the word "laser" is an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.

LASER THEORY AND OPERATION

A basic understanding of how a laser operates helps in understanding the hazards when using a laser device. Figure 2 shows that electromagnetic radiation is emitted whenever a charged particle such as an electron gives up energy. This happens every time an electron drops from a higher energy state, , to a lower energy state, , in an atom or ion as occurs in a fluorescent light. This also happens from changes in the vibrational or rotational state of molecules. The color of light is determined by its frequency or wavelength. The shorter wavelengths are the ultraviolet and the longer wavelengths are the infrared. The smallest particle of light energy is described by quantum mechanics as a photon. The energy, E, of a photon is determined by its frequency, , and Planck's constant, h. (1) The velocity of light in a vacuum, c, is 300 million meters per second. The wavelength, light is related to from the following equation: (2) The difference in energy levels across which an excited electron drops determines the wavelength of the emitted light. , of

Figure 2. Emission of radiation from an atom by transition of an electron from a higher energy state to a lower energy state

COMPONENTS OF A LASER

As shown in figure 3, the three basic components of a laser are:

Lasing material (crystal, gas, semiconductor, dye, etc...) Pump source (adds energy to the lasing material , e.g. flash lamp, electrical current to cause electron collisions, radiation from a laser, etc.) Optical cavity consisting of reflectors to act as the feedback mechanism for light amplification

Figure 3. Solid State Laser Diagram

Electrons in the atoms of the lasing material normally reside in a steady-state lower energy level. When light energy from the flashlamp is added to the atoms of the lasing material, the majority of the electrons are excited to a higher energy level -- a phenomenon known as population inversion. This is an unstable condition for these electrons. They will stay in this state for a short time and then decay back to their original energy state. This decay occurs in two ways: spontaneous decay -- the electrons simply fall to their ground state while emitting randomly directed photons; and stimulated decay -- the photons from spontaneous decaying electrons strike other excited electrons which causes them to fall to their ground state. This stimulated transition will release energy in the form of photons of light that travel in phase at the same wavelength and in the same direction as the incident photon. If the direction is parallel to the optical axis, the emitted photons travel back and forth in the optical cavity through the lasing material between the totally reflecting mirror and the partially reflecting mirror. The light energy is amplified in this manner until sufficient energy is built up for a burst of laser light to be transmitted through the partially reflecting mirror. As shown in figure 4, a lasing medium must have at least one excited (metastable) state where electrons can be trapped long enough (microseconds to milliseconds) for a population inversion to occur. Although laser action is possible with only two energy levels, most lasers have four or more levels.

Figure 4. Three level laser energy diagram

A Q-switch in the optical path is a method of providing laser pulses of an extremely short time duration. A rotating prism like the total reflector in figure 3 was an early method of providing Qswitching. Only at the point of rotation when there is a clear optical path will light energy be allowed to pass. A normally opaque electro-optical device (e.g., a pockels cell) is now often used for a Q-switching device. At the time of voltage application, the device becomes transparent, the light built up in the cavity by excited atoms can then reach the mirror so that the cavity Quality, Q, increases to a high level and emits a high peak power laser pulse of a few nanoseconds duration. When the phases of different frequency modes of a laser are synchronized (locked together), these modes will interfere with each other and generate a beat effect. The result is a laser output with regularly spaced pulsations called "mode locking". Mode locked lasers usually produce trains of pulses with a duration of a few picoseconds to nanoseconds resulting in higher peak powers than the same laser operating in the Q-switched mode. Pulsed lasers are often designed to produce repetitive pulses. The pulse repetition frequency, prf, as well as pulse width is extremely important in evaluating biological effects.

He-Ne Laser
He-Ne stands for Helium-Neon. The He-Ne laser active medium consists of two gases which do not interact form a molecule. Therefore He-Ne laser is one type of atomic gas lasers.

Construction of He-Ne Lasers

The construction of typical He-Ne laser plasma tube can be shown as:

