November 2025
Intermediate to advanced
352 pages
12h 30m
English
Content preview from Optical Beam Control
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
Chapter 8Laser Systems
Laser systems have a wide range of applications across various fields due to their ability to produce coherent, focused, and high-intensity light. The applications of laser systems include laser cutting and manufacturing, laser lithography, laser spectroscopy, laser-based sensing and metrology, free-space optical communications, and high-energy laser systems. Laser beam control technologies are a collection of multidisciplinary technical areas such as laser devices, geometric optics, Fourier optics, atmospheric optics, structures, thermal systems, sensors, actuators, and control theory. In general, the goal of laser beam control system is to precisely determine a target location and direct the laser beam to the desired aimpoint with minimal loss. This chapter introduces laser beam propagation as well as hardware and control methods commonly used for laser systems. Example laser systems for free space optical communications and high-energy laser systems are also introduced.
8.1 Laser Fundamentals
8.1.1 Stimulated Emission
A laser (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) is a light source created by the stimulated emission process by which an incoming photon of a specific frequency interacts with an excited atomic electron of the lasing medium, causing it to drop to a lower energy level. The liberated energy transfers to the electromagnetic field, creating a new photon with identical frequency, polarization, and direction of travel ...
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Read now
Unlock full access
More than 5,000 organizations count on O’Reilly
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.