Applied Physics Unit - I Lasers

UNIT – I LASERS
Introduction:
 The word LASER stands for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.
 The basic principle involve in lasing action is the phenomenon of stimulared emission which was
postulated by Einstein in 1917.
 The first laser ruby laser was built by an American Physicist Maimann in 1960.
Characteristics of a laser:
High directionality:
 Laser light can travel over long distance without much loss of energy.
 The degree directionality of the laser beam is expressed in terms of divergence which tells about laser
beam spread.

r2  r1
 The angle of divergence(θ) can be expressed as  
d 2  d1

 Where r1 and r2 are the radii of the laser beam spots at a distances d1 and d2 respectively.
High intensity:
 In coherent beam as the waves are in phase, the resultant intensity is proportional to (na)2,Where as ‘n’
is the no of waves and a is the amplitude of each eave.
 A coherent beam with power P watt and λ wavelength of the laser beam, then the brightness or intensity
P
is I  .
2
 The laser beam is extremely intense. The beam can produce a temperature of 104 oC at a focused point.
High monochromatic:
 The degree of monocromaticity is characterized by spread in frequency of line by the width Δυ, and is

given by , Where Δυ frequency spread around central frequency υ0 .
0
 For absolute monochromaticity Δ υ=0 ,this is impossible for any source ,including laser source.
High coherence :
 The laser light is coherent i.e all the waves exactly in phase with each other.
 The Laser light is characterized by a high degree of ordering of light field .

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 It is possible to create high power in space with laser beam due to its coherence.
There are three kinds of electromagnetic radiations between two energy levels E1 and E2 in an atom.
i) Induced absorption:- If the atom is initially in the
lower state E1, it can be raised to E2 by absorption of a
photon of energy E2- E1 = h . This is called induced
absorption.
The process of particle transfer from ground state corresponding to minimum energy of the system to a
higher energy state is termed as excitation and the particle itself is said to be excited. In this process the
absorption of energy from the external field takes place.

ii) Spontaneous emission:- If the atom is initially in the

upper state E2, it can drop to E1 by emitting of a photon
of energy h. This process is known as Spontaneous
emission.
The spontaneous emission rate depends on the properties of the energy states and no of particle present in
the excited state, but transition is independent of photon energy.
The waves coincide neither in wavelength nor in phase. Thus the radiation is incoherent and has a broad
spectrum.

iii) Stimulated emission:-

If an atom is already in the excited state of
energy level E2 whose ground level energy is E1,
at this moment, a photon of energy h = E2 - E1
is incident on the excited atom, the incident
photon stimulates a similar Photon from the
excited atom. Now the atom returns to the
ground state. This type of emission is called as
stimulated emission.

It is coherent with the stimulating incident radiation. It has the same frequency & phase as the incident
radiation.
The rate of stimulated emission depends both on the intensity of external field and also on the
number of atoms in the excited state.

Differences between spontaneous and stimulated emission:

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Spontaneous emission Stimulated emission

1. It is the process of transfer of particles from a 1. It is the process of transfer of particles from a
higher energy level to a lower energy level with higher energy level to a lower energy level with
out any aid of external energy. aid of external energy.
2. No incident photon is required 2.Photon whose energy is equal to the difference
of two energy levels is required.
3. Single photon is emitted. 3.Two photons with same energy are emitted.
4. The energy of emitted photon is equal to the 4.The energy of the emitted photons is double the
energy difference of two levels. energy of stimulated photons.
5. This was postulated by Bohr. 5.This was postulated by Einstein.
6.This process depends upon the properties of 6.This process depends upon the properties of
energy states E1 and E2 only. energy states E1 and E2 and also incident energy.

Principle of lasing action: Consider a group of atoms all in the same excited state. A passing photon may
cause stimulated emission in one of these atoms. This results in the emission of two photons. Each of these
photons may cause induced emission in two other excited atoms. This process may continue in a chain
reaction. The result will be an intense beam of photons moving in the same direction and all are coherent.

