center the beam on the downstream
aperture. This will mess up the alignment on the upstream aperture.
iii. Go back to step i. Eventually the beam will converge on both points.
Think about why this is. What happens if you invert the process? In
other words, if you use the downstream mirror to align the beam to the
upstream iris.
c. The laser should now be going through the center of both irises.
3. Using a photodiode and oscilloscope In this part of the lab you will use a photodiode,
which converts the photons of the laser beam into a measurable electric current, in
conjunction with an oscilloscope to measure the power in the laser beam at several
spots in your set-up.
a. Mount the photodiode on a post held in an adjustable post holder. Connect
the output of the photodiode with a BNC to the variable impedance terminator.
Connect the terminator to the oscilloscope and ensure the input impedance of
the oscilloscope is set to 1 M.
b. Place the photodiode assembly so that it measures the total power coming from
the laser. Set the variable impedance terminator to 50 k, you should see
roughly 11.5V on the scope. Ensure that no background signals, such as the room
lights, are contaminating your measurement. Now record the measured scope
voltage for each termination impedance of the variable impedance terminator.
Also remove the variable impedance terminator and record the scope voltage for
the 1 M scope impedance. Calculate the power of the laser for each
impedance. Explain your results. Also, explain why you had to set the scope
impedance to 1M for the variable impedance terminator to work. What class of
laser is this?
c. Using the same basic procedure measure the power exiting the first and last
apertures. Calculate the fraction of light you coupled through the each aperture
and the total coupling efficiency through both.

4. Aligning a lens to a beam. To minimize aberrations and get the best performance from
lenses, the laser beam should go through the center of the lens and be perpendicular to
its surface. Here we will use a few tricks to properly align a lens in a laser beam.
a. All lenses reflect some light, called a back reflection. When the back reflection
overlaps the incident beam, the lens is perpendicular. We use this feature as
follows. You should have two apertures aligned very well with the laser beam.
Position a lens between the apertures, such that the lens is a focal length
upstream from the last aperture. Adjust the vertical and horizontal position of
the lens until the spot is in the same location as it was originally i.e. going
through the aperture. This is the forward non-deviation measurement. This
verifies that the light is going through the center of the lens. Explain why this is
true.
b. Using a strip of paper, look for the back reflection upstream of the lens. (You
may even be able to see it on the upstream aperture.) Try rotating the lens
about the vertical axis and watch how the back reflection moves. Rotate the
lens until the back reflection overlaps the incoming beam in the horizontal plane.
You may need to iterate several times to preserve the forward non-deviation
and perpendicular back reflection. Ideally, the back reflection would be
completely overlapped with the incoming beam; however, the lens mounts used
in this class do not permit rotation about a horizontal axis. Therefore, the spot
will very likely be offset vertically from the incoming light. (If your application
required the highest beam quality you would want to correct this.)
c. Now measure the fraction of light getting through the last aperture. How much
did the lens improve your coupling efficiency?
d. Now, purposely rotate the lens a little so that you can use an additional mirror to
redirect the back reflected light onto the photodiode. (Feel free to move the
photodiode to make this easier.) Measure the power in the back-reflected beam.
Calculate the fraction of light back reflected by the lens.

e. The lens is made from fused silica and is uncoated. Does this back-reflected
fraction make sense with what you would expect?

Picture of typical set-up for directing light through the two apertures onto the photodiode.
5. Aligning a beam splitter. Another optic that we will use often in this class is the beam
splitter. There are two types of beam splitters, polarization beam splitters, which direct
horizontal and vertical polarizations in different directions, and the power beam splitter,
which breaks the incoming beam into two beams with a predetermined fraction of the
total power. In this case we will use both types, but for this experiment we will use a
50:50 power beam splitter, which splits the light into two beams each with 50% of the
input power. To work properly beam splitters must be aligned perpendicular to the
incoming beam.
a. Install the 50:50 beam splitter between the two aperatures. Use the back
reflection to ensure the input light is perpendicular to the beam splitter input
face. In this case you can completely overlap the back reflection as the beam
splitter mount allows for horizontal and vertical adjustment.
b. Verify that the beam splitter is a 50:50 beam splitter.