Lasers for Test & Measurement

TEST & MEASUREMENT

Lasers possess many unique properties which make them ideal for a wide variety of test and measurement applications.  Most notably being their use in interferometry, which has enabled sub-wavelength resolution.  An interferometer splits a highly coherent laser source into two different optical paths, where one path interacts with the object under test.  When the two paths are then recombined on a detector, it results in either spatial or temporal variation in intensity.  Since the spacing between two minima or maxima represents an optical path length difference of one wavelength, by fringe counting an interferometer can produce detailed maps of surface texture or extremely precise distance calculations.  Another common usage of lasers in test and measurement applications is as an excitation source for photoluminescence (PL), during LED and laser diode manufacturing.  While both of those applications require continuous wave lasers, unlike interferometry, PL does not require narrow linewidth or high coherence length.  There are also several test and measurement applications which require high pulse energy q-switched lasers to induce a plasma, particularly in atomic spectroscopy applications such as LIBS and MALDI-TOF.  On this page, you will find a list of all the test and measurement lasers we offer at RPMC.