The tube where the lasing action takes place consists of a glass envelop with a narrow capillary tube through the center. The capillary tube is designed to direct the electrical discharge through its small bore to produce very high current densities in the gas. The output coupler and the HR (high reflective) mirror are located at the opposite ends of the plasma tube. To make laser tubes more economical and durable manufacturers often attach the mirror s directly to the ends of the capillary tube as shown above. This is very common with small low power lasers. With high power tubes or when optically polarized output is desired, the capillary tubes ends are cut at an angle and sealed with glass planes called Brewster windows. When this is done then the mirrors mush be mounted in mechanically stable but adjustable mounts. This allows the operator to align the mirror surfaces parallel to each other but perpendicular to the axis of the capillary tube. The plasma tube has a large cylindrical metallic cathode and a smaller metallic anode. The current is directed from cathode to anode. In figure shown, the gas reservoir provides a supply of extra gas. This reservoir helps to maintain a uniform pressure over long period of time and provides extra gas to replace any gas that may escape through the tube or through the seals where the loads pass through the glass envelop. Usually all He-Ne plasma tubes have a gas reservoir. Note that! In He-Ne lasers active medium is low pressure gas mixture of Helium & Neon gas, which is contained in the plasma tube. The ratio of He to Ne within the tube vary from 5:1 to 20:1. Usually this ration average 8:1 can be considered.

Function of He-Ne Laser

In the He-Ne laser the light is produced by atomic transitions within the Neon atom. The Helium does not directly produce laser light but it acts as a buffer gas, the purpose of which is to assist/help the atoms of the other gas to produce lasing in as manner. When energy from the pumping source is applied He-Ne gas mixture then some of the energy is observed by the Helium atoms. In other words we can say that helium atoms achieve an excited state. Now when the Helium atoms move within the laser tube, they collide with the Neon atoms. At each collision some of the energy within the helium atom is transferred to the Neon atom and

so raising it to an excited meta-stable state. When a sufficient number of Neon atoms reach to this state then population inversion occurs and hence the lasing can take place. This can be shown by simplified energy level diagram as:

Here upward transition shows the absorption of energy from the pumping source by Helium atom. While down ward transition shows the emission of energy / light or lasing present in the Neon atom only. In diagram above there are 3 down word energy transitions for Neon that produce lasing. If transition occurs at the relatively small energy step from E5 to E4 then low energy infrared photon is released with a wavelength of 3.391 microns. If transition occurs at E5 to E2 which is much larger energy step then it produces short wavelength more energetic photon at 632.8nm. This gives the red light which is most desirable for He-Ne laser applications. E3 to E2 then it produces a laser output at 1.152microns in infrared portion of the spectrum. Note that! In all He-Ne lasers the feedback mechanism consists of pair of coated mirrors. The coating is usually reflecting mirror and 95%-99% of the light at output coupler. The reflection at the output mirror must be higher if the active medium is short in length because the gain of the active medium is low. If the active medium is longer more gain is produced an a larger percentage of the beam can be provided as an output. Therefore in He-Ne laser with a longer active medium, the reflectivity of the output coupler can be less.

Characteristics of He-Ne Laser

The He-Ne laser is a relatively low power device with an output in the visible red portion of the spectrum. The most common wavelength produced by He-Ne lasers is 632.8nm, although two lower power (1.152m and 3.391m) infrared wavelengths can be produced if desired. Majority of He-Ne lasers generate less than 10m watt of power, but some can be obtained commercially with up to 50m watts of power. For He-Ne lasers the typical laser tube is from 10 to 100 cm in length and the life time of such a tube can be as high as 20,000 hours.

Applications / Uses of He-Ne Laser

The Helium-Neon gas laser is one of the most commonly used laser today because of the following applications.

He-Ne lasers are produced in large quantities from many years. Many schools / colleges / universities use this type of laser in their science programs and experiments. He-Ne lasers also used in super market checkout counters to read bar codes and QR codes. The He-Ne lasers also used by newspapers for reproducing transmitted photographs. He-Ne lasers can be use as an alignment tool. It is also used in Guns for targeting.

Advantages of He-Ne Laser

He-Ne laser has very good coherence property He-Ne laser can produce three wavelengths that are 1.152m, 3.391 m and 632.8nm, in which the 632.8nm is most common because it is visible usually in red color. He-Ne laser tube has very small length approximately from 10 to 100cm and best life time of 20.000 hours. Cost of He-Ne laser is less from most of other lasers. Construction of He-Ne laser is also not very complex. He-Ne laser provide inherent safety due to low power output.

Disadvantages of He-Ne Laser

The weak points of He-Ne laser are

It is relatively low power device means its output power is low. He-Ne laser is low gain system/ device. To obtain single wavelength laser light, the other two wavelengths of laser need suppression, which is done by many techniques and devices. So it requires extra technical skill and increases the cast also. High voltage requirement can be considered its disadvantage. Escaping of gas from laser plasma tube is also its disadvantage.