Population Inversion: At normal condition the number of particles N2, i.e., population of higher energy
level is less than the population N1 of lower energy level.
The number of particles( N2 ) in higher energy level is more than the number of particles (N1 ) in lower
energy level (N2 > N1) at non equilibrium condition is called as population inversion or inverted
population.
According to Boltzmann distribution law, The no of particles present in a particular energy level is given by
the relation

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-E
N  N0 e kT

E 2 -E1 h
N1
e kT
 e kT
N2

Where h is Planck’s constant =6.625x10-32 j.sec.

υ is frequency of incident radiation.
K is Boltzmann constant =1.38x1023J/K.
T is temperature of the system in K.
h
Here h, υ, k, T is positive, so that e kT
is greater than unity. Therefore N1/N2 >1 i.e N1>N2.
For lasing action takes place it is necessary that the population inversion.
Let us consider three level system with energies E1,E2,E3 and N1,N2,N3 be no of atoms in these energy
states respectively. E1 is the lower energy state with more life time of an atom and E3 is the highest energy
state with life time of an atom 10-8 sec. E2 is the intermediate state with life time of 10-3 sec and provides

population inversion for laser emission. These states are called as metastable states.
Pumping methods:
A system in which population inversion is achieved is called an active system. The method of raising
the particle from lower energy state to higher energy state is called as pumping. The various pumping
methods are
Ex: Optical pumping.
Electric discharge pumping
Inelastic atom-atom collision
Direct conversion
Chemical pumping

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Relations between Einstein’s coefficients:

In a system, all the three transition processes i.e stimulated absorption, spontaneous emission &stimulated
emission occur simultaneously.
Let N1 be the no of atoms per unit volume in the energy level E1 and N2 be no of atoms per unit volume in
the energy level E2 .Let ‘n’ be the no of photons per unit volume frequency  such that h  .Then the energy
density of interacting photons is given by  ( ) = nh 
Upward transition:
Stimulated absorption rate depends on the no of atoms available in the lower energy state and energy
density of interacting photons.
Stimulated absorption rate  N1  ( )
Stimulated absorption rate = B12 N1  ( )
Downward transition:
After the life time particles move to their lower energy level spontaneously emitting photons. This
spontaneous emission rate depends on the no of particles in the excited energy state.
Spontaneous emission rate  N2
Spontaneous emission rate = N2 A21
Where A21 is proportionality constant or Einstein coefficient of spontaneous emission.
Stimulated emission rate depends on the no of particles in the excited energy state and energy density of
interacting photons.
Stimulated emission rate  N2  ( )
Stimulated emission rate = B21 N2  ( )
Where B21 is proportionality constant or Einstein coefficient of stimulated emission.
For a system in equilibrium the upward and downward transition rates must be equal.
B12 N1  ( ) = B21 N2  ( ) + N2 A21

N 2 A 21
 ( ) 
N1 B12  N 2 B 21

A 21
B21
 ( ) 
B12 N1
1
B21 N 2

The population of particular energy level of a system in thermal equilibrium ia given by Boltzmann
distribution law

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 Ei
Ni = No exp( )
KT

N1 E  E1
 exp( 2 )
N2 KT

N1 h
 exp( )
N2 KT

A21 / B21
 ( )  -----------------(1)
B12 h
exp( ) 1
B21 KT

 
8h 3  1 
 ( )   
c 3
h -------------(2)
 exp( )  1
 KT 

By comping above two equations

B12
1 B12  B21
B21

A21 8h 3

B21 c3

SIGNIFICANCE OF EINSTEIN COEFFICIENT’S RELATIONS:

A21 8h 3
B12  B21 ------(2) and
 ………..(3)
B21 c3
( i ) Eq. (2) shows that the coefficients for both absorption and stimulated emission are numerically equal.
The equality implies that when an atom with two energy levels is placed in the radiation field, the
probability for an upward (absorption) transition is equal to the probability for a downward (stimulated)
transition.
( ii ) Eq. ( 3 ) shows that the ratio of coefficients of spontaneous versus stimulated emission is proportional
to the third power of frequency of the radiation. This why it is difficult to achieve laser action in higher
frequency ranges such as X – rays.

