Agilent Technologies Agilent 86120C manual Total power and average wavelength

Making Measurements

Measuring Wavelength and Power

Total power and average wavelength

In the third available display mode, the Agilent 86120C displays the average wavelength as shown in the following figure. The displayed power level is the total input power to the instrument. It is the sum of the powers of each laser line; it is not a measure of the average power level of the laser lines.

The following equation shows how individual wavelengths of laser lines are summed together to obtain the average wavelength value:

n

Pi λi

i = 1

λavg = --------------------

n

∑Pi

i∑= 1

where,

n is the number of laser lines included in the average.

Pi is the peak power of an individual laser line. Power units are in Watts (linear).

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