Suppressing Unwanted Wavelengths in He-Ne Laser

The He-Ne laser produces three different wavelengths that are 1.152m, 3.391 m and 632.8nm. At the 1st two the infrared photons are released while at the 3rd one i.e. 632.8nm more energetic photon of red color are released because in spectrum at 632.8 approximately red color occurs.

Since for He-Ne laser most applications, the red output is most desirable therefore it is necessary to suppress the infrared wave lengths and prevent them from lasing so that the energy directs into the desired output. In small He-Ne laser, it is normally done with proper coatings on the feedback mirrors. If they are coated for high reflectance at 632.8nm then they will not reflect a high percentage of eh infrared wavelengths. This causes the desired wavelength to have a low loss and the undesired wavelength to have a high loss, which reduces the possibility in the infrared wavelengths lasing and enhancer lasing at 632.8nm. For high power He-Ne lasers the mirror coating cannot totally suppress the infrared wave length. Therefore in these lasers the magnet is placed near the plasma tube which provides an additional suppression effect on the infrared wavelength. If these two suppression techniques are not enough to prevent infrared lasing than an infrared filter can be used between the laser mirrors to absorb the unwanted wavelengths.

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RUBY LAZER
The first working laser was built in 1960 by Maiman, using a ruby crytal and so called the Ruby laser. Ruby belongs to the family of gems consisting of Al2O3 with various types of impurities. For example pink Ruby contains 0.05% Cr atoms. The schematic diagram of ruby laser can be drawn as:

Construction of Ruby Laser

The ruby lazer consists of a ruby rod . which is made of chromium doped ruby material. At the opposite ends of this rod there are two silver polished mirrors. Whose one is fully polished and other is partially polished. A spring is attached to the rod with fully polished end for adjustment of wave length of the lazer light. Around the ruby rod a flash light is kept for the pump input. The whole assembly is kept in the glass tube. Around the neck of the glass tube the R.F source and switching control is designed in order to switch on and off the flash light for desired intervals.

Operation of Ruby Laser:

When we switch on the circuit the R.F operates. As a result the flash of light is obtained around the ruby rod. this flash causes the electrons within ruby rod to move from lower energy band towards higher energy band. The population inversion take place at high energy band and electrons starts back to travel towards the lower energy band. During this movement the electron emits the laser light . This emitted light travels between the two mirrors where cross reflection takes place of this light. The stimulated lazer light now escapes from partially polished mirror in shape of laser beam. The spring attached with the fully polished mirror is used to adjust the wave length equal to /2 of lazer light for obtimum lazer beam. The switching control of the R.F source is used to switch on and off the flash light so that excessive heat should not be generated due to very high frequency of the movement of the electron.

Energy Level Diagram for Ruby Laser

The above three level energy diagram show that in ruby lasers the absorption occurs in a rather broad range in the green part of the spectrum. This makes raise the electrons from ground state E1 to the band of level E3 higher than E1. At E3 these excited levels are highly unstable and so the electrons decays rapidly to the level of E2. This transition occurs with energy difference (E1 E2) given up as heat (radiation less transmission). The level E2 is very important for stimulated emission process and is known as Meta stable state. Electrons in this level have an average life time of about 5m.s before they fall to ground state. After this the population inversion can be established between E2 and E1. The population inversion is obtained by optical pumping of the ruby rod with a flash lamp. A common type of the flash lamp is a glass tube wrapped around the ruby rod and filled with xenon gas. When the flash lamp intensity becomes large enough to create population inversion, then stimulated emission from the Meta stable level to the ground level occurs which result in the laser output. Once the population inversion begins, the Meta stable level is depopulated very quickly. Thus the laser output consists of an intense spike lasting from a few Nano sec to sec. after stimulated emission spike, population inversion builds up again and a 2nd spike results. This process continues as long as the flash lamp intensity is enough to create the population inversion.

Advantages of Ruby Lasers

From cost point of view, the ruby lasers are economical. Beam diameter of the ruby laser is comparatively less than CO2 gas lasers. Output power of Ruby laser is not as less as in He-Ne gas lasers. Since the ruby is in solid form therefore there is no chance of wasting material of active medium. Construction and function of ruby laser is self explanatory.

Disadvantages of Ruby Laser

In ruby lasers no significant stimulated emission occurs, until at least half of the ground state electrons have been excited to the Meta stable state. Efficiency of ruby laser is comparatively low. Optical cavity of ruby laser is short as compared to other lasers, which may be considered a disadvantage.

Applications of ruby Laser

Due to low output power they are class-I lasers and so may used as toys for childrens. It can be used in schools, colleges, universities for science programs. It can be used as decoration piece & artistic display.

