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In a distribution, full width at half maximum (FWHM) is the difference between the two values of the independent variable at which the dependent variable is equal to half of its maximum value. In other words, it is the width of a spectrum curve measured between those points on the y -axis which are half the maximum amplitude.
In mathematics, a Gaussian function, often simply referred to as a Gaussian, is a function of the base form () ... (FWHM) of the peak according to
The Gaussian function has a 1/e 2 diameter (2w as used in the text) about 1.7 times the FWHM.. At a position z along the beam (measured from the focus), the spot size parameter w is given by a hyperbolic relation: [1] = + (), where [1] = is called the Rayleigh range as further discussed below, and is the refractive index of the medium.
The 1/e 2 width is important in the mathematics of Gaussian beams, in which the intensity profile is described by () = (). The American National Standard Z136.1-2007 for Safe Use of Lasers (p. 6) defines the beam diameter as the distance between diametrically opposed points in that cross-section of a beam where the power per unit area is 1/e (0 ...
Comparison of Gaussian (red) and Lorentzian (blue) standardized line shapes. The HWHM (w/2) is 1. Plot of the centered Voigt profile for four cases. Each case has a full width at half-maximum of very nearly 3.6. The black and red profiles are the limiting cases of the Gaussian (γ =0) and the Lorentzian (σ =0) profiles respectively.
The FWHM of the Gaussian profile is = (). The FWHM of the Lorentzian profile is =. An approximate relation (accurate to within about 1.2%) between the widths of the Voigt, Gaussian, and Lorentzian profiles is: [10]
For c = 2 the constant before the standard deviation in the frequency domain in the last equation equals approximately 1.1774, which is half the Full Width at Half Maximum (FWHM) (see Gaussian function). For c = √ 2 this constant equals approximately 0.8326. These values are quite close to 1.
If the source has a Gaussian spectrum with FWHM spectral width , then a path offset of will reduce the fringe visibility to 50%. It is important to note that this is a roundtrip coherence length — this definition is applied in applications like OCT where the light traverses the measured displacement twice (as in a Michelson interferometer ).