Circularly polarized laser light

The laser has always been the most expensive component in systems that produce magnetized gases. That fact remains true for Xemed’s systems as well. The most important characteristic of a laser system in this application is the rate at which it produces circularly polarized photons with wavelength matching the absorption wavelength of rubidium along a trajectory that passes completely through the polarizer. That rate, however, comes with a price. The challenge is to produce lots of light at low cost. A figure of merit, cost per photon, can be calculated by multiplying the cost, the spectral width, and the two output angular divergences (along both transverse dimensions) and then dividing by the laser power. Our patent-pending innovations for spectral narrowing, polarizing, and redistributing the laser light have reduced our cost per photon by over three orders of magnitude.