Resources

These were the resources I used to research this project. The comments are intended to guide anyone who would like to learn more about lasers. For books, the MIT Libraries call numbers have been listed.

 

1. Books

Chryssolouris, George. Laser Machining: Theory and Practice. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1991. (TJ1191.C46) Draws upon hundreds of recent papers in the field;  an excellent overview of modern laser machining processes. Both theory and application are examined without excessive detail.
Grigoryants, Alexander. P. S. Ivanov, trans. Basics of Laser Material Processing. Moscow: Mir Publishers, 1994. (TA1677.G75) Contains detailed theoretical analyses of laser-material interactions. Some useful tables.
Kossowsky, Ram, Miroslav Jelinek, and Robert F. Walter, eds. High Power Lasers- Science and Engineering. NATO Advanced Study Institute Series. High Technology Partnership Sub-Series. No. 7. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1996. (TA1675.H54) Has some interesting articles about automotive applications of lasers and recent breakthroughs in high-powered laser design.
McAleese, Frank G. The Laser Experimenter's Handbook. Blue Ridge Summit, PA: Tab Books, 1979.  (TA1683.M33) An incredible little book with directions for six homemade laser projects. Very readable introduction to laser technology.
Wilson, J. and J. F. B. Hawkes. Lasers: Principles and Applications. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1987. (TA1675.W55) Great book for learning about mature laser technologies; a little dated. The only one to offer textbook-style sample calculations, which are very useful.

 

2. Web

Synrad, Inc.
http://www.synrad.com		 The one to watch for low cost RF-excited CO2 lasers.
SDL, Inc.
http://www.sdli.com		 A major innovator in fiber laser.
Coherent, Inc.
http://www.cohr.com		 Another active innovator.
Gateway City Machine Tool
http://lasertools.com		 A vendor of some serious industrial Mitsubishi equipment.
The Photonics Dictionary
http://www.laurin.com/DataCenter/
Dictionary/CD/index.htm		 A handy searchable index of laser and optics jargon.
Photonics Spectra
http://www.photonicsspectra.com		 A print publication with a very active and informative website.
UC Berkeley Laser Manufacturing Lab
http://greenmfg.me.berkeley.edu/lml/
introduction/index.html		 Research in laser processing of composite materials, micro-machining applications, and rapid prototyping applications.

 

3. Humans

Giusti, Joe. (Sales Rep. for Universal Laser Systems, Inc.) Personal visit. 14 November 1997. Joe demonstrated the ULS model line and allowed us to shoot a video.
Meckley, Gary. (Tech. Support at Synrad Corp.) Telephone interview. 12 May 1998. Gary (garym@synrad.com) was very friendly and helpful in acquanting me with Synrad's sealed RF-excited CO2 lasers and marking heads.
Rossi, Brian. (Product Marketing Mgr. at SDL, Inc.) Telephone interview. 19 May 1998. Brian (brossi@sdli.com) answered my questions about SDLI's fiber lasers and provided me with an article he wrote for Laser Focus World magazine.