Lasers

Lasers are optical phenomena which are used in many fields of science and
technology like radio astronomy, satellite-communication, holography or three
dimensional photography, data processing, testing and welding of materials, medicine,
etc.
Laser is acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation;
similarly Maser is acronym for Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of
Radiation. In the laser, the maser principle has been extended to optical or frequencies of
1014 to 1015 Hertz and is therefore termed as optical maser. Now-a-days laser
principle is extended up to X-rays and Gamma rays. Gamma ray lasers are called Grasers.

Condition for laser action :

1. Laser beam contains high intense radiation in unique direction without

spreading of its energy in other directions. Further it has high
monochromacity and high directionality. For this, coherent radiation is
necessary. Stimulated Emission can produce this coherent radiation.
2. For continuous stimulated chain reaction or for a continuous output from
laser, population inversion or population reversal should be maintained. This
can be done by optical pumping or by electrical pumping.

Laser Principle:

Population of atoms in higher energy level as compared to lowest energy level is

increased by pumping the matter by photons of appropriate energy. Thus atoms are exited
to higher energy states. During the period in which the atom is exited, it can be stimulated
to emit a photon that would have otherwise been emitted in spontaneous emission. That
is, for stimulated emission, the energy of the stimulating photon should be equal to the
energy difference between the transition levels; otherwise the emitted light may be due to
spontaneous emission. Then stimulated photon (emitted wave) falls precisely in phase

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with the stimulating photon (incident wave). These two photons stimulate other two
atoms and produce another two photons. This chain reaction goes on and there is an
intense beam of radiation. Thus the electromagnetic radiation is amplified. For stimulated
emission to predominate over absorption, it is essential that exited atoms should be in
excess in the active medium. For continuous output, population inversion is necessary.

1. Active material (Resonant cavity) 2. Partially transparent reflector

3. Perfect reflector 4. Transparent side

Design of a Laser

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 Active material is shaped into a cylinder with parallel transparent sides and
reflectors at both ends. Active material is energized by the pulses of light from flash tube.
Then emission begins; photons that can not travel parallel to the axis of the cylinder will
leave the cylinder through the transparent sides either immediately or after one or two off
angle reflections. Thus such photons will not collide with other exited atoms of the active
material.

Photons moving parallel to the axis of the tube will suffer several reflections
between the two end reflectors. During the reflections in their way they interact with
other exited atoms of the active material and thus producing more photons. Due to the
chain reaction of stimulated emission, intensity of photon beam parallel to the axis of the
tube increases gradually. If one of the reflectors is partially transparent (say 10%) then
some of the coherent light (stimulated photon beam which is parallel to the axis of the
tube) would emerge through this reflector and serves as output laser beam.

Differences between spontaneous emission and stimulated emission:

Spontaneous emission Simulated emission

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1. Emission of light photon takes place Emission of a light photon is by
immediately without any inducement during inducement of a photon having energy
the transition of atoms from higher levels to equal to the emitted photon`s energy.
lower energy levels to lower energy levels.
2. Polychromatic radiation (having many Monochromatic radiation (having a
wavelengths) single wavelength)
3. Incoherent radiation Coherent radiation
4. Less intense High intense
5. Less directionally and having more angular High directionality and less angular
spread during propagation spread during propagation
Example : Light from sodium or mercury Example: Light from laser source
vapour lamp.

Types and operating principles

Gas lasers

Gas lasers using many gases have been built and used for many purposes. They are one
of the oldest types of laser.

The helium-neon laser (HeNe) emits at a variety of wavelengths and units operating at
633 nm are very common in education because of its low cost.

Carbon dioxide lasers can emit hundreds of kilowatts at 9.6 µm and 10.6 µm, and are
often used in industry for cutting and welding. The efficiency of a CO2 laser is over 10%.

Argon-ion lasers emit 458 nm, 488 nm or 514.5 nm.

A nitrogen transverse electrical discharge in gas at atmospheric pressure (TEA) laser is

an inexpensive gas laser producing UV Light at 337.1 nm.[12]

Metal ion lasers are gas lasers that generate deep ultraviolet wavelengths. Helium-silver
(HeAg) 224 nm and neon-copper (NeCu) 248 nm are two examples. These lasers have

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particularly narrow oscillation linewidths of less than 3 GHz (0.5 picometers),[13] making
them candidates for use in fluorescence suppressed Raman spectroscopy.