LIGHT AMPLIFICATION
Light amplification requires that stimulated emission occur almost exclusively. In practice, absorption and
spontaneous emission always occur together with stimulated emission. The laser operation is achieved when
stimulated emission exceeds in a large way the other two processes. Let us now look at the conditions under
which the number of stimulated transitions can be made larger than the other two transitions.

1. Condition for Stimulated Emission to Dominate Spontaneous Emission

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= = ( )…………..(4)
The above Eqn indicates that stimulated transitions will dominate the spontaneous transitions if the radiation
is very large. Thus, the presence of a large number of photons in the active medium is required.
However, it will lead to more absorption transitions. Hence, large photon density alone will not guarantee
more stimulated emissions.
2. Requirement of States of Larger Lifetimes
Equ.(4) further indicates that stimulated transitions will dominate the spontaneous transitions if the value of
the ratio is also large. To increase the probability of stimulated emission, the lifetime of atoms at
the excited state should be larger. In other words, it is necessary that the excited state has a longer lifetime
(remember that represents the lifetime of the excited state).

3.Condition for Stimulated Emission to Dominate Absorption

= =

We used here the fact that B12 = B21.

Then above condition indicates that the stimulated transition will overwhelm the absorption process if N 2 is
greater than N1. It means that there should be more atoms present in the higher energy level than in the
lower energy level for stimulated emission to dominate over the spontaneous emissions.
A medium amplifies light only when the above three conditions are fulfilled. Therefore to achieve high
percentage of stimulated emissions, an artificial situation known as population inversion is to be created in
the medium.
Components of laser (or) Basic Requirements for laser devises
The three main components of laser devises are
i) Active Medium
ii) Pumping to achieve population inversion
iii) The resonant cavity.

Active Medium: It consists of collection of atoms, molecules or ions which is capable of amplifying
light waves. The active medium may be a solid ,a liquid or a gas depending upon the type of the laser.

Energy source : The energy source supplies the energy to pump the atoms from lower energy state
to higher energy state . The pumping mechanism provides for obtaining such state of population
inversion between a pair of energy levels of the atomic system and when we have a state of population
inversion the input light being can get amplify by stimulated emission.

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Optical resonator: In a laser, the active medium is enclosed in an optical cavity usually made up
Of two parallel surfaces, one of which is perfectly reflecting and other surface is partially reflecting.
In the optical cavity, the intensity of photons raised largely through stimulated emission process.
Types of Lasers:
Lasers are classified into five types. They are
(i) Solid state lasers
(ii) Gas lasers
(iii) Liquid lasers
(iv) Dye lasers
(v) Semiconductor lasers.

Ruby laser:
Ruby laser is solid state laser and it is a three level laser system. It was first laser device, fabricated by T.H
.Maimann in 1960. The schematic diagram of a Ruby laser is as shown in fig.

Construction:-
 It consists of a ruby rod made up of 99.5% of aluminium oxide (Al2O3) and is dopped with 0.05% of
chromium oxide (Cr2O3).
 The length of cylindrical ruby Rod is 10 cm long and 0.5 cm in diameters appear in pink colour.
 The active materials in the ruby are chromium ions Cr3+.
 The two ends of the ruby rod are made perfectly parallel to each other. One end A is fully polished
and the other end B of the rod is partially polished.

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 The rod is surrounded by a helical xenon flash tube, which provides the pumping light to raise the
chromium ions to upper energy level.
 Only a part of the energy is used in pumping the Cr3+ ions while the rest heats the apparatus. For these
purpose a cooling arrangement (liquid nitrogen) is used.

Working:- An energy diagram illustrating the operation principle of a ruby laser is shown in figure.

