Hi guys & gals- I'm betting the gurus out there already know this, so for the rest of us: Here's a little tidbit I just picked up: tunable wavelength lasers must be calibrated to display and output at the indicated power, for each wavelength. I have a Coherent I70 Spectrum, which was probably set for 488 or 514 when it was installed. Having recently purchased a LaserCheck power meter, I (of course) started measuring everything that shined. To my dismay, I found that 100 mW of 647, as indicated on the remote, gave ~200 mW on the power meter. I had heard that these small power meters were pretty inaccurate... When I called our FSE, he told me that there is a small prism near the output coupler, which directs a "tiny bit" of emitted light to a small sensor. As the sensor does not recognize wavelength, but heat (I think I got that right!), there will be variation at different wavelengths. On top of this, it turns out that said sensor is much less accurate than the handheld power meter; so, calibrating the output based on the reading on the power meter is (allegedly) a step in the right direction. This was not a criticism of the Coherent laser! I love the thing, and now that I can more accurately determine power output, I'll have more time to spend on experiments utilizing its many available output lines! Andrew Novasite Pharmaceuticals
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