[time-nuts] optically excite a quartz crystal?

[Magnus Danielson]

On 04/21/2014 03:18 PM, Attila Kinali wrote:
> On Mon, 21 Apr 2014 14:54:12 +0200
> Magnus Danielson <magnus at rubidium.dyndns.org> wrote:
>
>>> They used a 10mW HeNe laser, modulated with 1kHz to 1MHz on
>>> various quartz cuts (X+5°, DT, AT) and could measure oscillations
>>> of the quartz using metal electrodes.
>>> The mechanism of exitation was photothermal
>>
>> 10 mW laser is reasonable.
>>
>> What levels of signal where they getting?
>
> 6.2mV, with an real laser incident power of 5mW (the AOM "ate" half of the power)

Cool. Today we use semiconductor lasers that we can modulate directly, 
so no need for the AOM on the NeHe laser.

Cheers,
Magnus