How Many Photons Are Produced In A Laser Pulse?

THE MATH BEHIND THE NUMBERS

If I showed you a basket full of apples, could you guess the number of apples it contains? What about if I told you the weight of one apple and the weight of the basket, then could you calculate how many apples are in the basket?

Finding how many photons are in one pulse is the same thing! By dividing the total energy of a pulse by the energy of one photon within the pulse, we find the number of photons.

The real question then is how to find the pulse’s energy and the photon’s energy.

Finding the individual photon energy is actually as simple as finding its wavelength, thanks to the formula E = hc/λ, where h is Planck’s constant, c is the speed of light, and λ is the photon wavelength.

Finding the pulse’s energy is even simpler: just plug any laser energy detector into the MIRO Altitude touchscreen display device and you’re set.