Unit IV- PH152

LASER AND FIBER OPTICS

Dr.Amrtha Bhide
Assistant professor-Physics
NIT-PUDUCHERRY
 LASER
Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation

The first laser was built in 1960 by Theodore H.

Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories, based on
theoretical work by Charles Hard Townes and Arthur
Leonard Schawlow ( BELL LABS)

Originally called MASER (m = “microwave”)

 Characteristics of Normal Light and Laser Light
LASER LIGHT NORMAL LIGHT
Monochromatic Non monochromatic
Coherent Non coherent

Collimated Non Collimated

Power Density = 8 X 109 W/m2 Power Density = 8 W/m2

Interaction of Radiation with Atoms: Atomic transition
Stimulated Absorption
 Interaction of Radiation with Atoms: Atomic transition
Spontaneous emission
Energy of the
emitted photon

Almost all electronic transitions that occur in atoms that involve photons fall
into one of three categories:
Interaction of Radiation with Atoms : Atomic transition
Stimulated emission
Difference between Spontaneous and Stimulated Emission
Einstein's coefficients for laser action and inter-relation
In thermal equilibrium at temperature T, with radiation
frequency n and energy density u(v).
Let N1 and N2 be the number of atoms in energy states
1and 2 respectively at any instant.

Upward transition

Stimulated absorption rate depends upon the number

of atoms available in the lowest energy state as well
as the energy density photons. Stimulated absorption
rate P12  N1  u   P12 = B12 N1 u  
Einstein's coefficients for laser action and inter-relation….

Downward transition ( Spontaneous Emission)

The spontaneous emission rate depends up on the
number of atoms present in the excited state.
Spontaneous emission rate P21  N2 P21 = A21N2

Downward transition ( Stimulated Emission)

Stimulated emission rate depends upon the number of
atoms available in the excited state as well as the energy
density of photons.
Stimulated emission rate, P21  N2  u  
P21= B21 N2u  
At Equilibrium, P12 = P21
N1 B12 u(v) = N2 [A21 + B21 u(v)]
N2 A21
u(v)=
N1 B12 N2B21
N2B21
A21
u(v)= N BB21 (1)
1 12 1
N2B21

According to Boltzmann distribution law number of

atoms N1 and N2 in energy states E1 and E2 in thermal
equilibrium at temperature T are given by
𝑬𝟏 𝑬𝟐
𝑲𝑻 and 𝑲𝑻
Therefore, ---------------------------(2)

u(v)=
1

The probability of spontaneous emission is same as that of

induced absorption. This means that if these two processes will
occur at equal rates, so that no population inversion can be
attained in a two-level system. i.e
This implies that the probability of spontaneous emission
dominates over induced emission more and more as the
energy difference between the two states increases.
Therefore, Equation number (3)
u(v)= R= ( 1)
1 u(v
‘R’ is the ratio Spontaneous emission to Stimulated emission.
Thus stimulated emission can be achieved by
• Utilizing a source of photon with high energy density, i.e.
suitable excitation mechanism ( pumping source).
• With << 1, i.e., Stimulated emission is predominant when
Or . ν << .
• At ordinary conditions N1 > N2, i.e., the population in the
ground or lower state is always greater than the population in
the excited or higher states. Therefore In the above equation,
At most N1 = N2 through E1 = E2 or ,
which is trivial and impossible process. To be achieved is
N2 > N1 for stimulated emission to be dominant.
Population inversion: The process of making, population of
higher energy level is greater than the population of lower energy
level is called population inversion i.e., 2 1.
i.e. The number of atoms present in the excited (or higher) state is
greater than the number of atoms present in the ground state (or
lower) state is called population inversion.

Population inversion is achieved by choosing

1. A Suitable material called Active material, which supports
stimulated emission, called Active Medium
2. A technique for exciting the atoms from ground state to higher
energy state, called pumping action.
Pumping mechanisms of population inversion
A system in which population inversion is achieved is called as an
active system. The method of raising the particles from lower energy
state to higher energy state is called pumping. (Or the process of
achieving of population inversion is called pumping). This can be done
by number of ways. The most commonly used pumping methods are
21 12

• Optical pumping
• Electrical discharge pumping
• Chemical pumping
• Injection current pumping

• Optical pumping
Optical pumping is used in solid laser. Xenon flash tubes, Arc Lamps
3 5 12

or External LASER light are used for optical pumping. Since these
materials have very broad band absorption, sufficient amount of
energy is absorbed from the emission band of flash lamp and
population inversion is created.

