Laser Sam’s visit to
the Laser Teaching Center

Summer 2013



During the summer program, we were fortunate to have Sam Goldwasser, a mentor and Laser Guru, spend a week in the LTC from July 15 – July 19. He’s most known by LTC students as the author of Sam’s Laser FAQ, but a full list of his publications and achievements can be found here. Besides his accomplishments with LTC projects this week, his visit has provided many invaluable interactions and mealtime conversations.

Sam worked with Casey McKenna and Kevin Zheng on their projects, built a long Fabry-Pérot with Dave Battin, was able to get the Lightwave NPRO laser running stably at 50 mW, and was able to get the temperature-stabilized laser running (but there is a small issue with the feedback circuit board that he needs to look into more).

Overall, it was a very productive week!

       

Monday 15 July 2013

Welcome Lunch: Simons Center Café (Sam, Casey McKenna, William Meehan, Kathy Camenzind, Kevin Zheng, Samantha Scibelli, Rachel Sampson, Melia Bonomo, John Noé)

Dinner: Luigi’s (Sam, Dave Battin, Casey McKenna, Melia Bonomo, John Noé, Eden Figueroa)

Tuesday 16 July 2013

Lunch: SAC (Sam and the LTC students)

Dinner: Luigi’s (Sam, Kevin Zheng, Casey McKenna, John Noé)

Wednesday 17 July 2013

Lunch: LTC pizza lunch meeting

  • Sam gave a presentation on longitudinal modes in HeNe lasers and the use of scanning Fabry-Perot interferometers. The LTC students discussed progress on their individual research projects.

LTC Group Dinner: Eastern Pavilion, large round table (Sam, Casey McKenna, Hal Metacalf, Marty Cohen, Kevin Zheng, Liam, Rachel Sampson, Dave Battin, Samantha Scibelli, Kathy Camenzind, Melia Bonomo, John Noé)

Thursday 18 July 2013

Presentation on laser safety:

  • Sam described the dangers that lasers can pose, different classes of lasers, and good habits to get into when creating setups. All of the details can be found on the safety page of his Laser FAQ.

Friday 19 July 2013

Farewell Lunch: Simons Center Café (Sam, John Noé, Dave Battin, Casey McKenna, Rachel Sampson, Melia Bonomo, Samantha Scibelli)