Chemical lasers

Chemical lasers are powered by a chemical reaction, and can achieve high powers in
continuous operation. For example, in the Hydrogen fluoride laser (2700-2900 nm) and
the Deuterium fluoride laser (3800 nm) the reaction is the combination of hydrogen or
deuterium gas with combustion products of ethylene in nitrogen trifluoride. They were
invented by George C. Pimentel.

Excimer lasers

Excimer lasers are powered by a chemical reaction involving an excited dimer, or

excimer, which is a short-lived dimeric or heterodimeric molecule formed from two
species (atoms), at least one of which is in an excited electronic state. They typically
produce ultraviolet light, and are used in semiconductor photolithography and in LASIK
eye surgery. Commonly used excimer molecules include F 2 (fluorine, emitting at 157
nm), and noble gas compounds (ArF (193 nm), KrCl (222 nm), KrF (248 nm), XeCl (308
nm), and XeF (351 nm)).

Solid-state lasers

Solid state laser materials are commonly made by doping a crystalline solid host with
ions that provide the required energy states. For example, the first working laser was a
ruby laser, made from ruby (chromium-doped corundum).

Neodymium is a common dopant in various solid state laser crystals, including yttrium
orthovanadate (Nd:YVO4), yttrium lithium fluoride (Nd:YLF) and yttrium aluminium
garnet (Nd:YAG). All these lasers can produce high powers in the infrared spectrum at
1064 nm. They are used for cutting, welding and marking of metals and other materials,
and also in spectroscopy and for pumping dye lasers. These lasers are also commonly

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frequency doubled, tripled or quadrupled to produce 532nm (green, visible), 355 nm
(UV) and 266 nm (UV) light when those wavelengths are needed.

Ytterbium, holmium, thulium, and erbium are other common dopants in solid state lasers.
Ytterbium is used in crystals such as Yb:YAG, Yb:KGW, Yb:KYW, Yb:SYS,
Yb:BOYS, Yb:CaF2, typically operating around 1020-1050 nm. They are potentially
very efficient and high powered due to a small quantum defect. Extremely high powers in
ultrashort pulses can be achieved with Yb:YAG. Holmium-doped YAG crystals emit at
2097 nm and form an efficient laser operating at infrared wavelengths strongly absorbed
by water-bearing tissues. The Ho-YAG is usually operated in a pulsed mode, and passed
through optical fiber surgical devices to resurface joints, remove rot from teeth, vaporize
cancers, and pulverize kidney and gall stones.

Titanium-doped sapphire (Ti:sapphire) produces a highly tunable infrared laser,

commonly used for spectroscopy as well as the most common ultrashort pulse laser.

Thermal limitations in solid-state lasers arise from unconverted pump power that
manifests itself as heat and phonon energy. This heat, when coupled with a high thermo-
optic coefficient (dn/dT) can give rise to thermal lensing as well as reduced quantum
efficiency. These types of issues can be overcome by another novel diode-pumped solid
state laser, the diode-pumped thin disk laser. The thermal limitations in this laser type are
mitigated by utilizing a laser medium geometry in which the thickness is much smaller
than the diameter of the pump beam. This allows for a more even thermal gradient in the
material. Thin disk lasers have been shown to produce up to kiloWatt levels of power.[14]

Fiber-hosted lasers

Solid state lasers also include glass or optical fiber hosted lasers, for example, with
erbium or ytterbium ions as the active species. These allow extremely long gain regions
and can support very high output powers because the fiber's high surface area to volume
ratio allows efficient cooling. In addition, the fiber's wave guiding properties tend to
reduce thermal distortion of the beam. Quite often, the fiber is designed as a double-clad
glass fiber. This type of fiber consists of a fiber core, an inner cladding and an outer
cladding. The index of the three concentric layers is chosen so that the fiber core acts as a
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single-mode fiber for the laser emission while the outer cladding acts as a highly
multimode core for the pump laser. This lets the pump propagate a large amount of power
into and through the active inner core region, while still having a high numerical aperture
(NA) to have easy launching conditions. Fiber lasers have a fundamental limit in that the
intensity of the light in the fiber cannot be so high that optical nonlinearities induced by
the local electric field strength can become dominant and prevent laser operation and/or
lead to the material destruction of the fiber.

Semiconductor lasers

Commercial laser diodes emit at wavelengths from 375 nm to 1800 nm, and wavelengths
of over 3 µm have been demonstrated. Low power laser diodes are used in laser printers
and CD/DVD players. More powerful laser diodes are frequently used to optically pump
other lasers with high efficiency. The highest power industrial laser diodes, with power
up to 10 kW, are used in industry for cutting and welding. External-cavity semiconductor
lasers have a semiconductor active medium in a larger cavity. These devices can generate
high power outputs with good beam quality, wavelength-tunable narrow-linewidth
radiation, or ultrashort laser pulses.

Vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) are semiconductor lasers whose

emission direction is perpendicular to the surface of the wafer. VCSEL devices typically
have a more circular output beam than conventional laser diodes, and potentially could be
much cheaper to manufacture. As of 2005, only 850 nm VCSELs are widely available,
with 1300 nm VCSELs beginning to be commercialized, [15] and 1550 nm devices an area
of research. VECSELs are external-cavity VCSELs. Quantum cascade lasers are
semiconductor lasers that have an active transition between energy sub-bands of an
electron in a structure containing several quantum wells.

The development of a silicon laser is important in the field of optical computing, since it
means that if silicon, the chief ingredient of computer chips, were able to produce lasers,
it would allow the light to be manipulated like electrons are in normal integrated circuits.
Thus, photons would replace electrons in the circuits, which dramatically increases the
speed of the computer. Unfortunately, silicon is a difficult lasing material to deal with,
since it has certain properties which block lasing. However, recently teams have
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produced silicon lasers through methods such as fabricating the lasing material from
silicon and other semiconductor materials, such as indium(III) phosphide or gallium(III)
arsenide, materials which allow coherent light to be produced from silicon. These are
called hybrid silicon laser. Another type is a Raman laser, which takes advantage of
Raman scattering to produce a laser from materials such as silicon.

Dye lasers

Dye lasers use an organic dye as the gain medium. The wide gain spectrum of available
dyes allows these lasers to be highly tunable, or to produce very short-duration pulses (on
the order of a few femtoseconds).

Free electron lasers

Free electron lasers, or FELs, generate coherent, high power radiation, that is widely
tunable, currently ranging in wavelength from microwaves, through terahertz radiation
and infrared, to the visible spectrum, to soft X-rays. They have the widest frequency
range of any laser type. While FEL beams share the same optical traits as other lasers,
such as coherent radiation, FEL operation is quite different. Unlike gas, liquid, or solid-
state lasers, which rely on bound atomic or molecular states, FELs use a relativistic
electron beam as the lasing medium, hence the term free electron.

Nuclear reaction lasers

In September 2007, the BBC News reported that there was speculation about possibility
of using positronium annihilation to drive a very powerful gamma ray laser. This laser is
powerful enough to be believed to be able to jump start a nuclear reaction, with only one
gamma ray laser, rather than the hundreds of conventional lasers involved in current
experiments.

Helium – Neon Laser :

For the continuous laser beam, gas lasers are used. Higher stability, high
directional, high monochromacity and most pure spectrum can be obtained from them.

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But the output power is generally moderate when we compare them with the solid state
lasers.
The Helium – Neon laser consists of a gas discharge tube which is the active
medium. The tube is made up of quartz and is filled with the mixture of Neon under a
pressure of 0.1 mm of mercury and Helium under a pressure of 1 mm of mercury. The
ratio of the Helium – Neon mixture is of 10:1 i.e. the number of Helium atoms is greater
than the number of Neon atoms. The power output from these lasers depends upon the
discharge tube and pressure of gas mixture. The end faces of the gas discharge tube are
titled at the Brewster angle as shown in figure. These are called Brewster angle windows.

Laser
Output

1. Perfect Concave reflector 2. Active medium 3. Electrodes 4. R.F.Oscillator

5. Brewster angle windows 6. Partially reflecting concave mirror
Fig : Construction of Helium – Neon Laser
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 An emitted unpolarised light were can be expressed as a sum of two plane
polarized waves one of which is polarized in the plane drawn through the normal to the
window and the tube axis (let us refer it as the plane of oscillation) and the other normal
to this plane. Clearly the wave polarized normal to the plane of oscillation is completely
reflected and attenuated by the window plate while that polarized in this plane is
transmitted by the window plate in the same direction. This means that the first of these
waves is immediately shutout while the second one is repeatedly reflected by the
resonator concave mirrors situated behind the Brewster angle windows and
correspondingly it passes repeatedly through the active medium. Among these concave
mirrors, one is partially reflecting and the other is perfectly reflecting. Though the
partially reflecting concave mirror the laser output is coming out as polarized beam of
light in the plane oscillation (shown as parallel arrows). The active material is exited by
means of a radio frequency oscillator whose frequency is several times of MHz.

