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Last Updated : February 2008

Iodine-Stabilized He-Ne Laser "Model 100" reimported after laser repair

Winters' Iodine-Stabilized He-Ne Laser "Model 100" is used at the Technical Research Institute, Japan Society for the Promotion of Machine Industry as the length Standard unit together with Firm NEOARK Corporation's Iodine-Stabilized He-Ne Laser for the calibration of laser units from Japanese companies. In Japan we had known that the Micro-g LaCoste Absolute Gravimeter combined Winters Model 100 Laser unit and several government offices used this absolute gravimeter. However a famous big corporation uses several sets of Winters Model 100 itself for the calibration of his products. There was very little leak in the laser tube this time and his unit was unstable. We obtained the Reimport Permission of that Laser unit and sent it back to Firm Winters to repair in Longmont near Denver, Colorado, and in this area there are Laser Laboratory of NIST. After repair works we reimported and reinstalled it at the laboratory of the big corporation, the Model 100 runs very good now.

Last Updated : April 2004

Firm Winters Electro-Optics, Inc. in USA announced new "The Model 200 Offset-Locked Iodine-Stabilized He-Ne Laser". Then Firm Winters opens his Web Page from April at (http://www.winterseo.com) and is directly linked to our Home Page.

The Model 200 laser was designed to remedy the complications that arise when using an intra-cavity iodine-stabilized laser for high accuracy interferometric measurements. It boasts the same accuracy and frequency stability as the Model 100 Iodine-Stabilized laser, but with a significant increase in output power and without the presence of frequency modulation.
It accomplishes this by frequency stabilizing a second He-Ne laser to an iodine-stabilized laser cavity, effectively transferring the frequency accuracy and stability of the iodine-stabilized laser to the higher power, "offset-locked" laser. For convenience, the two laser cavities are located in a single housing, along with all the optics and electronics needed to stabilize both lasers. The result is a very compact, tightly integrated system. As with the Model 100, the Model 200 laser is completely automatic, allowing unattended operation and use by "non-specialists." An optional single-mode fiber optic output provides flexibility when integrating the laser into experimental setups, especially non-laboratory applications such as absolute gravimetry. The main application is that the Model 200 is used in the field for the Laser Interferometer and the Laser Spectroscopy as the Laser unit.

Specification
1. Frequency Accuracy : 2.5 x 10-11 absolute frequency accuracy
2. Output Offset Frequency : +110.000 ± 0.003MHz
3. Output Power : 0.8 - 1.0 mW
4. Physical Dimension : 50.8 x 30 x 10 cm, 15.5 kg
5. CDRH Classification : Class II Laser Product

Catalogue of Model 200 Offset-Locked Iodine-Stabilized He-Ne Laser

New opened Winters Home Page

Last Updated : May 2003

As the National Primary Standard of Length some laboratories and companies manufacture an Iodine-Stabilized HeNe Laser in the world. The Winters Electro-Optics, Inc in USA is one of them, however he has already delivered 96 sets in 28 countries till April, 2003. It is a big amount and in Japan we have more than 10 sets with absolute gravimeter. Winters Model 100 Iodine-Stabilized HeNe laser is used as the length standard in the Technical Research institute, Japan Society for the Promotion of Machine Industry. The NEOARK Corporation in Japan makes also an Iodine-Stabilized HeNe laser supervised by the former NRLM, and both are the same price level (which sometimes differs because of the currency) but about 100 delivery records mean the proof of Reliability. Firm Winters makes a comparison measurement with BIPM in Paris and calibrates his unit in his company once a year.

The BIPM (The Bureau International des Poids et Mesures) located in Paris is the organization which ensures world-wide uniformity of measurements and their traceability to the International System of Units (SI) under the CIPM (The Comité International des Poids et Mesures). The BIPM also manufactures and calibrates Iodine cell, and the Winters Electro-Optics, Inc uses this Iodine cell and manufactures the Model 100 Iodine-Stabilized HeNe Laser unit. Firm Winters is founded September in 1993 and locates in Longmont, Colorado, USA, and there are many laboratories studying about Laser including one of the NIST (National Institute of Standards & Technology). As the technical material about "The history of Meter" in Japanese is prepared, so please ask us with the E-mail, if you need it.


¤ Based on the 1997 CIPM Mise en Pratique
¤ Designed for ease of use, non-specialists
¤ The rugged and compact design makes it suitable for laboratory and fields
¤ Calibration for the normal laser unit

1. 633nm wavelength; 100µW typical output power
2. Exceptional long-term accuracy - 2.5x10-11
    absolute frequency accuracy(12kHz)
3. Meets all specifications of the 1997 CIPM Mise en Paatique
4. Iodine cells manufactured and calibrated by the BIPM
5. Automatic or manual operation
6. Rugged, lightweight and compact design



Firm Winters Electro-Optics manufactures not only Model 100 Iodine-Stabilized HeNe Laser, but also Laser Heterodyne System to calibrate and characterizing laser frequency standard and Laser Calibration Software (LaserCAL) which is a data acquisition and analysis package for calibrating and characterizing optical frequency standards. The picture of the lower left shows the total whole system and the sketch of lower light shows the layout drawing. The upper laser unit is Winters model 100 as the standard and the lower laser unit is a unit for calibrating.



You can get files for English leaflets at Firm Winters Home Page.

There are 2 kinds of technical information materials in Japanese, so please ask us these materials by E-mail including your address, if necessary. Then we will send them to you by post.

--Technical Information (in Japanese)-- What is the Meter ? The definition of the unit of length "meter" was replaced at the 17th CGPM (Conférence Général des Poids et Mesures General Meeting of CIPM in 1983 as follows. --- "The meter is the length of the path traveled by light in vacuum during a time interval of 1/299 792 458 of a second (17th CGPM (1983), Resolution 1)." --- This definition of the meter makes the length of the meter depend on the duration of the second; by definition the speed of light is now exactly 299,792,458 meters per second. (at the 15th CGPM in 1975) This speed of light wouldn't change because of the Astronomy and the Land Surveying, and so the strange value "1/299 792 458" was also used. ......


Information Material (translated into Japanese) which Dr. Winters uses at his Seminar
1. Introduction to Winters Electro-Optics 2. History of the Meter 3. Basic Laser Theory
4. Laser Stabilization Techniques ¤ Polarization-stabilized lasers ¤ Zeeman-stabilized lasers ¤ Iodine-stabilized lasers
5. Operation of the Model 100 Laser ¤ Automatic operation ¤ Manual operation ¤ Service & maintenance ¤ Adjusting operating parameters 6. Heterodyne Measurements ¤ Generating a heterodyne signal ¤ Using the W. E. O. heterodyne system ¤ Using LaserCal software 7. Testing Specific Types of Lasers ¤ Iodine-stabilized lasers ¤ Polarization-stabilized lasers ¤ Zeeman-stabilized lasers



If you need Japanese Technical Information (What is the Meter ? and/or Information Material used at Dr. Winter's Seminar), please ask us by E-mail !