Unit2

LASER
Dr.M.D.Shinde

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Introduction.

LASER stands for Light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation.

Laser is a device which emits a powerful, monochromatic collimated beam of

light. The emitted light waves are coherent in nature.

Characteristics of Laser:

1. Directionality

Ordinary light spreads in all directions and its angular spread is 1m/m.

But it is found that laser is highly directional and is angular spread is 1mm/m.

For example, the laser beam can be focused to very long distance with a few

divergence or angular spread.

Divergence or angular spread is given by 1 2 1 2 dd r r

Where d1 , d2 are any two distances for the laser source emitted and r1,

r2 are the radii of the beam spots at a distance d1, and d2 respectively as

shown

2. Intensity:

Since an ordinary light spreads in all directions, the intensity reaching

the target is very less. But in the case of laser, due to high directionality, the

intensity of laser beam reaching the target is of high intense beam. For

example, 1 mill watt power of He-Ne laser appears to be brighter than the

sunlight.
3. Monochromatic:

Laser beam is highly monochromatic; the wavelength is single, whereas in

ordinary light like mercury vapour lamp, many wavelengths of light are emitted.

4 Coherence:

It is an important characteristic of laser beam. In lasers the wave trains

of same frequency are in phase, the radiation given out is in mutual agreement

not only in phase but also in the direction of emission and polarization. Thus it

is a coherent beam. Due to high coherence it results in an extremely high

power.

Differences between ordinary light and Laser beam.

S.No Ordinary light Laser beams

1 In ordinary light the In laser beam the angular

angular spread is more. spread is less.

2 They are not directional. They are highly

directional.

3 It is less intense It is highly intense

4 It is not a coherent beam It is a coherent beam and

and is not in phase. is in phase

5 The radiation are The radiations are

polychromatic monochromatic

6 Example: Sun light, He- Ne Laser, Ruby laser

Mercury vapor lamp

4 Principle of Spontaneous and Stimulated emission

We know that, when light is absorbed by the atoms or molecules, then it

goes from the lower energy level (E1) to the higher energy level (E2) and

during the transition from higher energy level (E2) to lower energy level (E1)

the light is emitted from the atoms or molecules.

Let us consider an atom exposed to light photons of energy , three distinct

processes take place. h E E 1 2

a. Absorption

b. Spontaneous emission

c. Stimulated Emission

Absorption:

An atom in the lower energy level or ground state energy level E1 absorbs

the incident photon radiation of energy and goes to the higher energy level or

excited level E2 as shown in figure. h

This process is called absorption

If there are many numbers of atoms in the ground state then each atom

will absorb the energy from the incident photon and goes to the excited state.

then,

This process is called absorption .

Normally, the atoms in the excited state will not stay there for a long
period of time , rather it comes to ground state by emitting a photon of energy

. Such an emission takes place by one of the following two methods. h E

Spontaneous emission:

The atom in the excited state returns to the ground state by emitting a

photon of energy E = (E2 – E1) = h

Spontaneously without any external triggering as shown in the figure.

This process is known as spontaneous emission. Such an emission is

random and is independent of incident radiation.

Stimulated Emission:

The atom in the excited state can also return to the ground state by

external triggering or inducement of photon thereby emitting a photon of

energy equal to the energy of the incident photon, known as stimulated

emission. Thus results in two photons of same energy, phase difference and of

same directionality as shown.

 Generally Spontaneous emission is more predominant in the optical region

(Ordinary light). To increase the number of coherent photons stimulated

emission should dominate over spontaneous emission. To achieve this, an

artificial condition called Population Inversion is necessary.

Differences between Stimulated and spontaneous emission of radiation

S.no Stimulated Emission Spontaneous emission

An atom in the excited state is The atom in the excited

induced to return to the state returns to the ground

ground state , thereby state thereby emitting a

1. resulting in two photons of photon, without any

same frequency and energy is external inducement is

called Stimulated emission called Spontaneous

emission.

The emitted photons move in The emitted photons move

2. the same direction and is in all directions and are

highly directional random

The radiation is highly intense , The radiation is less intense

3.
monochromatic and coherent and is incoherent.
 The photons are in phase, The photons are not in

there is a constant phase phase (i.e.) there is no

4.
difference. phase relationship between

them.

Population Inversion:

Population Inversion creates a situation in which the number of atoms in

higher energy state is more than that in the lower energy state.

