Lasers

 Introduction
 Laser Characteristics
 Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission
of Radiation

 A device produces a coherent beam of optical

radiation by stimulating electronic, ionic, or
molecular transitions to higher energy levels
 When they return to lower energy levels by
stimulated emission, they emit energy.
1. Many wavelengths 1. Monochromatic
2. Multidirectional 2. Directional
3. Incoherent 3. Coherent

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 Monochromatic
Concentrate in a narrow range of wavelengths (one
specific colour). The light emitted from a laser is
monochromatic, that is, it is of one color/wavelength.
In contrast, ordinary white light is a combination of
many colors (or wavelengths) of light.

 Coherent
All the emitted photons bear a constant phase
relationship with each other in both time and
phase.The light from a laser is said to be coherent, which
means that the wavelengths of the laser light are in phase in
space and time. Ordinary light can be a mixture of many
wavelengths.
 Directional
A very tight beam which is very strong and
concentrated. Lasers emit light that is highly
directional, that is, laser light is emitted as a
relatively narrow beam in a specific direction.
Ordinary light, such as from a light bulb, is emitted
in many directions away from the source.
High Intensity. It has been that a 1-mW He-Ne laser
is hundreds of times “brighter” than the sun. As
difficult as this may be to imagine, calculations for
luminance or visual brightness of a typical laser,
compared to the sun, substantiate these claims.
1. Active Medium
The active medium may be solid crystals such as ruby or Nd:YAG, liquid
dyes, gases like CO2 or Helium/Neon, or semiconductors such as GaAs.
Active mediums contain atoms whose electrons may be excited to a
metastable energy level by an energy source.
2. Excitation Mechanism
Excitation mechanisms pump energy into the active medium by one or
more of three basic methods; optical, electrical or chemical.
3. High Reflectance Mirror
A mirror which reflects essentially 100% of the laser light.
4. Partially Transmissive Mirror
A mirror which reflects less than 100% of the laser light and transmits
the remainder.

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 Provides energy to the laser system
 Pumps can be optical, electrical, chemical or thermal
in nature. Examples: electrical discharges, flashlamps,
arc lamps and chemical reactions.
 The type of pump source used depends on the gain
medium. The important parameters governing this
type of pumping are the electron excitation cross-
sections and the lifetimes of the energy levels.
 →A helium-neon (HeNe) laser uses an electrical
discharge in the helium-neon gas mixture.
→Excimer lasers use a chemical reaction.
 Major determining factor of the wavelength of
operation of the laser.
 Excited by the pump source to produce a
population inversion.
 Where spontaneous and stimulated emission of
photons takes place.
The most important requirement of the amplifying
medium is its ability to support a population inversion
between two energy levels of the laser atoms.
 Example:
solid, liquid, gas and semiconductor.
 Two parallel mirrors placed around the active medium.
 Light is reflected by the mirrors back into the medium
and is amplified .
 The design and alignment of the mirrors with respect
to the medium is crucial.
 Spinning mirrors, modulators, filters and absorbers
may be added to produce a variety of effects on the
laser output.
 Absorption

 Spontaneous Emission

 Stimulated Emission

 Population inversion
 Energy is absorbed by an atom, the electrons are
excited into vacant energy shells.
 The atom decays from level 2 to level 1 through
the emission of a photon with the energy hv. It is a
completely random process.
atoms in an upper energy level can be triggered or
stimulated in phase by an incoming photon of a
specific energy.
The stimulated photons have unique properties:

 In phase with the incident photon

 Same wavelength as the incident photon

 Travel in same direction as incident photon

 Einstein in 1917 first introduced the concept of stimulated or induced
emission of radiation by atomic systems. He showed that in order to
describe completely the interaction of matter and radiative, it is necessary
to include that process in which an excited atom may be induced by the
presence of radiation emit a photon and decay to lower energy state.
An atom in level E2 can decay to level E1 by emission of photon. Let us
call A21 the transition probability per unit time for spontaneous emission
from level E2 to level E1. Then the number of spontaneous decays per
second is N2A21, i.e. the number of spontaneous decays per second=N2A21.