Ex: Ruby( Al2O3: Cr2O3), Dye LASER

Nd: YAG Laser (Neodymium: Yttrium Aluminum Garnet)
• Electrical discharge pumping
Electrical discharge pumping is used in gas lasers. Since gas
lasers have very narrow absorption band, pumping them by any
flash lamp is not possible.
Ex: He-Ne laser, CO2 laser, Argon-ion laser, etc

• Chemical pumping
Chemical reaction may also result in excitation and hence creation of
population inversion in few systems.
Ex: HF, Excimer LASER

• Injection current pumping

In semiconductors, injection of current through the junction results
in creates of population inversion among the minority charge
carriers.
Ex: InP and GaAs.
Parts of a LASER

The cavity is of course a Fabry-Perot

etalon.
Active Medium :It is the material in which the laser action takes place. Name of the
LASER is named after active medium used in it.
i..e Ruby LASER, Nd:YAG, laser, DYE laser, CO2 Laser, or Helium –Neon Laser, or GaAs
Laser uses same materials as Active medium. This medium decides the wavelength of
laser radiation. Active mediums contain atoms which can produce more stimulated
emission than spontaneous emission and cause amplification they are called “Active
Centers”. Name of the LASER is named after active medium used in it.

Energy Source (Excitation Mechanism): Energy Source (Excitation mechanisms)

pumps the active centers from ground state to excited state to achieve population
inversion. The pumping by energy source can be optical, electrical or chemical
depending on the active medium.

Resonance Cavity: Resonance cavity consists of active medium enclosed between two
mirrors one is highly reflective mirror (100% reflective) and the other is partially
transmissive mirror (99% reflective).
 Mechanism involved in LASER ACTION
 Energy is applied to active medium raising active centers to excited energy
level.
 These atoms spontaneously decay to a relatively long-lived, lower energy,
metastable state.
 A population inversion is achieved when the majority of atoms have
reached this metastable state ( some times as intermediate energy level)
 Lasing action occurs when an electron spontaneously returns to its ground
state and produces a photon.
 If the energy from this photon is of the precise wavelength, it will stimulate
the production of another photon of the same wavelength and resulting in
a cascading effect.
 The highly reflective mirror and partially reflective mirror continue the
reaction by directing photons back through the medium along the long axis
of the laser.
 The partially reflective mirror allows the transmission of a small amount of
coherent radiation that we observe as the “beam”.
 Laser radiation will continue as long as energy is applied to the lasing
medium.
Energy band diagram involved in Laser action
LASER ACTION
TYPES OF LASER: With reference to the Active Medium
• Solid lasers : Ruby laser, Nd;YAG laser (Dielectric solids)

• Gas lasers: He-Ne ( Atomic), CO2 and XeF ( molecular)

• Liquid or Dye lasers: Rhodamine 6G.

(Also called Tunable LASER)

• Semiconductor lasers: InP, GaAs

• EXCIMER LASER:
Powered by a chemical reaction involving an excimer, (a short-3 5 12

lived dimeric or heterodimeric molecule formed from two

species (atoms)) typically produce ultraviolet light
Commonly used Excimer noble gas compounds: ArF , XeF
Properties of laser
High Intensity

In laser, the light spreads in small region of space and in a small wavelength
range. Hence, laser light has greater intensity when compared to the ordinary
light.
Therefore, even a 1 Watt laser would appear many thousand times more intense
than 100 Watt ordinary lamp.
Thus, this property of laser beam enable us to cut a huge block of steel by
melting.
Highly monochromatic:
The laser light is more monochromatic than that of a convectional light
source.
The band width of convectional monochromatic light source is 1000A0. But
the band width of ordinary light source is 10 A0. For high sensitive laser
source is 10–8 A0 .
Properties of laser
High Directionality
LASER light travels in single direction, unlike the light ray coming
ordinary light source travels in all directions.
For instance, the light emitted from torch light spreads 1m distance if it
travels 1 m distance. But the laser light spreads a few millimetre
distance even it travels several thousand kilometer distance.

The directionality of laser beam is expressed in terms of divergence.

If the beam diameter d1 and d2 at two separate

distances are known. Let z1and z2 are the distances
along the laser axis, from the end of the laser to
points “1” and “2”, then divergence of the beam is
calculated as,

Expressed in mrad.
Highly coherent light
is a measure of the correlation between the phases measured at different
(temporal and spatial) points on a wave.
There are two types of coherence
(i) Temporal coherence and (ii) Spatial coherence.
Temporal coherence It is a measure of the correlation of light wave’s
phase at different points along the direction of propagation – it tells us
how monochromatic a source is !. In other words the degree of random
fluctuations in the spacing of the wave front.

