High amplification laser-pressure optic enables ultra-low uncertainty measurements of optical laser power at kilowatt levels

Published

October 15, 2021

Author(s)

Aly Artusio-Glimpse, Kyle Rogers, Paul A. Williams, John H. Lehman

Abstract

We present the first measurements of kilowatt laser power with an uncertainty less than 1 %. These represent progress toward the most accurate measurements of laser power above 1 kW at 1070 nm wavelength and establish a more precise link between force metrology and laser power metrology. Radiation pressure, or photon momentum, is a relatively new method of non-destructively measuring laser power. We demonstrate how a multiple reflection optical system amplifies the pressure of a kilowatt class laser incoherently to improve the signal to noise ratio in a radiation pressure-based measurement. With 14 incoherent reflections of the laser, we measure a total uncertainty of 0.26 % for an input power of 10 kW and 0.46 % for an input power of 1 kW at the 95 % confidence level. These measurements of absolute power are traceable to the SI kilogram and mark a state-of-the-art improvement in measurement precision by a factor of four.

Citation

Metrologia

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1088/1681-7575/ac1e34

Local Download

Keywords

radiometry, high-power lasers, radiation pressure, optical power metrology

Citation

Artusio-Glimpse, A. , Rogers, K. , Williams, P. and Lehman, J. (2021), High amplification laser-pressure optic enables ultra-low uncertainty measurements of optical laser power at kilowatt levels, Metrologia, [online], https://doi.org/10.1088/1681-7575/ac1e34, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=932088 (Accessed October 7, 2025)