Usually at thermal equilibrium, the number of atoms N2 i.e., the

population of atoms at higher energy state is much lesser than the population

of the atoms at lower energy state N1 that is N1 > N2 .

The Phenomenon of making N2 > N1 is known as Population Inversion.

Conditions of Population inversion.

1. There must be at least two energy levels E2 > E1.

2. There must be a source to supply the energy to the medium.

3. The atoms must be continuously raised to the excited state.

Meta stable States

An atom can be excited to a higher level by supplying energy to it.

Normally, excited atoms have short life times and release their energy in a

matter of nano seconds (10-9) through spontaneous emission. It means atoms do

not stay long to be stimulated. As a result, they undergo spontaneous emission

and rapidly return to the ground level; thereby population inversion could not

be established. In order to do so, the excited atoms are required to ‘wait’ at

the upper energy level till a large number of atoms accumulate at that level. In

other words, it is necessary that excited state have a longer lifetime. A Meta

stable state is such a state. Metastable can be readily obtained in a crystal

system containing impurity atoms. These levels lie in the forbidden gap of the

host crystal. There could be no population inversion and hence no laser action,

if metastable states don’t exist.

Principle of Laser action

Principle: Due to stimulated emission the photons multiply in each step-

giving rise to an intense beam of photons that are coherent and moving in the

same direction. Hence the light is amplified by Stimulated Emission of the

Radiation. Termed LASER.

ACTIVE MEDIUM:

A medium in which population inversion can be achieved is known as active

medium.

Active Center: The material in which the atoms are raised to the excited

state to achieve Population Inversion is called Active Center.

PUMPING ACTION:
 The process to achieve the population inversion in the medium is called

Pumping action.

It is essential requirement for producing a laser beam.

Methods of pumping action:

The methods commonly used for pumping action are:

1. Optical pumping (Excitation by Photons)

2. Electrical discharge method(Excitation by electrons)

3. Direct conversion

4. In elastic atom – atom collision between atoms

a. Optical pumping:

When the atoms are exposed to light radiations energy , atoms in the

lower energy state absorb these radiations and they go to the excited state.

This method is called Optical pumping. It is used in solid state lasers like ruby

laser . In ruby laser, xenon flash lamp is used as pumping source.

b. Electrical discharge method (Excitation by electrons)

In this method, the electrons are produced in an electrical discharge

tube. These electrons are accelerated to high velocities by a strong electrical

field. These accelerated electrons collide with the gas atoms.

 By the process, energy from the electrons is transferred to gas atoms.

Some atoms gain energy and they go to the excited state. This results in

population inversion. This method is called Electrical discharge method.

It is represented by the equation

A + e* = A* + e

Where A – gas atom in the ground state

A* = same gas atom in the excited state

e* = Electrons with higher Kinetic energy

e – Same electron with lesser energy.

This method of pumping is used in gas lasers like argon and CO2 Laser. C.

Direct Conversion

In this method, due to electrical energy applied in direct band gap

semiconductor like Ga As, recombination of electrons and holes takes place.

During the recombination process, the electrical energy is directly is

converted into light energy.

Optical resonator

An optical resonator consists of a pair of reflecting surfaces in which

one is fully reflecting (R1) and the other is partially reflecting (R2). The active

material is placed in between these two reflecting surfaces.

 The photons generated due to transitions between the energy states of

active material are bounced back and forth between two reflecting surfaces.

This will induce more and more stimulated transition leading to laser action.
Flow Chart of Laser action

* Types of Laser

Based on the type of active medium, Laser systems are broadly classified
into the following categories.

S.NO TYPE OF LASER EXAMPLES

1. Solid State laser Ruby Laser Nd:YAG laser

2. Gas laser He-Ne Laser, CO2 Laser

3. Liquid Laser Europium Chelate Laser

4. Dye laser Coumarin dye laser

Semiconductor
5. GaAs laser, GaAsP laser
Laser
( Note: Only Ruby & He-Ne LASER are in syllabus)

Solid State lasers.

Ruby Laser

Construction of ruby laser

• A ruby laser is a solid-state laser that uses a synthetic ruby crystal as

its gain medium.

• It was the first type of laser invented, and was first operated by

Theodore H. "Ted" Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories on 1960-

05-16 .