Spatial coherence it is a measure of the correlation of a light wave’s

phase at different points transverse ( perpendicular) to the direction of
propagation - it tells us how directional the wave front ( beam is). In
other words the degree of random fluctuations in the shape of the wave
front.
 Coherence length
Assume a source emits waves with wavelength λ ± Δλ. Waves with wavelength
λ and λ + Δλ, which at some point in space constructively interfere, will no
longer constructively interfere after some optical path length lc. If ‘c ’ , is the
velocity of light, ‘ τc ’ is termed as coherence time.
Given by the equation . Or
dω
In vacuum , and therefore

𝟐
Thus

Here λ is considered as average wavelength of the light and as

spectral spreading of the light/ Line width.

Quality factor of the light equation

 Laser safety

Ppotentially dangerous
Class I/1 is inherently safe, light is contained in an enclosure, for example in CD
players.

Class II/2 is safe during normal use; Usually up to 1 mW power (laser pointers).

Class III/3 lasers are usually up to 5 mW-500 mW and involve a immediate eye damage.
Staring into such a beam for several seconds is likely to cause (minor) eye damage.

Class IV/4 lasers can burn skin, and in some cases, even scattered light can cause eye
and/or skin damage. Many industrial and scientific lasers are in this class.
APPLICATION OF LASER
• Optical Communication
 Signal cannot be tapped
 As the band width is large more data can be sent.
 As LASER is highly directional and less divergence , hence it is
widely used in LASER guided space carft and missiles
Semiconductor LASER is widely used for this purpose.
• Computer Network and application:
 Lasers are used in CD-ROMS during recording and reading
the data.
 Bar-Code scanners. He-Ne laser is widely used for this purpose
 In LAN (local area network), data can be transferred from
memory storage of one computer to other computer using
laser for short time.
Semiconductor LASER is widely used.

• In chemistry:
 Dye LASERS are widely used to understand the chemical
reactions, chemical structure etc.
APPLICATION OF LASER

• Holography
 Used in manufacturing Holograms, i.e. in Holography
( recording both Intensity and phase of an object)
• Industrial Applications :
 Blast holes in diamonds.
 Cutting and drilling in metals and non-metals.
 Laser Welding.
 In metallurgy and materials science in synthesis of materials.
 3D printing and quality control systems.
Carbon Dioxide laser is widely used for the above purpose.
• In Medicine :
 In Eye surgery, treatment of Glaucoma
 In Oncology for destroying the Cancer tumours, Kidney stones
 Removal of hair
• In Scientific Research :
 In creating Plasma.
 In Spectroscopy like IR and Raman Spectroscopy
 Surveying and Ranging
 Developing techniques like Laser cooling towards achieving
very low temperatures.

Name of the LASER Specific Application

Nd-YAG laser In Oncology, (cancer treatment)
Dermatology
CO2 Laser Industrial applications such as cutting , welding
Ruby Laser Holography,
Semiconductor Laser In Communication devices , Cd/DVD writer and
readers
He-Ne Laser Bar code reader, Holography
Excimer laser Eye Surgery, Micromachining etc.
Dye laser In Chemistry to understand the structure of the
compounds and study reactions
Fiber Optics
What is optical Fiber ?
Optical Fiber are long, thin strands of very pure glass,
with the diameter of about a human hair.
They are arranged in bundles called optical cables and
used to transmit light signals over long distances.

Optical fibers are dielectric waveguides operating

in the optical wavelengths.
Parts of a optical fiber
Core - Thin glass center of the fiber where the light travels.
Cladding - Outer optical material surrounding the core that
reflects the light back into the core.
Buffer coating - Plastic coating that protects the fiber from
damage and moisture
The refractive index of the cladding is less than that of the
core, causing light entering in to the core will emerge out
of the core itself ( as shown below)

Materials used for Optical Fiber

Polymer Optical
Glass Optical Fiber Polymer Clad Fiber
Fiber
(GOF) (PCF)
(POF)
Core Silica Silica Polymer

Cladding Silica Polymer Polymer

Where the same material (silica, polymer) is used for core and cladding , either
core or cladding has to be doped during production process to change its
refractive index. 33
 Concept of Tottal internal reflection
Refraction & Total Internal Reflection explained using Snell’s law

n1 (RI of core) > n2(RI of core)

n2 Glass material
with slightly
θ2 90 lower density
Plane of Interface

θ1 θ1= θc θin θout Glass material

n1 with slightly
higher density

Refraction Total refraction

For θ1> θc
n1 sin 1 =n 2 sin  2 n1 sin  c =n 2 sin 90 0
Total internal reflection