 In the fig. E1, E2 and E3 represent the energy levels of chromium ion. In normal state, the chromium ion
is in lower level.
 When the ruby crystal is irradiated with light of xenon flash, the chromium atoms are excited and pass to
upper level.
 Few excited atoms return to ground level E1 and other to level E2. The transitions E3  E2 are non-
radiative. i.e., the chromium atoms give part of their energy to crystal lattice in the form of heat.
 After few milliseconds, the level E2 becomes more populated than level E1 and hence the desired
population inversion is achieved.
 The spontaneous transition may cause an induced transition (stimulated emission), which produces a
photon. Photon traveling parallel to the axis of the tube (crystal) will start a cascade of photon emission
while the photons traveling in any direction other than this will pass out of ruby.
 The ruby laser is an example of a three level laser. The wavelength of output beam is 6943 A0, The
duration of output flash is 300  sec and the Intensity of output beam is 10,000 watt.
Drawbacks: i) The Ruby laser requires high pumping power
ii) It is a pulsed laser.i.e out put laser is discontineous
iii)Setup is overheated.

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Gas lasers/ He-Ne laser

The main drawback of Ruby laser is that the output beam is not continuous though very intense. For the
continuous laser beam, gas lasers are used. He- Ne laser is fabricated by Ali Javan and his associates
W.Bennett and D. Herriot in 1961.
The schematic diagram of He –Ne gas laser.

Construction:
 It consists of a long narrow quartz discharge tube approximately 5mm in diameter and 0.5m long.
and filled with helium – neon gas mixture in the ratio 10:1 at a total pressure of about 1mm of
mercury.
• The quartz tube is enclosed between plane and parallel mirrors forming a resonance cavity. One end
of the tube is heavily polished and the other end is partially polished. An electric discharge is
produced in the gas mixture by electrodes connected to a high frequency electric source.
 The electrodes are placed close to the discharge tube and are connected to a R.F generator.

Working:
 The energy levels in the He-Ne laser system are shown in Fig.
 When the power is switched on, the high frequency electric field ionizes some of the atoms in the
mixture of He and Ne gases. Electrons are released in the process of ionization.
 Electrons have a smaller mass and hence they acquire a higher velocity under the action of the
electric field.
 The helium atoms are more readily excitable than the neon atoms because they are lighter. The
energetic electrons excite He atoms through collisions to the excited states E2 and E3. These two
states are metastable.
 The excited He atoms return to the ground state by transferring their energy to the Ne atoms through
collisions. This is the main pumping mechanism in the He-Ne system. Neon atoms are the
active centers and the role of helium is to excite neon atoms and cause population inversion.

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 The E6 and E4 levels of neon atoms are also metastable states. Therefore, as collisions go on, neon
atoms accumulate in these two excited states. At ordinary temperatures, E5 and E3 levels of neon
are less populated and a state of population inversion is achieved between E6 and E5, E3 levels and
between E4 and E3 levels. Consequently, three laser transitions are possible.
0
 E6  E3 transition gives a laser beam red in colour of wavelength 6328 A or 632.8 nm.
0
 E6  E5 transition produces infrared laser beam at 1150 A or 115 nm.
0
 E4  E3 transition gives infrared laser beam at 3390 A or 339 nm.
0
 The dominant laser transition is only 6328 A which is red in colour. All the three laser
0
transitions simultaneously occur. The quartz tube absorbs strongly the transitions at 1150 A
0
and 3390 A . Moreover, the end mirrors which provide optical feedback are coated with
0
multilayer dielectric to provide reflectivity only for 6328 A oscillation and hence the output
0 0
laser beam is only 6328 A . Thus, the standard wavelength of He-Ne laser is 6328 A .

 The He-Ne laser operates in CW mode because the neons atoms are excited to upper levels
continuously through collisions. In He-Ne laser, the terminal levels of lasing transitions are sparsely
populated. Hence the power required for pumping is low.
Merits :
 He-Ne laser works in CW mode. Hence continuous laser output is possible.
 The pump power required is relatively low compared to ruby laser
 He-Ne lasers are very compact and have a longer lifetime than the ruby laser
 The output laser beam is highly narrow, coherent and has an extremely narrow line width.
Demerits :
He-Ne laser is a low power device. The power of the laser output is in the range of 1 mw to several mw.

