He-Ne Laser

Dr. Joshva Raj G

Lovely Professional University

1. He-Ne laser is a gaseous state and four level laser system

2. The active medium of a He-Ne laser system is a mixture of He and Ne
gases in the ratio of 10:1.

3. Only Ne atoms give laser transitions in the He-Ne laser system, while He
atoms supply excitation for Ne atoms.
4. Because it is difficult to excite the Ne atoms using optical energy, the
He-Ne laser uses an electrical discharge mechanism.
5. Because Ne atoms are stimulated using an electrical discharge process,
all of the excited levels will be occupied, making population inversion
impossible.
6. This is why He atoms are used along with Ne atoms rather than just Ne
atoms.

7. Because their proportions are higher, He atoms have a higher chance of

becoming excited than Ne atoms.
8. When excited He atoms collide with ground state Ne atoms, energy is
transferred from He atoms to Ne atoms.
9. He and Ne atoms have nearly comparable excited states in terms of energy.
He atoms have excited states of 19.81 eV and 24.6 eV, while Ne atoms
have excited states of 19.77 eV and 21.44 eV (Ref figure).

10. Energy will only be transferred from E3 (He) and E5 (He) to E5 (Ne) and
E3 (Ne), respectively, because the energy transfer is resonant.

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11. Because of the energy transfer, Ne atoms are now excited, resulting in
population inversion between E5 and E4, E5 and E2, and E3 and E2.
12. Due to stimulated emission, the laser action will occur after population
inversion is attained.

13. In the He-Ne system, the output laser light will have wavelengths of 3.391
µm, 632.8 nm, and 1.152 µm.
14. The dominant wavelength among all of these is 632.8 and this is the stan-
dard wavelength of He-Ne laser system.