Working :

Because of – collisions with electrons in the gas discharge plasma, the ground
state (G) Helium atoms are exited to level ‘H’. This process of excitation is called
electron excitation which is taking place by transfer of fraction of kinetic energy of
electrons to Helium atoms. Now by the resonance transfer method, the ground state (E o)
of Neon atoms are exited to level E3 by exited Helium atoms. Then Helium atoms are de-
exited and are returned to ground state ‘G’. This resonance energy transfer takes place
because the corresponding energy levels H and E3 in Helium and Neon are almost at the
same distance from the ground level and also because the Helium density in the mixture
is sufficiently high. As soon as the population inversion is reached in meta – stable
energy state E3 , any of the spontaneously emitted photon will trigger laser action in the
tube. We are getting stimulated emission between E3 and E2.

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 Laser output by
Resonance Stimulated
transfer emission

Photons from
Helium atoms return Spontaneous
to ground state after emission
exciting Neon atoms

Transition by
diffusion

Fig : Helium – Neon Energy Levels

Normally when the Neon atoms are under going transitions from E 2 to E1 and E1
to E0 , there is no loser action since the excess energy which creates excitation is almost
zero for the above. After arriving the ground state ‘E o’ once again they are raised to E 3
by H level Helium atoms. Thus once again there is stimulated emission between E 3 and
E2. Since the electron density in E3 level is always greater than the electron density at
other levels, we can get continuous laser output at a wavelength 6328 Ǻ with little
milliwatt power.

The other two important wavelengths are 1.15 µm and 3.39 µm. Both 3.39 µm
and 6328 Ǻ transitions share he same upper laser level. The gain at 3.39 µm is much
higher than at 6328 Ǻ .
Thus due to very large gain, oscillations will normally tend to occur at a
wavelength 3.39 µm rather than at 6328 Ǻ In the He – Ne laser , there are some
optical elements in the path of the laser beam which strongly absorb the 3.39 µm

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wavelength and so we get only visible 6328 Ǻ wavelength. The wavelength 1.15 µm has
the same lower level of 6328 Ǻ But this is also in the infrared range.

Ruby Laser

Maiman used a ruby crystal in his laser which contained about 0.05% of
chromium, giving the crystal a light pink colour.
A ruby crystal fluoresces when it is bombarded by electromagnetic waves in the
blue and green portion of the spectrum and then emits red light. Ruby is made up of
aluminium oxide as a host crystal with a small percentage of chromium atoms replacing
some of the aluminum in the crystal. Chromium acts as a doping. A dopant actually
produces laser action while the host material. The crystal holds the lasing material in
place. The chromium atoms are the source of the red light emitted by the ruby.
Depending on the pumping source, chromium atoms can be exited to many different
energy levels, both in the microwave and the visible region. The crystal is several
centimeters long and is about half centimeter in diameter.

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 Ei
Photons SNE up some Energy
to crystal lattice by dropping
to E1
PHOTON
5600 Ao

E1

PHOTON 6043 Ao
Ei

Eo Decay to Ground Level

Fig : Energy level diagram for ruby laser

The pumping source for this ruby was an electronic flash lamp. Chromium atoms
are particularly responsive to light having a wavelength of 5600Ao units in the blue and
green portion of the spectrum.
When the chromium atoms are exited to upper energy level; they require two
steps to return to their ground state, as shown in fig. first there is a fall of energy. It is a
small step which results primarily in heating the crystal lattice. The atom is then at an
energy level at which it can remain for several milliseconds. This state, E 1 is called
“metastable state”.
Unless the exited state is stimulated to do so sooner, it will return to the ground
state, Eo by remitting a photon at a wave – length of 6943A o at room temperature. This is
the red portion of electromagnetic spectrum and explains the red fluorescent glow of ruby
and the colour of ruby laser light.

Population Inversion and Stimulated Emmission:

As the flash lamp just begins to pump light, most of the chromium atoms are in
the ground state Eo when the pumping is continued, most of the chromium atoms are

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raised to their upper energy level at E1 from which they immediately begin to drop
spontaneously to the metastable state the atoms emit photons at random and the ruby rod
begins to glow red. The flash lamp continues to fire, feeding chromium atoms to the
upper energy level. Then at a particular point, the situation suddenly changes. The
population of exited chromium atoms is inverted now, there are more chromium atoms at
the level E1 to a significant extent. This results in stimulated emission of other identical
photons and a cascade process begins. Photons traveling parallel to the long axis of the
crystal will continue in the same direction until they strike the end of the crystal, where
they are reflected back into the crystal.
Those photons which travel in any other direction than this pass out of the ruby.
In the meantime, photon moving back and forth inside the crystal continue to grow until
the intensity of radiation is large enough, whereupon some of it bursts through the ends of
the face in a coherent pulse of light as the phase is slightly transperant. The steps are
depicted in fig.