The ruby mineral (corundum) is aluminum oxide with a small amount(about

0.05%) of chromium which gives it its characteristic pink or red color by

absorbing green and blue light. The ruby laser is The ruby laser is used as a

pulsed laser, producing red light at 694.3 nm. After receiving a pumping flash

from the flash tube, the laser light emerges for as long as the excited atoms

persist in the ruby rod, which is typically about a millisecond

Working of ruby laser

 Ruby laser is based on three energy levels. The upper energy level E3 I

short-lived, E1 is ground state, E2 is metastable state with lifetime of

0.003 sec.

 When a flash of light falls on ruby rod, radiations of wavelength 5500

are absorbed by Cr3+ which are pumped to E3

 The ions after giving a part of their energy to crystal lattice decay to E2

state undergoing radiation less transition.

 In metastable state , the concentration of ions increases

 while that of E1 decreases. Hence,population inversion is achieved

 A spontaneous emission photon by Cr3+ ion at E2 level initiates the

stimulated emission by other Cr3+ ions in metastable state

 Working : An intense flash of light is produced by the xenon flash tube.

 0 The chromium atoms in ground state absorb this light in the

“wavelength region of 5500 A° and are raised to a wide band of energy

 levels 35- shown in Fig. 6.7.

 0 The8mean life time of atoms in these states is very small (of the

ordeifli 10" s). i

 i A very intense flash from the xenon tube produces population inversion

in these states where the

 mean life time is a few milliseconds.

 The transition of atoms 5500 A° from E 2 to E 3 and E4 is E1 non-

radiative as this energy is converted into vibrational energy of atoms in

the crystal.

 Some atoms in state E 3 emit photons spontaneously by falling to the

ground state. Some of these photons which travel along the axis of

resonant cavity produce stimulated emission due to which intensity of

light builds up along the axis of the cavity.

 The laser is transmitted through the partially silvered surface.

 Each flash of light from the xenon lamp is used to produce a pulse of

laser. Hence the ruby laser is a pulsed laser.

 The ruby laser is a high power pulsed laser in the visible region but the

efficiency of the laser is very low.

 Application

• Many non-destructive testing labs use ruby lasers to create holograms of

large objects such as aircraft tires to look for weaknesses in the lining.

• Ruby lasers were used extensively in tattoo and hair removal

Helium-neon laser construction

• A helium-neon laser, usually called a He-Ne laser, is a type of small

gas laser. He-Ne lasers have many industrial and scientific uses, and
are often used in laboratory demonstrations of optics.

• He-Ne laser is a four-level laser.

• Its usual operation wavelength is 632.8 nm, in the red portion of the
visible spectrum.

• It operates in Continuous Working (CW) mode.

 • The setup consists of a discharge fused quartz tube of length 10-
100 cm and bore diameter of 2-8mm.
• The tube is filled with a mixture of He and Ne gas. Helium is filled under
the pressure of 1mm of Hg and Neon is filled under the pressure of
0.1mm of Mercury.
• Hence there is majority of He atoms (85%) and minority of Ne atoms
(15%). Actually lasing atoms are the Ne atoms while is used just for
selective pumping of the upper laser level of Ne-atom
• The energy or pump source of the laser is provided by an electrical
discharge of around 1000 volts through an anode and cathode at each
end of the glass tube.

Working of helium-neon laser

• A high voltage is applied across the mixture of the gas produces the
electrical discharge of gas into ions and electrons.

• Separated fast moving electrons collide with He & Ne atoms

• He atoms are readily excitable than Ne atoms because they are lighter.

• The life time of energy level helium atom i.e. He2- He3 is more (10-4 sec
10-6 sec respectively).

• Ne-energy levels i.e. Ne4 and Ne6 are very close to the energy levels of
He2- He3 of He atoms.
• He2- He3 has the same energy as that of Ne4 and Ne6 both these states
are metastable states.

• Helium atoms transfer their energy to Neon atoms by inelastic collision.

• Ne2,Ne4 and Ne6 are the metastable states in Ne atom.

• He-Ne Energy level diagram

• A high voltage is applied across the mixture of the gas produces the
electrical discharge of gas into ions and electrons.

• Separated fast moving electrons collide with He & Ne atoms

• He atoms are readily excitable than Ne atoms because they are lighter.

• The life time of energy level helium atom i.e. He2- He3 is more (10-4 sec
10-6 sec respectively).

• Ne-energy levels i.e. Ne4 and Ne6 are very close to the energy levels of
He2- He3 of He atoms.

• He2- He3 has the same energy as that of Ne4 and Ne6 both these states
are metastable states.

• Helium atoms transfer their energy to Neon atoms by inelastic collision.

