Lasers are employed throughout science and technology, in fundamental research, the remote sensing of atmospheric gases or pollutants, communications, medical diagnostics and therapies, and the manufacturing of microelectronic devices. Understanding the principles of their operation, which
underlie all of these areas, is essential for a modern scientific education. This text introduces the characteristics and operation of lasers through laboratory experiments designed for the undergraduate curricula in Chemistry and Physics. Introductory chapters describe the properties of light,
the history of laser invention, the atomic, molecular and optical principles behind how lasers work, and the kinds of lasers available today. Other chapters include the basic theory of spectroscopy and computational chemistry used to interpret laser experiments. Experiments range from simple
in-class demonstrations to more elaborate configurations for advanced students. Each chapter has historical and theoretical background, as well as options suggested for variations on the prescribed experiments. The text will be useful for undergraduates students in advanced lab classes, for
instructors designing these classes, or for graduate students beginning a career in laser science.
Robert N. Compton, Professor of Chemistry and Physics, Dept Chemistry, University of Tennessee, Michael A. Duncan, Franklin Professor and Regents' Professor, Dept of Chemistry, University of Georgia
Robert N. Compton was born in Metropolis, IL. The Compton family moved to Oak Ridge, TN during WWII where his father worked on the Manhattan Project. He received degrees in Physics from Berea College (BA), the University of Florida (MS) and the University of Tennessee (PhD). He was a Senior Corporate Fellow at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory from 1965 to 1995 and has been a Professor of Physics and Chemistry at the University of Tennessee to the present date. He was a Visiting Professor at the University of Aarhus, University of Paris, and the FOM Institute in Amsterdam. In 2001, he was an Erskine Fellow at the University of Christchurch, New Zealand. His research interests include negative ions, laser spectroscopy, and molecular chirality.
Michael A. Duncan was born in Greenville, SC, where he attended Furman University (B.S. 1976). In graduate school at Rice University he worked with Prof. Richard E. Smalley (Ph.D. 1982). He was a National Research Council postdoctoral fellow at the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (JILA) in Boulder, CO with Prof. Stephen Leone. He joined the University of Georgia faculty in 1983. He uses laser vaporization, molecular beams, mass spectrometry and laser spectroscopy to study metal clusters, ion-molecule complexes and carbocations. Duncan is Fellow of the American Physical Society (2001) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2004), and Senior Editor of the Journal of Physical Chemistry since 1998. He is recipient (2007) of an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship at the Fritz Haber Institute in Berlin and won the Experimental Physical Chemistry Award (2011) given by the American Chemical Society.
