Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation

1. Highly monochromatic
Narrow bandwidth
Single wavelength
Single color
2. Highly coherent
Constant phase difference
Spectral purity
3. Highly directional
Less divergent
Highly collimated
4. Highly intense
Population in atomic system

Normal population state

1. No external radiation
2. No of atoms in the ground state is more than excited state
(Not the only condition)
Population inversion
1. Atomic system under the influence of external radiation
2. No of atoms in the excited state is more than ground state
3. Key requirement for lasing action
Saturation level
1. No of atoms remain equal in ground state and excited state
2. The rate of upward and downward transitions are equal.
Pumping: The activity of supplying external energy in order to
excite electrons from ground level to excited levels.
Light-matter interaction
Absorption
1. External energy is required
2. Electrons absorbs energy and jump to higher energy levels.
Spontaneous emission
1. Excited electrons de excite to ground state automatically after
some time
2. External energy is not required
3. Energy is emitted in the form of photons
4. incoherent radiation
Stimulated emission
1. An external photon interacts with an excited electron
2. Excited electrons de excited by the influence of photon
3. Energy is emitted in the form of photons
4. coherent radiation
Laser levels

Two level system

1. Ground state and one excited state
2. Population inversion can not be achieved
3. Saturation level can be achieved
Three level system
1. Ground state, excited state, meta stable state
2. the life time of meta stable state is more than excited state.
3. Atoms spent more time in metastable state than excited state.
4. Population inversion is achieved between metastale state and
ground state.
Life time The time duration for which an electron stay in a given
level.
Laser levels

Four level system

1. Ground state, excited state, two metastable state
2. The life time of second metastable state is very less.
3. Population inversion is achieved between both of the
metastable states and ground state.
Basic components of Laser system

1. Active medium
Medium which provides suitable energy levels for lasing action
2. Pumping source
External energy source which is used to excite atoms
▶ Electrical pumping
▶ Optical pumping
▶ Chemical pumping
3. Resonant cavity
To build up the intensity of Laser light
He-Ne Laser

▶ Gaseous type and four level laser system

▶ Active medium: He and Ne in the ratio of 10:1
▶ Pumping mechanism: Electrical discharge-Application of high
voltage across the gas medium.
Nd-YAG Laser

▶ Solid state and Four level laser system

▶ Active medium:
Host: Yttrium Aluminum Garnet (YAG)
▶ stable
▶ hard
▶ optically isotropic
▶ accept trivalent ions from rare earth and iron groups
Dopant: Neodymium (Nd)-Laser transitions
▶ Pumping mechanism: Optical
▶ Tungsten lamp, Hg lamp (Continuous output)
▶ Xenon lamp (Pulsed output)
▶ Laser output at 1064 nm (infrared spectral region)
Semiconductor Laser

▶ Active medium (gain medium): any direct bandgap

semiconductor
Ex: GaAs, GaAsP
▶ Active medium: Depletion region of P-N junction
▶ Pumping: forward bias
▶ Emission of light due to electron-hole recombination
Advantages of semiconductor laser

▶ Small and compact

▶ Highly efficient
▶ Low cost
▶ Easily integrable with opto-electronic devices
Recap

The active center in Nd-YAG laser is

1. Neodymium
2. Nd-YAG
3. Yttrium Aluminimum Garnet
4. Nd3+ ions
Cavity

▶ Two parallel mirrors

▶ M1-100% reflectivity, M2-Partially reflective
▶ To build up the intensity
Cavity
Holography

▶ Production of 3-D images

▶ Photography-records intensity
▶ Holography-records intensity and phase
▶ Photography-one to one recording
▶ Holography-interference pattern is recorded at all points.
▶ Encoding-interference
▶ Decoding-interference
Holography