1. Explain quantum confinement of electrons in the solid.

How does the confinement affect the

energy levels of the electrons in the system (Explain for 1-dimensional confinement and 2-
dimensional confinement).

- Student need to explain the meaning of confinement of electrons in

the solid.
- Write down the formulae for energy of electrons in 1-D confinement
and 2-D confinement.
 2. Imagine you are filling a 10𝜇m hollow sphere with 10nm spheres.
(a) How many number of 10nm spheres needed to fill out the 10𝜇m sphere (2 Marks)?
(b) By filling out 10nm spheres, how much surface area has been increased ? (3 Marks)

Number of smaller spheres

Increase in the surface area will be

3. Explain the types of single wall nanotubes depending on the arrangement of carbon
atoms.
Folding direction

ARMCHAIR Nanotube ZIGZAG Nanotube CHIRAL Nanotube

Depending on the folding direction with respect to the C-C bond, the single wall CNT’s are
classified into three categories.

• Also needed the definition of chirality.

 (a) Why is it easy to attain population inversion in a four level system compared to
4. three level system ?
(b) It is very difficult to construct a very high frequency laser. Explain.
Answer (a) : The answer for this question is more logical.
Generally, the lowest energy state (Ground state) has highest number of atoms and the number reduces as we
consider higher energy states following Boltzmann distribution. That means more pumping is needed to achieve
(in general) a population inversion which is not easy. But, it is easier to attain the population inversion in the 4-
level system containing an upper lasing level (ULL) and lower lasing level (LLL) as the lower lasing level already has
smaller population, thus making it easy to achieve the population inversion.

𝑅𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑝𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑒𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑁2 𝐴

b) =
𝑅𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑆𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝐸𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑁2 𝐵21 𝜌 𝜈

At equilibrium, 𝐵12 = 𝐵21 = 𝐵, and comparing Planck’s distribution law for 𝜌 𝜈

𝑅𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑝𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑒𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛 ℎ𝜈

= 𝑒 𝑘𝑇 − 1
𝑅𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑆𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝐸𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛

If one wants to design a high frequency laser, 1.e., 𝜈 𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑙𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑒. This means the term on the right hand side
becomes exponentially large number. This is possible if rate of spontaneous emission is large OR smaller rate of
stimulated emission. Both are detrimental for the laser operation. Thus it is very difficult to design and fabricate
a high frequency laser source.
 5.
(a) Prove that temperature alone cannot create a population inversion in a lasing medium
(b) Compare the population of atoms at two energy levels (say, 1 and 3 eV) at 10 K , 5000 K

(a) The population distribution across various energy levels is given by Boltzmann distribution as below

− 𝐸2 − 𝐸1
𝑁2 = 𝑁1 𝑒𝑥𝑝
𝑘𝑇
As we increase the temperature, the higher energy states will be populated more and
more. For a very large temperature (or 𝑇 ⟶ ∞), number of atoms in the energy level 𝐸2
almost become equal to that of the ground state 𝐸1 . That means 𝑁2 ~𝑁1 . In this sense, we
will never be able to achieve a population inversion only by temperature.

− 𝐸2 − 𝐸1
( b) At 10K, Using the above expression, 𝑁2 = 𝑁1 𝑒𝑥𝑝
𝑘𝑇
− 2
𝐸2 − 𝐸1 = 2𝑒𝑉; 𝑘𝑇𝑎𝑡 10𝐾 = 8.614 × 10−4 𝑒𝑉 𝑁2 = 𝑁1 𝑒𝑥𝑝 =0
8.614×10−4

This implies, at 10K, all the atoms are in the ground state.

− 2 𝑁2
At 5000K, we get 𝑁2 = 𝑁1 𝑒𝑥𝑝 = 𝑁1 0.009624 = 0.009624
0.4307 𝑁1

About 0.96 % of atoms will be in the E = 3eV state

6. Calculate the coherence length of laser beam emitted by (a) Incandescent light bulb (b)
He-Ne laser with wavelength 635 nm with FWHM of 0.001 nm.

(a) Incandescent Light Bulb : Wavelength : 400nm – 1000nm ( including IR light)

Δ𝜆 = 600𝑛𝑚, Nominal Wavelength 𝜆 = 700𝑛𝑚

𝜆2 7002 𝑛𝑚2 700×700

Coherence Length = = = 𝑛𝑚 = 408.33𝑛𝑚
2Δ𝜆 2×600𝑛𝑚 2×600

(b) He-Ne Laser : Wavelength 𝜆~635𝑛𝑚, 𝛥𝜆~0.001𝑛𝑚

𝜆2 6352 𝑛𝑚2 635×635

Coherence Length = = = 𝑛𝑚
2Δ𝜆 2×0.001𝑛𝑚 2×10−3

= 0.2016𝑚~20.16𝑐𝑚
7. Explain how lasing occurs in the CO2 laser with a schematic diagram of energy levels.
What is the role of Helium (He) and Nitrogen (N2) in the CO2 laser?

Answers should be evaluated in terms of

1. The Gas mixture used in CO2 Laser [CO2(1) : N2(2): He(8)]

2. The pumping process ( Electric discharge with kilovolts or more)
3. Energy level Diagram
4. The importance of the N2 and He in the gas mixture.
8. A laser beam with a wavelength of λ= 500 nm was fired from the earth and reflected off
the space shuttle Discovery, in orbit at a distance of L = 350 km away from the laser.
If the circular aperture of the laser was D = 4.7 cm, what was the beam diameter d at the
space shuttle?

r1, D1 r2, D2

For Gaussian beams, the divergence is given by,

𝜆 500 × 10−9
𝜃0 = 1.22 = 1.27 −2
= 1.351 × 10−5 𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑠
𝐷 4.7 × 10

𝑑 ≈ 2𝜃0 𝐿 = 2 1.351 × 10−5 350 × 103 𝑚 = 9.457𝑚

9. Find div F (a) 𝑭 = 𝑒 −𝑥 sin 𝑦 𝒂𝒙 − 𝑒 −𝑥 sin 𝑦 𝒂𝒚 + 2𝑧𝒂𝒛 at the origin, (b) 𝑭 =
2𝑥𝑦𝑧 − 𝑦 2 𝒂𝒙 + 𝑥 2 𝑧 − 2𝑥𝑦 𝒂𝒚 + 𝑥 2 𝑦𝒂𝒛 at (2,3,-1)

𝜕𝐷𝑥 𝜕𝐷𝑦 𝜕𝐷𝑧

(a) div D = + +
𝜕𝑥 𝜕𝑦 𝜕𝑧

= −𝑒 −𝑥 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑦 + 𝑒 −𝑥 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑦 + 2
At origin 𝑑𝑖𝑣 𝐷 = 2 Regardless of location

𝜕𝐷𝑥 𝜕𝐷𝑦 𝜕𝐷𝑧

(b) div D = + +
𝜕𝑥 𝜕𝑦 𝜕𝑧

= −6 + −4 + 0

= −10

Physical interpretation is a must

 a) Using Maxwell’s equations, prove that the electric field vectors E and Magnetic field
10 vectors H are in-phase in light.
b) Prove that the velocity c is given by the ratio of electric field and magnetic field at any
instant of time.