By: Michael Woods

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory has developed a Laser Alignment Practical Training Course as one of its core laser safety classes.  The course is taught to small groups of up to three students and takes 1-3 hours to complete.  This practical course is not a substitute for site-specific On-the-Job Training.  It does, however, provide a good introduction in core laser safety practices that can be broadly applied.  Alignment and diagnostic tasks are performed with low power lasers.  Students learn safe alignment and diagnostic techniques and how to avoid common mistakes that might lead to an accident.  The class is taught by laser supervisors, enabling them to assess the skill level of new laser personnel and determine the subsequent level of supervision needed.  The course has six alignment tasks (beam expander alignment, 2-pinhole alignment, periscope alignment, use of beam-splitting polarizers, co-alignment of two laser beams, and gratings and diffractive optics principals).  For each task, discussion points are given for the instructor to review with the students.  The optics setup includes different wavelength lasers, a beam expander, mirrors, irises, a periscope, a beam-splitting polarizer and a diffraction grating.  Diagnostic tools include viewing cards, an IR viewer and a ccd camera.  Laser eyewear is available to block some laser wavelengths in the setup.