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⦁ The Sun’s energy has travelled across space as electromagnetic

radiation, and that is the form in which it arrives on Earth.

⦁ It is this radiation that determines the effect of the Sun’s energy

on the Earth and its climate. Infrared radiation, radio waves,
visible light, and ultraviolet rays are all forms of electromagnetic
radiation.

⦁ One of the best ways to understand the production of this type of

energy is to consider how it is emitted by atoms, in particular the
hydrogen atom.

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“Huygens principle” that each point on a wavefront may be regarded as
a new source of waves.

Sir Isaac Newton unravelled the puzzle of color and introduced the
concept of light consisting of a number of tiny particles moving through
space and subject to mechanical forces, the “corpuscular theory”.

Albert Einstein invented the concept of the photon to explain the

photoelectric effect and gave birth to the quantum theory of radiation.
Allowed Energies of the Electron
⦁ There are various ways the electrons may be
moved to higher level, one of that is to receive
energy from radiation.
⦁ The lowest energy level in which the electron is
closest to the nucleus is called ground level,
the next excited level is the first level and so
on.
Energy of Electromagnetic Radiation
⦁ In many situations electromagnetic radiation
may be described as having a wave-like nature.
⦁ Three important features of of wave of any sort
are wavelength (the distance between adjacent
crest) , the frequency (how fast the crests move
up and down) and the speed (how fast the crest
move forward).

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⦁ There is a simple relationship between these features:

⦁ When electromagnetic radiation is moving through the the

space or vacuum, regardless of its wavelength or frequency, it
travels at the speed of light ‘c’.
⦁ Because c is constant, the product of λ and f is always the
same, so if one gets larger, the other gets smaller.
⦁ Electromagnetic radiation also, under certain conditions,
exhibits a particle-like nature.
⦁ These particles are called photons or packets of energies,
having a well defined wavelength and frequency.
⦁ Albert Einstein demonstrated that energy of photons ‘E’ is
directly proportional to their frequency, where h is a constant
called Planck’s constant:

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 Absorption and Emission of electromagnetic
radiations
Absorption
⦁ Suppose that electromagnetic radiation of a given frequency
strikes a hydrogen atom and that the frequency is such that
the energy of the radiation equals the difference in the energy
of the ground and first excited levels of the atom.
⦁ Then an electron in the ground level may be raised to the first
excited level. This process is called absorption.
⦁ Because the atom has a unique set of energy levels, each will
absorb radiation over a particular set of wavelengths.
⦁ The pattern of wavelengths absorbed is called absorption
spectrum of atoms.

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Emission

⦁ Emission can be line or continuous emission.

⦁ After absorption, the electron very quickly returns to its lowest
possible energy level (usually with hundred-millionth of a second).
⦁ One way back to ground level is that it must emit/ release energy in
the form of radiation that has the same wavelength as the radiation
which first hit the electron to move it into higher state.
⦁ This kind of radiation emission is called ‘line emission’.

⦁ The continuous emission occurs when the density of atoms in a

given area is sufficiently high, the radiation that ultimately leaves
the area is smeared into a continuous distribution of wavelengths
made up of the many separate wavelengths that the individual
atoms emit.
⦁ This is called continuous emission.

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⦁ The continuous emission “spectrum”
an object radiates is a display of the
amount of energy it emits at all
wavelengths.

⦁ The entire electromagnetic spectrum

covers an enormous range of
wavelengths, divided into regions.

⦁ The vast majority of suns energy is

emitted in the visible, ultraviolet and
infrared region.

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⦁ When electromagnetic radiation strikes a surface, the wave travels as
shown in Figure 2.1.
⦁ Some radiation is reflected, some absorbed and some
transmitted.
⦁ As it passes through the new medium, it will be absorbed
according to some law such as the Beer– Lambert law,

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⦁ The absorption coefficient, β, depends on the medium, the
wavelength of the radiation and the intensity.
⦁ The manner in which this radiation is absorbed, reflected or
transmitted is considered to be as follows:

◦ Electromagnetic radiation can be represented as an electric vector

field and a magnetic vector field as illustrated in Figure 2.2.
◦ When this passes over a small charged particle, the particle will be
set in motion by the electric force from the electric field, E.
◦ Provided that the frequency of the radiation does not correspond to
a natural resonance frequency of the particle, then fluorescence or
absorption will not occur, but a forced vibration would be initiated.
◦ The force induced by the electric field, E, is very small and is
incapable of vibrating an atomic nucleus. therefore this discussion is
for photons interacting with electrons which are either free or bound

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◦ This process of photons being absorbed by electrons is known
as the “inverse bremsstrahlung effect”. (The bremsstrahlung
effect is the emission of photons from excited electrons.)
◦ As the electron vibrates so it will either re-radiate in all directions
(the reflected and transmitted radiation) or be restrained by the
lattice phonons (the bonding energy within a solid or liquid
structure), in which case the energy would be considered
absorbed, since it no longer radiates.
◦ In this latter case the phonons will cause the structure to vibrate
and this vibration will be transmitted through the structure by the
normal diffusion-type processes due to the linking of the molecules
of the structure.

◦ We detect the vibrations in the structure as heat. The flow of heat is

described by Fourier’s laws on heat conduction – a flux equation
(q/A = −kdT/dx)

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◦ If sufficient energy is absorbed, then the vibration becomes so
intense that the molecular bonding is stretched so far that it is no
longer capable of exhibiting mechanical strength and the material is
said to have melted.