Ruby rod atoms at energy level EO as black duts

Flash lamp begins pumping, raising atoms to excited level E1 light dots

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 Exited atoms drop to level Ei and begin emitting photons those traveling
parallel to the axis of rod strike other exited atoms, also emit photons

Process continues as intensity within ruby rod grows Critical field

Reflection turn s wave in other direction intensity continues to grow

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 A burst of coherent light is emitted from slightly transparent surface

FIG : LASER ACTION IN RUBY ROD

Application of Lasers :

The lasers have such remarkable properties which have provided a number of
possible applications in the different fields of pure science, medicine, biology, radar,
communications, weaponry and micro welding etc.,
Medical Uses : Lasers have been used successfully in the treatment of detached
retinas and show great promise in the treatment of cancer. Ophthalmologists additionally
see the possibility of using the laser as an improved tool for vision research, and
microsurgery.
Detached retinas are developed by thousands of persons. This occurs when the
fluid, vitreous humour, in the eye-ball seeps through a hole in the retina. This condition
may eventually cause complete detatchment of the retina from the back of the eye-ball
and blindness follows. Uptil now retina flaws have been treated by surgery, diathermy
and by Xenon flash tube; which use the same method as the laser beams, but in a
considerably longer time. The laser flash, lasting a thousandth of a second, is much
shorter than Xenon flash retinal welding, which takes one half to one second to complete.
This light can be precisely aimed and rarely requires more than a single pulse to attain
action in the right location.

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 Microsurgery, other than in ophthalmology is an area of great potential use of
laser light in medicine and its possibilities are being explored. A lot of work is now under
way and is directed towards using an attenuated laser beam. Using much the same
technique, experiments, are going to be performed in an effort to use the laser to effect
chromosomal changes.
Treatment in Cancer: In 1963 Thufts- New England Medical Centre reported
the preliminary success in the treatment of both human and animal cancers that had been
transplanted into animals. An induced cancer of animal origin was also treated.
Applications in Millitary: It is used in military also. Due to great quantity of
energy which the laser can concentrate, it has been prominently mentioned as potential
“death ray” type of incendiary weapon for use against enemy missile from earth, a power
output of 10 billion joules would be required. Such a system would require great banks of
capacitors to store as well as supply this much energy. The presently available laser
system can put out energy of the order of 1500 joules. This intensity, if concentrated by
proper lens systems, could set on fire easily inflammable material at a distance of two
miles and could be used to set off stores of ammunition at that range.
Much research is being done in the field of laser weaponry. One line of such
research is moving towards the development of higher energy output devices at great
efficiency. A second area of investigation in the actual destructive effects of a laser
beam. We do not yet know whether a pulse of extremely high energy destroys through
vaporization or whether it causes the target material to explode. This later effect would be
due to heating and rapid expansion of trapped gases and liquids within the target material.
Uses in Science: The laser has been used to repeat one of the most important
scientific experiments, Michelson Morley experiment, which showed that the velocity of
light was constant and thus paved the way for Einstein`s Theory of Relativity. Laser
experiment was performed by a group of scientists, using gas lasers which were turned in
different directions with respect to the motion of the earth. A change in the velocity of
light would show up as a change in frequency of the output beam of the laser , since the
time required for the light to travel the two end mirrors would also change. The effect is
similar to the Doppler`s shift in frequency.

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 Tests conducted so far confirm the results of the original experiment of
Michelson, but to a degree of more than fifty times the accuracy of the one performed in
1881.
Potential Applications: The use of laser begins to start or control chemical and
biochemical reactions are under investigation. The intensity, narrowness, and
monochromacity of the laser beam suggest their use in starting chemical reactions on a
selective basis. The possibility exists of breaking or joining, by heat, single molecular
bonds to create new compounds.
Biologists too, have been experimenting with laser light on plant cells, with some
interesting results. They have been able to drill minute holes in cell walls without
damaging the cell itself. This could lead to use of laser beams to perform minute
microbiological operations within cells.
The use of lasers in micro chemical and microbiological areas requires devices
capable of producing coherent ultraviolet light. Radiation in this portion of the spectrum
has the extremely small dimensions being dealt with on the molecular level.
The use of lasers in computers is being investigated an several potential
applications are there. One of these is to transmit an entire memory bank from one
computer to another. This system would make use of the enormous potential information
carrying capability of a beam of light.

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