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SEMICONDUCTOR LASER
 The semiconductor laser is also called junction laser or diode laser .In semiconductor lasers, the laser
radiation is highly monochromatic, small bandwidth and highly directional.
 The semiconductor laser differs from other lasers in several aspects. The semiconductor lasers are
characterized by specific advantages such as capability of direct modulation into the frequency of
gigahertz region, small size, low cost and compatibility with optical fibers.
 Due to these advantages the semiconductor lasers are used as light sources in optical fiber
communication.
 The basic mechanism responsible for light emission for a semiconductor laser is the recombination of
electrons and holes at a p-n junction when a current is passed through the diode.
 There are two types of semi-conductor materials namely direct band gap semiconductors and indirect
band gap semi-conductors.
 In the case of direct band gap semi-conductors like GaAs(Eg=1.424 ev)there is a large possibility for
direct recombination of holes and electrons which emit photons where as in indirect band gap semi-
conductors like silicon or germanium, recombination of holes and electrons are less possible and hence
there is no effect for emission of photons.
 Depending upon the formation of junction between the semiconducting materials, these are classified
into two types namely, homo-junction semi-conductor laser and hetero-junction semi-conductor laser.
 If the p-n junction is formed from the same semi-conducting material, the semi-conductor laser is called
homo-junction semi-conductor laser whereasthe junction is formed between two dissimilar semi-
conductors, the semi-conductor laser is called hetero-junction semi-conductor laser.

A schematic diagram of homo-junction semi-conductor laser is as shown in figure.

Construction:
 The diode is extremely small in size with sights of the order of 1mm. The junction lies in a
horizontal plane through the centre.
 The top and bottom faces are metalized and ohmic contacts are provided to pass current through the
diode.
 The front and rear faces are polished parallel to each other and perpendicular to the plane of
junction.
 The other two opposite faces are roughened to prevent lasing action in that direction. The active
region consists of layer about 1mm thickness.
 As the refractive index of semi-conductor is high, most of the radiations is reflected at the semi-
conductor air interface. Therefore, no special reflection coating is done.

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WORKING PRINCIPLE:

 The working principle is same for the homo-junction and hetero-junction semi-conductor laser.
 The junction is forward biased by means of ohmic contacts attached to the top and bottom faces.
 When a current passes through the junction, radiation is emitted at the junction due to the
recombination of the charge carriers.
 If the current density is sufficiently high, the population inversion is created as shown in the figure.
 The photon emitted initially, travels along the junction layer causing further recombination.
 In order to amplify the radiation it has to travel back and forth within the cavity resonator. Since the
wavelength of the laser radiation from the semi-conductor laser depends upon the band gap.

 If Eg is the band gap of the semi-conductor, then wavelength of the emitted radiation is λ =hc/Eg

where c=3x108 m/s, is the velocity of the light and h=6.625x10-34 j-s is the plank´s constant.

Therefore λ=1.24/Eg µm
At room temperature the light emitted by the laser has a wavelength about 9000A°. On decreasing the
temperature the wavelength of the laser light decreases to about 8400A°.It can even be lowered to visible
range.
2
The current densities required to operate homo-junction laser is 50,000A/cm whereas the current
2
densities required to operate homo-junction laser is 2000-4000A/cm

APPLICATIONS OF LASERS:
Lasers have wide range of applications in different fields such physics,chemistry,biology,med-
icine and engineering because of high intensity,high coherence,high monochromaticity and high
directionality.