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PN-junction Laser: A semiconductor laser is a specially fabricated pn junction device (both the p and n regions are highly doped) which emits coherent light when it is forward biased. It is made from Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) which operated at low temperature and emits light in near IR region. Now the semiconductor lasers are also made to emit light almost in the spectrum from UV to IR using different semiconductor materials. They are of very small size (0.1 mm long), efficient, portable and operate at low power. These are widely used in Optical fibre communications, in CD players, CD-ROM Drives, optical reading, laser printing etc. p and n regions are made from same semiconductor material (GaAs). A p type region is formed on the n type by doping zinc atoms. The diode chip is about 500 micrometer long and 100 micrometer wide and thick. the top and bottom faces has metal contacts to pass the current. the front and rare faces are polished to constitute the resonator (fig 1).

When high doped p and n regions are joined at the atomic level to form pn-junction, the equilibrium is attained only when the equalization of fermi level takes place in this case the fermi level is pushed inside the conduction band in n type and the level pushed inside the valence band in the p type (Fig 2). When the junction is forward biased, at low voltage the electron and hole recombine and cause spontaneous emission. But when the forward voltage reaches a threshold value the carrier concentration rises to very high value. As a result the region "d" contains large number of electrons in the conduction band and at the same time large number of holes in the valence band. Thus the upper energy level has large number of electrons and the lower energy level has large number of vacancy, thus population inversion is achieved. The

recombination of electron and hole leads to spontaneous emission and it stimulate the others to emit radiation. Ga As produces laser light of 9000 in IR region.

Energy Level Diagram of Semiconductor Laser

Q-switching
In order to store many atoms in an upper level, the flow to a lower level must first be limited. Thus, stimulated emission must be prevented by placing an attenuator in the cavity to stop light from travelling back and forth (note: this attenuator is usually a light modulator, rather than a mechanical shutter, which reduces the amplitude or power of the light beam). In this case, for a radiative transition, the only decay to a lower level is due to spontaneous emission. When the pumping system supplies more atoms per second than lose energy by spontaneous emission, the population in the upper level can become very large (Figure 17).

Figure 17: Accumulation of atoms in the upper level when the optical cavity is blocked.

This operating condition is much easier to achieve with media that have a low rate of spontaneous emission. This is true for solid state ion-doped lasers (for example Nd:YAG or Yb:YAG) but not for gas (neon or argon) or semiconductor lasers. These have high rates of spontaneous emission so it is difficult to attain a large population in the upper level. After a certain time, the energy losses in the cavity are suddenly reduced so that laser oscillation becomes possible. As there is a very large population in the upper level, stimulated emission becomes very probable and the laser is suddenly triggered. The flow due to stimulated emission is much greater than the other flows (filling by pumping and emptying by spontaneous emission): all the atoms stored in the upper level fall sharply, emitting stimulated photons (starting with the spontaneous emission trapped in the cavity). Thus, the laser cavity fills with stimulated photons at the same time as the upper level empties (Figure 18).

Figure 18: Laser effect once the optical cavity is suddenly opened.

Eventually, the upper level is completely empty. There is no further stimulated emission and the cavity will also empty due to the losses created by the output mirror (in general, the cavity empties after only a few round trips)(Figure 19).

Figure 19: Depletion of the optical cavity once all the atoms have returned to the ground state.

This process gives rise to a dramatic variation in the number of photons in the cavity (first by a significant amplification due to stimulated emission then by the complete emptying of the cavity at the end). The net result is the emission of a short pulse of light via the output mirror.

Generally, several round trips are needed to completely depopulate the upper energy level and several more round trips to empty the optical cavity so the duration of the pulse is greater than one round trip. This means that for optical cavities shorter than a metre (one round trip less than 6 ns), it is possible to generate short pulses of only a few nanoseconds but several millijoules in power. The peak power (the pulse energy divided by its duration) of these lasers can be in the megawatt range or even higher. It should be noted that Q-switched lasers never reach a steady state as they stop functioning after several round trips of the light in the cavity.

Characteristics of Lasers Laser light has three unique characteristics, that make it different than "ordinary" light. It is:

Monochromatic Directional Coherent

Monochromatic means that it consists of one single color or wavelength. Even through some lasers can generate more than one wavelength, the light is extremely pure and consists of a very narrow spectral range. Directional means that the beam is well collimated (very parallel) and travels over long distances with very little spread. Coherent means that all the individual waves of light are moving precisely together through time and space, i.e. they are in phase.