Lasers in Maritime Environments
Typical laser theory models a beam that travels through a homogeneous medium with well defined properties, and gives birth to experiments in a controlled laboratory environment. While sterile conditions can lead to precise results, their generalization to real world scenarios are more murky.
We aim to perform experiments on the effects of the outdoor, maritime environment on the propagation of laser beams, specifically through the mixed media associated with turbulent wind and humidity. Our experiments in the College Creek area near the United States Naval Academy shed light on how real lasers behave in practical environments.
Upcoming Events
March
Polarization in turbulent media experiment.
We will split a polarized laser beam in two component, perpendicularly polarized. Each beam will reflect off a differently tuned SLM before the beams are recombined. The composite beam will reflect off a third SLM, tuned to simulate turbulence.
June
Outdoor polarization in turbulent media experiment.
We will split a polarized laser beam in two component, perpendicularly polarized. Each beam will reflect off a differently tuned SLM before the beams are recombined. The composite beam will travel, outdoors, through a maritime environment as a source of turbulence.
Current Projects
- [description of SLM-turbulence experiments]
- [description of Lipp's experiments]
- [description of SM282 projects, e.g. laser aquarium?]
External Links