34
 Numerical Aperture (NA)

n0 sin  a = n1 sin  (1)

n1 sin  c = n2 sin 900 n1 sin(90   ) = n2
n2
cos  = (2)
n1
2 2
n n  n2
(1) n0 sin  a = n1 1  cos 
2 n0 sin  a = 1 1
n1
n0 sin  a = n1  n2
2 2
(3)

 ‘ n0’ is the refractive index outside the cable, say air, then n0=1.
 Angle of incidence w . r. t axis of cable is 0 ≤ θa<θmax
Features of an OFC :
Acceptance angle and Numerical aperture
 It is the maximum angle of incident on the fiber axis at which the
light undergoes total internal reflection. θa= θmax is called acceptance
angle.
 Sine of the acceptance angle is called Numerical Aperture (NA) of a
fiber. It indicates light gathering power/ light carrying capacity.

NA = n0 sin  a = n1  n2
2 2

The cone of the light formed

by the rays within the critical
angle and acceptance angle
is called acceptance cone.

Light rays outside acceptance angle leak out of core.

 Light rays within this angle are only guided in core.
 NA indicates light carrying / gathering capacity
We have numerical aperture NA = n0 sin  a = n1  n2
2 2

Fibre manufacturer design a fibre with a parameter called Relative

Refractive ( fractional refractive index, given by the term,
n1  n2 n
R=
n1
= n1 (1  2 ) = 
n1 , Considering n1n2=n,
NA = (n1  n2 )(n1  n2 ) NA = 2n..n) = n 2 )

While solving problems ‘n’ can be taken as ‘n1’ unless it is mentioned.

Solve the problems:
1. A optical fiber has refractive index of core and cladding as 1.490 and 1.488 respectively.
Determine NA and angle of acceptance.
2. An optical fiber cable has angle acceptance as 16 0. If the refractive index of
caldding is 1.530, determine, Numerical aperture and refractive index of
core, hence relative refractive index of the fiber.
3. Given relative refractive index and refractive index of core of a fiber as 0.002 and
1.500 respectively. Determine numerical aperture, acceptance angle and refractive
index of the cladding.
Band width
The time interval taken by the rays emerging out of the fiber,
entering at different angle
L  n1 
i.e.  = t max  t min  = n1   1 
c  n2 
Where L is the distance, c is the velocity of light, n1 and n2 are the
RI of core and clad respectively.
 Classification based on Refractive index profiles
GOF & POF POF GOF & POF

Step Index (SI) Multistep Index Graded index (GI)

core = Constant (MSI) Parabolic index
refractive index Core = several layer of Core = parabolic index
material with different
refractive indexes
Step-index fibers are those in which index of refraction changes radially
between the core and the cladding.
Graded-index fiber are those in which the index of refraction gradually
decreases away from the center of the core towards cladding.
GOF : Glass optical fiber, & POF: Polymer optical fiber 40
Classification based on propagation of light in the fiber
Single-mode fibers have small cores 9 microns in diameter) and
transmit infrared laser light (wavelength = 1,300 to 1,550 nanometers).
Single-mode fiber has much less dispersion but is more expensive to
produce.

Multi-mode fibers have larger cores 62.5 microns in diameter) and

transmit infrared light (wavelength = 850 to 1,300 nm) from light-
emitting diodes

Multi- Single-Mode
Mode If a fiber is of large diameter,
Modes of light Many One light entering at different
angles will excite different
Distance Short Long
modes while narrow fiber
Bandwidth High Higher than Multimode, may only excite one mode.
Low losses
 Modes of propagation
• At any instant , large number of rays might be
propagating through a fiber, satisfying total
internal reflection. The path of particular ray is
constitutes a mode.
• The possible total number of modes is termed
as waveguide parameter (V) / dimensionless
normalized frequency. V = n  a n  n 
2
1
2
1
2
2

Where, a is the radius of the fiber.

2
4V
• Total number of modes for step index =  2
2
V
• For graded index 4
• A basic fiber optic communications system consists of three
basic elements:
– Fiber media
– Light sources
– Light detector
 Losses in Optical fiber
• Material absorption
• Material Scattering
• Waveguide scattering
• Fiber bending and Fiber coupling loss.
• Dispersion

Advantages of Fiber Optics

• Less expensive.
• Thinner
• Higher carrying capacity
• Less signal degradation Light signals Low power Digital signals
Non-flammable
• Lightweight
• Flexibility
• Large band width
Applications of Fiber Optics
• Medicinal diagnosis ( endoscopy)
• Long distance optical communication
• Short distance/ LAN/ cable TV.
• In Airplanes and ships for communication
• In defense for coded communication
• Sensors and actuators.

END OF UNIT- IV