In response to the increasing significance of lasers in scientific research as well as in various industrial and communications applications, Carleton College is offering a new course, Quantum Optics, at the advanced undergraduate level dealing with the principles of operation of lasers. The Physics Department will buy a pulsed tunable dye laser system and associated fast, sensitive detection and analysis apparatus to support the laboratory work in that course. The students will study the details of the operation of the four major parts of the system, the nitrogen pump laser, the tunable dye laser, the amplifier, and the frequency doubling crystal. Two other courses that will be enhanced significantly by the equipment are Contemporary Experimental Physics and Project Laboratory. In those courses students will perform laser-based experiments in atomic and molecular physics.