• Ne2,Ne4 and Ne6 are the metastable states in Ne atom.

• The transitions from Ne6 to Ne5 and Ne3 give rise to 3391nm and
632.8nm wavelengths respectively.
• Whereas the transition from Ne4 to Ne3 gives radiations of 1152nm
 • The laser can be operated at any of these wavelengths but it is more
operated at 632.8 nm which is visible in range.
• The Neon atoms in Ne2 level can get excited to Ne3 level disturbing the
population inversion between the Ne3 and Ne6 levels. This can be avoided
by decreasing the diameter of quartz tube so that atom can loose energy
in Ne2 levels and come down to Ne1 level

• The output power of He-Ne laser is 1m-10,000 mw.

• The output of He-Ne gas laser is continuous.

Advantages of helium-neon laser

 Helium-neon laser emits laser light in the visible portion of the spectrum.

 High stability

 Low cost

 Operates without damage at higher temperatures

Disadvantages of helium-neon laser

 Low efficiency

 Low gain

 Helium-neon lasers are limited to low power tasks

Applications of helium-neon lasers

 Helium-neon lasers are used in industries.

 Helium-neon lasers are used in scientific instruments.

 Helium-neon lasers are used in the college laboratories.

* Applications of Lasers

Laser is an optical device that generates intense beam of coherent

monochromatic light by stimulated emission of radiation.

Laser light is different from an ordinary light. It has various unique properties
such as coherence, monochromacity, directionality, and high intensity. Because
of these unique properties, lasers are used in various applications.

The most significant applications of lasers include:

 Lasers in medicine

 Lasers in communications

 Lasers in industries

 Lasers in science and technology

 Lasers in military

Lasers in Medicine

1. Lasers are used for bloodless surgery.

2. Lasers are used to destroy kidney stones.

3. Lasers are used in cancer diagnosis and therapy.

4. Lasers are used for eye lens curvature corrections.

5. Lasers are used in fiber-optic endoscope to detect ulcers in the

intestines.

6. The liver and lung diseases could be treated by using lasers.

7. Lasers are used to study the internal structure of microorganisms and

cells.

8. Lasers are used to produce chemical reactions.

9. Lasers are used to create plasma.

10. Lasers are used to remove tumors successfully.

11. Lasers are used to remove the caries or decayed portion of the teeth.

12. Lasers are used in cosmetic treatments such as acne treatment, cellulite
and hair removal.

Lasers in Communications
 1. Laser light is used in optical fiber communications to send information
over large distances with low loss.

2. Laser light is used in underwater communication networks.

3. Lasers are used in space communication, radars and satellites.

Lasers in Industries

1. Lasers are used to cut glass and quartz.

2. Lasers are used in electronic industries for trimming the components of

Integrated Circuits (ICs).

3. Lasers are used for heat treatment in the automotive industry.

4. Laser light is used to collect the information about the prefixed prices
of various products in shops and business establishments from the bar
code printed on the product.

5. Ultraviolet lasers are used in the semiconductor industries for

photolithography. Photolithography is the method used for
manufacturing printed circuit board (PCB) and microprocessor by using
ultraviolet light.

6. Lasers are used to drill aerosol nozzles and control orifices within the
required precision.

Lasers in Science and Technology

1. A laser helps in studying the Brownian motion of particles.

2. With the help of a helium-neon laser, it was proved that the velocity of
light is same in all directions.

3. With the help of a laser, it is possible to count the number of atoms in a

substance.

4. Lasers are used in computers to retrieve stored information from a

Compact Disc (CD).

5. Lasers are used to store large amount of information or data in CD-ROM.

 6. Lasers are used to measure the pollutant gases and other contaminants
of the atmosphere.

7. Lasers helps in determining the rate of rotation of the earth accurately.

8. Lasers are used in computer printers.

9. Lasers are used for producing three-dimensional pictures in space

without the use of lens.

10. Lasers are used for detecting earthquakes and underwater nuclear
blasts.

11. A gallium arsenide diode laser can be used to setup an invisible fence to
protect an area.

Lasers in Military

1. Laser range finders are used to determine the distance to an object.

2. The ring laser gyroscope is used for sensing and measuring very small
angle of rotation of the moving objects.

3. Lasers can be used as a secretive illuminators for reconnaissance during

night with high precision.

4. Lasers are used to dispose the energy of a warhead by damaging the

missile.

5. Laser light is used in LIDAR’s to accurately measure the distance to an

object.