LASER IN SCIENCE:

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1. Lasers are used to investigate the basic laws of interaction of atoms and molecules with
electromagnetic waves of high intensity. Many new optical phenomena have been observed with
lasers.
2. The attempts are being made to generate to fusion energy in the laboratories by using co2 laser.
LASERS IN INDUSTRY:
1. Laser beam can be focused into a fine spot; small spot size implies that high energy densities
are possible. Since the laser beam is high intense beam. it can be used in welding, cutting and
drilling process.
2. It is possible to made minute holes in the crystals by using lasers without any damage in the
crystal structure.
3. The concentration of lye is measured by observing how the laser beam refracts, in pulp mill
industry.
LASERS IN MEDICINE:
1. Laser beam have been used in the eye surgery for the detachment of retains.
2. Lasers are used for the treatment of dental decay.
3. Lasers are used in the treatment of skin diseases.
4. Lasers are used in the destruction malignant tumors.
5. Lasers beams are focused in very small areas so they are used in microsurgery.
6. Lasers are also used in genetic research.
LASERS IN COMMUNICATIONS:
1. A laser is highly directional and has less divergence, hence it has greater potential use in space
crafts and submarines.
2. Lasers are used in microwave communications due to their narrow bandwidth.
3. Lasers play a vital role in fiber optic communication systems.
4. Lasers are used to transmit the large number of television programs simultaneously in the entire
world.
5. laser are used in LIDAR(light detection and ranging) applications to study the atmospheric
features such as the atmospheric pollutants concentration, ozone concentration, water vapor
concentration.
LASERS IN COMPUTERS:
1.The storage capacity of computers greatly improved by the use of lasers due to its narrow
bandwidth .
2.In local area network data can be transferred from the memory storage of one computer to other
computer using lasers.3.Lasers are used in CD-ROMs during recording and reading the data.

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LASERS IN CHEMISTRY:
1.Lasers can initiate certain chemical reactions which could not possible in absence of suitable
photons.
2.Lasers are used in investigating the structure of molecules.
LASERS IN PHOTOGRAPHY:
1.Lasers are used in holographic and photographic processes of moving objects.
(ii)It is possible to make the holograms by using lasers in interferometer experiments.
LASERS IN MILITARY:
(i) Laser study is also oriented for military applications, they can serve as war weapons.
(ii) A laser beam can be bounced off a target such as enemy war plane or ship, to determine its
distance and speed.
Solved problems:
1.Energy gap of a semi conductor is 3eV. Calculate the wavelength of emitted photons.

Given data : Energy gap, Eg = 3 eV = 3  1.6  10 19 J

Velocity of photons, c = 3  108 m / s
Planck’s constant, h = 6.6  10 34 J.s
Wavelength of the emitted photons,  = ?
hc hc 6.6  10 34  3  108
Solution : E g  h  or    4.125  10 7 m
 Eg 3  1.6  10 19

2. Calculate B21 / A21 for a source of light operating at 1000 K. The wavelength may be taken as 0.5 nm.
Given data :
λ  0.5nm  0.5  10 9 m, h  6.626  10 34 J.s , T  1000, K B  1.38  10 23 J/K.
c 3  10 8
υ  9
 6  1017 Hz
λ 0.5  10
Solution : The formula to be used
B21 1

A21   h  
exp    1
  K BT  
B21 N st 1
   1.277  10 -5
A21 N sp   6.626  10  6  10  
 34 17

exp   23
  1
  1.38  10  1000  

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3.GaAs has a band gap energy of 1.43 eV at 300 K .Determine the wave length above which an intrinsic
photodetector fabricated from this material will cease to operate.
-19
Given : T = 300 K, Eg = 1.43 eV = 1.43  1.6  10 J,  = ?
hc hc
Solution : Eg= h υ  or λ  0.8671 μ m.
λ Eg
GaAs photodetector will cease to operate above 0.87  m.