In addition to these spontaneous transitions, there will induced or

stimulated transitions. The total rate to these induced transitions
between level 2 and level 1 is proportional to the density (U) of radiation
of frequency , where  = ( E2-E1 )/h , h Planck's const.
 Let B21 and B12 denote the proportionality constants
for stimulated emission and absorption. Then number
of stimulated downward transition in stimulated
emission per second = N2 B21 U

similarly , the number of stimulated upward

transitions per second = N1 B12 U

The proportionality constants A and B are known as

the Einstein A and B coefficients. Under equilibrium
conditions we have
 SP ST

N2 A21 + N2 B21 U =N1 B12 U

Ab

by solving for U (density of the radiation) we obtain

U [N1 B12- N2 B21 ] = A21 N2

N 2 A 21
 U(  ) 
N 1 B 12  N 2 B 21
 A21
 U ( ) 
 B12 N 1 
B21   1
 B21 N 2 

N2
  e  ( E 2  E1 ) / KT  e  h / KT
N1

A 21
 U(  ) 
B  )1)
B 21  12 e h / KT  1
 B 21 

According to Planck’s formula of radiation

8 h  3 1
U(  ) 
 
)2)
c3 e h / KT  1
from equations 1 and 2 we have
B12=B21 (3)

8 h  3 )4 (
A 21  3
B 21
c
equation 3 and 4 are Einstein’s relations. Thus for atoms in equilibrium
with thermal radiation.

stimulate emission N 2 B 21 U(  ) B 21 U(  )
 
spon tan eous emission N 2 A 21 A 21

from equation 2 and 4

 stim . emission c3
 U(  )
spon . emission 8 h  3

c3 8 h  3 1

8 h  3 c3 
e h / KT  1 

stim . emission 1
 h / KT
spon . emission e 
1  (5)

Accordingly, the rate of induced emission is extremely small in the visible

region of the spectrum with ordinary optical sources ( T10 3 K (.
 Hence in such sources, most of the radiation is
emitted through spontaneous transitions. Since these
transitions occur in a random manner, ordinary sources
of visible radiation are incoherent.

On the other hand, in a laser the induced transitions

become completely dominant. One result is that the
emitted radiation is highly coherent. Another is that
the spectral intensity at the operating frequency of the
laser is much greater than the spectral intensities of
ordinary light sources .
 A state in which a substance has been energized,
or excited to specific energy levels.
 More atoms or molecules are in a higher excited
state.
 The process of producing a population inversion is
called pumping.
 Examples:
→by lamps of appropriate intensity
→by electrical discharge
 In order to invert population of atomic levels the atoms must be excited by
depositing energy in the medium using such method as to decrease the number
of atoms at the lower level NL and to increase the number of atoms at the upper
level Nu . This process is called pumping since the atoms are redistributed as if
pumped from the lower level to the upper level.

The methods of pumping are

i) optical pumping, where the atoms are excited by illumination of light

ii) excitation by electric discharge in the case of gases

iii) Injection of carriers by a forward current through a p-n junction in the case of
semi-conductors

iv) excitation by irradiation with electron beams

v) excitation by chemical reaction.

Historically, in 1954, Townes succeeded in realizing population inversion with a

molecular beam of ammonia to make a maser at 1.25 cm wavelength.
1. Energy is applied to a medium raising electrons to an unstable
energy level.
2. These atoms spontaneously decay to a relatively long-lived, lower
energy, metastable state.
3. A population inversion is achieved when the majority of atoms
have reached this metastable state.
4. Lasing action occurs when an electron spontaneously returns to
its ground state and produces a photon.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. The partially reflective mirror allows the transmission of a small
amount of coherent radiation that we observe as the “beam”.
8. Laser radiation will continue as long as energy is applied to the
lasing medium.
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28
 Unimaginable
as absorption and stimulated processes neutralize one
another.

 The material becomes transparent.

 Initially excited to a
short-lived high-energy
state .
 Then quickly decay to
the intermediate
metastable level.
 Population inversion is
created between lower
ground state and a
higher-energy
metastable state.
Three-level Laser System

 3   2

Ruby laser

1  0.6943m
τ  10 s τ  3  10 s
3
7

2
3
 Laser transition takes
place between the
third and second
excited states.

