Diagnostics of high-energy laser cavities using holographic techniques

A holography system has been developed for diagnostics of high-energy laser cavities, flow visualization, and the study of combustion processes. The basic elements of the system include a pulsed ruby laser, the output of which is split at beam splitter. Both beams are then spatially filtered and collimated, one serving as an object beam while the other acts as a reference wave. The resulting hologram can be used to produce almost all common forms of flow visualization.