Helium-neon laser tube for mode-locking experiments

Helium-neon laser tube for mode-locking experiments

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Description (Brief)
This helium-neon laser tube was used along with a crystal (catalog #2022.0154.01) for mode-locking experiments at Bell Telephone Labs by Logan E. Hargrove in 1963. The tube helped Hargrove and colleagues demonstrate the phenomenon of mode-locking with laser emissions. The technique of mode locking allows for generation of extremely short pulses of laser light. Such lasers are valuable for laboratory research investigating physics, chemistry, and optical phenomena that occur on very short timescales, as well as having medical applications.
Written on tipped end: “ML22”. Metal tag removed from tube etched: “7052 glass ML22 Avg I.D. =.213” ”. Paper tag removed from tube written: “Tube ML22 (concentric) 40[m?]a Box #12 30K[ohms] [??1]92 KV 4.4 [amp?] filament.”
References: US Patent #3412251, “Mode Locking in a Synchronously Modulated Maser,” filed 24 April 1964, issued 19 November 1968 to Logan E. Hargrove, assigned to Bell Telephone Laboratories. See also: Valdmanis, J. A., Richard L. Fork, and James P. Gordon, “Generation of optical pulses as short as 27 femtoseconds directly from a laser balancing self-phase modulation, group-velocity dispersion, saturable absorption, and saturable gain,” Optics Letters 10, no. 3 (1985): 131-133.
Location
Currently not on view
Object Name
laser tube
date made
1963
maker
Bell Laboratories
Measurements
overall: 44 in x 6 5/8 in x 1 1/2 in; 111.76 cm x 16.8275 cm x 3.81 cm
ID Number
2014.0199.01
catalog number
2014.0199.01
accession number
2014.0199
patent number
3412251
Credit Line
from Logan E. Hargrove
See more items in
Work and Industry: Electricity
Data Source
National Museum of American History
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