Colin Danson

Colin Danson is a laser physicist whose research concerns ultra-high-power laser development and applications. His Oxford profile identifies this research portfolio and his work with the Oxford Centre for High Energy Density Science.^[ref]

Danson coauthored the1999 Central Laser Facility report on single-shot third-order intensity autocorrelation measurements.^[ref] Characterizing optical pulse temporal contrast matters because a large peak power does not describe all the energy arriving before or after the main pulse.

For an original rectangular-pulse example,20joules delivered in1picosecond givesA feature at one thousandth of that power still has20gigawatts. The ratio is small while the absolute power is large. Neither number alone specifies the feature's energy, which also depends on its duration.

Real pulse profiles require the integral $E=\int P(t)dt$ rather than assuming a rectangular shape. A diagnostic must therefore connect laser pulse energy, pulse duration and contrast with the actual temporal waveform. The example illustrates that measurement problem; its numbers are not historical Vulcan specifications.