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Average and Peak Power - A Tutorial

From Newport Corporation
 

 

It is easy to calculate the power or energy of optical pulses if the right parameters are known. Presented here are the relationships among some basic quantities often needed when working with laser pulses and power or energy meters. Consider a regularly repeating train of optical pulses with repetition rate f ??1/T as shown below.

It is easy to calculate the power or energy of optical pulses if the right parameters are known. Presented here are the relationships among some basic quantities often needed when working with laser pulses and power or energy meters. Consider a regularly repeating train of optical pulses with repetition rate f ??1/T as shown below.

Peak Power: Rate of energy flow in every pulse.
Average Power: Rate of energy flow averaged over one full period (recall that f ??1/T ).

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