Variable Pulsed Laser Delay Line for Flash Photography of Mesoscopic Spatial Dynamics

Los Alamos National Laboratory Engineering, 2004-05

Liaison(s): Aaron Koskelo, Sam Clegg
Advisor(s): Lori Bassman
Students(s): Elliott Temkin (TL), Sara Al-Beaini (F), Dustin Brekke (F), Eric Flynn, Tyler Jank (S), Nate Yoder (S)

Los Alamos National Laboratory would like to use flash photography to study material fracture at a microscopic spatial and temporal scale. This project has developed part of the system that will be used to conduct this research. The team designed, built, and tested a variable optical delay line capable of splitting a laser pulse in two, delaying one portion of the beam a user-specified amount of time, and then exiting this delayed pulse collinearly with the undelayed pulse.