 Rapid depopulation of
the lower laser level.
Four-level Laser System
 3   2 1   2

He-Ne laser
1  3.39  m 2  0.6328  m
3  1.15  m
τ  100ns τ1  10ns
2
 Continuous Output (CW) Pulsed Output (P)

Energy (Joules)
Energy (Watts)

Time Time

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 According to the active material:
solid-state, liquid, gas, semiconductor lasers.

 According to the wavelength:

infra-red, visible, ultra-violet (UV) or x-ray lasers.
 According to the active material:
solid-state, liquid, gas, semiconductor lasers.
Gas: HeNe laser, CO2 lasers
Liquid: dye lasers
Solid: Nd:YAG laser, Ti:sapphire laser
Diode (semiconductor) lasers
. According to the wavelength:
infra-red, visible, ultra-violet (UV) or x-ray lasers.
Types of Laser
Based on the mode of operation
(i) Pulsed Laser systems
(ii) Continuous wave Laser systems

Based on the mechanism in which Population Inversion is achieved

(i) Three level lasers

(ii) Four level lasers

Based on state of active medium used

(i) Gas Laser

(ii) Solid state Laser
(iii) Semiconductor Laser
(iv) Tunable dye Laser
 Gas Laser: He-Ne, Argon ion and CO2

 Solid state Laser : Ruby, Nd:YAG, Nd:glass

 Semiconductor Laser

 Tunable dye Laser

 Ruby laser
• discovered in 60-ies of the XX century.
• ruby (Al2O3) monocrystal, Cr doped.
 Ruby laser

• Lasing from the Cr3+.

• three level laser

Al2O3 • optical pumping: 510-600nm and 360-

Cr+ 450nm.
E3’ • fast transition on E2.
rapid decay • lasing transition E2 w.r.t E1
Non radiative
blue
Energy

E3 •694.3nm
E2
green
LASING
E1
pumping
First laser: Ted Maiman
Hughes Research Labs
1960
It was invented by Javan et. al. in 1961 and his
coworkers at Bell Telephone Laboratories
 A helium-neon laser (He-Ne laser) is a type of small gas
laser. HeNe 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 6328Å in the red portion
of the visible spectrum.
 This was the first gas laser to be operated successfully.
• This consists of a mixture of helium and neon gases in a ratio of
about 10:1
• The setup consists of a discharge tube of length 80 cm and bore
diameter of 1.5cm.
• The pressure inside the tube is about 1 mm of Hg.
• 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. A current of 5 to 100 mA
is typical for CW operation.
• The optical cavity of the laser typically consists of a plane,
high-reflecting mirror at one end of the laser tube, and a
partially transparent mirror of approximately 1% transmission
at the other end.
Schematic of a Helium-Neon Laser
• Electric discharge is passed through the gas. As electrons have a
smaller mass than ions, they acquire a higher velocity.
• The He atoms are more readily excitable than Neon as they are
lighter.
• Electrons collides with the He atoms, excite them to the metastable
states F2 (19.81eV ) and F3 (20.61eV ) and stay for a sufficiently long time.
• The excited He atoms loses energy through collisions with unexcited
Ne atoms,which are excited to the metastable states E4 (18.7eV )and E6 (20.66eV )
which have nearly the same energy as the levels of F2 and F3 of He.
• The probability of energy transfer from He atoms to Neon atoms is
more as there are 10 He atoms to 1Neon atoms in the medium
• Population inversion is achieved between E6 and E5 , E6 and E3 , E4 and E3
• E6  E3transition generates a laser beam of red colour of
wavelength 6328Å
• E4  E3 transition produces laser beam of wavelength 1.15µm (not in
visible region)
• E6  E5 transition results in a laser beam of 3.39µm (not in visible
region)
• E  E transition generates incoherent light due to
3 2

spontaneous emission (~6000Å)

•From the level E2 , the Ne atoms are brought back to the

ground state through collisions with the walls .

• Also since E2 level is a metastable state , can decrease the

population inversion by exciting atoms from E2 to E3 . Hence the
tube is made narrow so that Ne atoms in level de-excite by
collision with the walls of the tube.

•By a proper design of resonator , laser action in Ne is obtained

in the visible region (6328Å)
• The Narrow red beam of He-Ne laser is used in
supermarkets to read bar codes.
• The He- Ne Laser is used in Holography in producing the
3D images of objects.
• He-Ne lasers have many industrial and scientific uses, and
are often used in laboratory demonstrations of optics.