4.Find the intensity of a laser beam of 10 mW power and having a diameter of 1.3 mm. Assume the
intensity to be uniform across the beam.
-3
Given data : Power, P = 10 mW = 10  10 W
-3 1.3
Diameter = 1.3 mm= 1.3  10 m, Radius, r = 10 3 m.
2
3
P P 10  10  4
Solution : Intensity, I   2  .  7534 W/m 2  7.534 kW/m 2
A πr 
π 1.3  10  3 2


5.Calculate the ratio of spontaneous emission to stimulated emission by a source at 2500 K. The frequency
of radiation is 5.9  1014 Hz.
N sp  h   6.63  10 34  5.9  1014 
R  exp    1  exp   23   1  8.4  10
4

N st  K BT   1.38  10  2500 

0
6.A laser beam can be focused on an area equal to square of its wavelength. For He-Ne laser,   6328 A .
If the laser radiates energy at the rate of 1 mW, find out the intensity of the focused beam ?
0
Given data : λ  6328 A  6328  10 10 m. P  1m W  1 103 W

Area, A  λ 2  6328  10 10 
2
m 2  40  10 14 m 2
P
Intensity, I   2.5  10 9 W/m 2
A
We find from this problem that even though the laser power is
quite small, its intensity is many times larger than that of sunlight.

7.Imagine that we chop a CW laser beam (assumed to be perfectly monochromatic,   632.8 n m ) into
0.1 n s pulses using some sort of a shutter. Compute the resultant line width  , band width and
coherence length.
Given data :   632.8  10 9 m , t  0.1 n s  0.110 9 s
Solution : Coherence length = c t  3  108  0.1 10 9  3  10 2 m  3 cm.

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Applied Physics Unit - I Lasers

1
Band width     1010 Hz
t

Line width   
2
. 
632.8  10  9 2
 1010  0.013 n m  0.13 A
0

c 3  10 8
8.In the He-Ne laser, the distance between the two plane mirrors forming the resonant cavity is 0.5 m.
What is the mode separation of longitudinal cavity in terms of frequency?
Given data : Length of the resonant cavity, L=0.5 m
Solution :
c
Separation between the frequencies of consecutive modes = Δυ  , where n is the refractive index of the gas
2L n
mixture
3  108
Taking n = 1, we get    3  10 8 Hz  300 MH z .
2  0.5
0
9..A He-Ne laser of wavelength 6328 A has an output power of 2.3 mW. How may photons are emitted
each minute when it is operated ?
c
Power, P = n h   n h , where n is the number of photons emitted per second.

P 2.3 103  6328 1010
 n 
hc 6.63 1034  3 108
 7.3  1015 photons / sec  4.39  1017 photons / minute
10.For a He – Ne laser at 1 m and 2 m distances from the laser, the output beam spot diameters are 4 mm
and 6 mm, respectively. Calculate the divergence.
Solution: Beam divergence  is given by


a 2  a1

6  4  10 3  10 3 radian = 1 milliradian.
2d 2  d1  22  1
11.Diamond has a band gap of 5.6 eV. Find the maximum wavelength for
which diamond is opaque.
Solution :
c
Eg  h υ  h
λ
Wavelength corresponding to the band gap energy of 5.6 eV

hc 6.63  10 34  3  108

λ   2.2  10 7 m.  220nm.
Eg 5.6  1.6  10 19

Radiation of wavelength below 2.210-7 m will be absorbed by diamond and so it is opaque for all wavelengths
below this value. So the maximum wavelength for which diamond is opaque is λ max  220 nm.

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Applied Physics Unit - I Lasers

Objective type Questions

SUBJECTIVE QUESTIONS

1 (a) Explain the term population inversion.

(b) Describe a semi-conducting laser and explain its working with the help of a neat diagram.

2 (a) How does Laser light differ from conventional light.

(b) Explain the phenomenon of spontaneous emission and stimulated emission.

(c) Describe the construction and working of Ruby Laser.

3 (a) Explain the terms coherence, optical pumping, metastable energy level and population inversion used in the context

of lasers.

4 Describe the principle and working of a semiconductor laser.

5 (a) Distinguish stimulated and spontaneous emission and hence explain the properties of laser beam.

(b) Explain how population inversion is obtained in a semiconductor laser.

6 (a) What are the necessary requirements for laser action? How are these achieved in He-Ne laser?

7 (a) Explain spontaneous emission, stimulated emission and population inversion.

(b) Mention a few applications of lasers.

8 Explain the terms population inversion and optical pumping.

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