◦ On further heating, the bonding is further loosened owing to the strong

molecular vibrations and the material is said to have evaporated.
◦ The vapour is still capable of absorbing the radiation but only slightly
since it will only have bound electrons

◦ with sufficient absorption in the gas phase, the electrons are shaken
free and the gas is then said to be a plasma.
◦ Plasmas can be strongly absorbing if their free-electron density is
high enough

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⦁ This indicates that temperatures of the order of 10,000–
30,000 ○C are required for significant absorption (Figure
2.3).

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⦁ It is interesting to note that the energy absorbed by an
electron may be that of one or more photons

⦁ However, it will only be in extreme cases, such as the Vulcan

laser operating at 1PW or so that a sufficient number of
photons would be simultaneously absorbed to allow the
emission of X-rays during laser processing.

⦁ This is a strategic advantage for the laser over electron beam

processes, which require shielding against this hazard.

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⦁ The value of the absorption coefficient will vary with the same
effects that affect the reflectivity. For opaque materials,
Reflectivity = 1 − absorptivity
⦁ For transparent materials,
Reflectivity = 1 − (transmissivity + absorptivity) .
⦁ In metals the radiation is predominantly absorbed by free
electrons.
⦁ These free electrons are free to oscillate and re-radiate
without disturbing the solid atomic structure.
⦁ Thus, the reflectivity of metals is very high in the waveband
i.e., very long wavelengths; see Figure 2.7

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Effect of Wavelength
⦁ At shorter wavelengths, the more energetic photons can be
absorbed by a greater number of bound electrons and so the
reflectivity falls and the absorptivity of the surface is
increased (Figure 2.7).

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⦁ As a wavefront arrives at a surface, then all the free electrons
in the surface vibrate in-phase, generating an electric field.

⦁ This “electron gas” within the metal structure means that the
radiation is unable to penetrate metals to any significant
depth, only one to two atomic diameters.

⦁ Metals are thus opaque and they appear shiny.

⦁ The reflection coefficient for normal angles of incidence from

a dielectric or metal surface in air (n = 1)may be calculated
from the refractive index, n, and the extinction coefficient, k
(or absorption coefficient as described above), for that
material:

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Monochromaticity
⦁ The frequency emitted by the laser is given by the difference in
energy between the energy levels for which there is radiation
emission.
⦁ It is given by Planck`s relationship:

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⦁ The two energy levels between which is laser radiation
emission occurs are stable, thus a single frequency is emitted
and amplified in the optical cavity.
⦁ This means that laser radiation has a single wavelength.
⦁ Which means that the radiation emitted by the laser is
monochromatic.
⦁ For Example Laser with Nd: YAG emits radiation with
wavelength of 1.06 µm.
Coeherence
⦁ Coeherence of electromagnetic radiation means maintaining
a constant phase difference between two points of wave front
the wave.

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⦁ Coeherence is of two types:
◦ spatial and
◦ temporal.
⦁ Spatial coherence is limited to a given area and the temporal
coherence is limited to a certain time.
⦁ Laser radiation have high spatial and temporal coherence
compared with conventional light sources.
A laser beam with
high spatial
coherence, but poor
temporal coherence.

Electric field distribution

around the focus of a
Gaussian laser beam with
perfect spatial and temporal
coherence
A laser beam with
poor spatial
coherence, but high
temporal coherence.

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Beam Waist and Divergence

⦁ laser cavity is an optical oscillator.

⦁ When laser is oscillating there will be standing electromagnetic waves set up
within the cavity and defined by the cavity geometry.
⦁ It is possible to calculate the wave pattern for such a situation and it is found
that there are a number of longitudinal standing waves at slightly varying angles.
⦁ These standing waves interfere with each other giving a transverse standing
wave which emerges from the cavity as the mode structure of the beam.

Standing
waves

Travelling
waves

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⦁ For a non-amplifying, cylindrical cavity the amplitude of the
transverse standing wave pattern, E(r, φ), is given by a
Laguerre–Gaussian distribution function of the form

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 TEM (Transverse electromagnetic
waves)
Laser mode means the possible
standing waves in laser cavity.
Stimulated lights are transmitted
back and forth between the
mirrors and interfere with each
other, as a result only light
whose round-trip distance is
integer multiples of the
wavelength l can become a
standing wave

Where L is the length of cavity, c is

the light speed in laser cavity, f is
the frequency of standing wave, l is
the wavelength, m is an integer, D f
is the frequency difference between
two consecutive modes

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Polarisation

⦁ The stimulated emission phenomenon not only produces

long trains of waves but these waves will also have their
electric vectors all lined up.
⦁ The beam is thus polarised.
⦁ In many, although not all, cases the output of a laser is
polarized.

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⦁ The focused laser beam is one of the highest power density sources
available to industry today.
⦁ It is similar in power density to an electron beam. Together these
two processes represent part of the new technology of high-energy-
density processing.
⦁ Table 4.1 compares the power density of various welding processes.

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⦁ At these high power densities all materials will evaporate if
the energy can be absorbed.
⦁ Thus, when one welds in this way a hole is usually formed by
evaporation.
⦁ hole” is then traversed through the material, with the molten
walls sealing up behind it. The result iswhat is known as a
“keyhole” weld.
⦁ This is characterised by its parallel sided fusion zone and
narrow width (Figure 4.1).

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