Lasers

Engineering Physics
 Syllabus

• LASER-Absorption, spontaneous emission,

requirement for lasing action -stimulated emission,
population inversion metastable state, active
medium, resonant cavity, pumping) characteristics of
laser :-monochromaticity, coherence, directionality,
brightness
 LASER

Laser stands for

Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of

Radiation.
 LIGHT: What Is It?
• Light Energy

• As atoms absorb energy, electrons jump out to a higher

energy level.
• Electrons release light when falling down to the lower
energy level.
– Photons - bundles/packets of energy released when
the electrons fall.

• Light: Stream of Photons

© 2000 Microsoft Clip Gallery

 General Properties of Light

•Wave properties: wavelength,

frequency, period, speed, amplitude,
intensity
• Electromagnetic wave
 Special Properties of Laser Light

• Monochromatic
• Intense
• Directionality
• Coherent
 Coherent and Monochromatic light waves

Incoherent and non monochromatic light waves

Characteristics or Properties of laser:

1. Coherent beam of light.
2. Monochromatic beam of light.
3. Intense beam of light.
4. Unidirectional beam of light.
 Components of laser
Three main components of a laser system
• Pumping source
• Active medium
• Optical resonator (optical cavity)
Therefore, 3 processes of light emission:

1. Absorption
2. Spontaneous Emission
3. Stimulated Emission
Laser action:

Stimulated Absorption
Radiation

leads to three distinct

Spontaneous Emission
processes.

Material Stimulated Emission

 Stimulated Absorption:

Excited state
Incident Photon

h  E 2  E1

Energy Ground state

This transition is known as stimulated absorption.

The number of absorption transitions depends on,

1. The number of atoms in the ground state E1.
2. The density of photon in the incident beam.
Stimulated Absorption

E1

E2
 Spontaneous Emission:
E2

Emitted Photon
h  E 2  E1
Energy E1
Before After

The emission of photons when the atom make transition

from excited state to ground state on its own accord is
called as ‘spontaneous emission’ .
This emission is,
1. Independent of outside circumstances.
2. It is random in character because photons emitted in this
process moves in different directions and they are
incoherent.
Spontaneous Emission
 Stimulated Emission:
Incident Photon
Coherent
h  E 2  E1 Unidirectional
E2

Emitted Photons
h  E 2  E1
Energy E1
Before After

This phenomenon of forced emission of photons is called

as ‘stimulated emission’.
This process depends on the number of atoms in the
excited state and photons incident on them.
Stimulated Emission
 This process of stimulated emission
gives very interesting results,

1. The emitted photon is identical to the incident photon in

all respects. It has same frequency, same phase, and
same state of polarization as incident photon. Both
photons travel in the same direction.

2. This process can be controlled from outside.

3. The most important thing that happens is multiplication

of photons.

4. In all we get monochromatic, coherent, unidirectional

and amplified beam of light called as LASER.
 Three Mechanisms of Light Emission

For atomic systems in thermal equilibrium with their

surrounding, the emission of light is the result of:
Absorption
and subsequently, spontaneous emission of energy

There is another process whereby the atom in an upper

energy level can be triggered or stimulated in phase with
the an incoming photon. This process is:
Stimulated emission
It is an important process for laser action
 • In a system, all three mechanisms occur.
• However, the stimulated emission is very slow
compared to the spontaneous emission
• We need to have a much stimulated emission as
possible for lasing action
E2 E2 E2
h h
h h  In
Out
h

E1 E1 E1

(a) Absorption (b) Spontaneous emission (c) Stimulated emission

Absorption, spontaneous (random photon) emission and stimulated

emission.
© 1999 S.O. Kasap, Optoelectronics (Prentice Hall)
 Stimulated Emission

• It is pointed out by Einstein that:

Atoms in an excited state can be stimulated to jump to
a lower energy level when they are struck by a photon
of incident light whose energy is the same as the
energy-level difference involved in the jump. The
electron thus emits a photon of the same wavelength as
the incident photon. The incident and emitted photons
travel away from the atom in phase.
• This process is called Stimulated Emission.
 Stimulated Emission

Emitted
photon

Incident
photon Excited Incident
electron photon

Unexcited
electron

Before emission After emission

Light can be amplified by the process of
Stimulated
Condition for stumulated emission is Population
Inversion
 Meta-stable States:

The excited state is unstable.

The atoms stay in the excited state for a very short time
known as a ‘life time’ of that state.
The life time of the excited H2 atom is of the order of 10-8
sec.
Some of the excited states have longer life time of the
order of 10-3 seconds.
The state having longer life time are called as ‘Meta-stable
States’.
Meta-stable States plays very important role in laser action.
 Population Inversion
In order to obtain the coherent light from stimulated
emission, two conditions must be satisfied:
1. The atoms must be excited to the higher state. That
is, an inverted population is needed, one in which
more atoms are in the upper state than in the lower
one, so that emission of photons will dominate over
absorption.

Unexcited system Excited system

E3 E3
E2 E2

E1 E1
 Meta-stable State

2. The higher state must be a meta-stable state – a state

in which the electrons remain longer than usual so
that the transition to the lower state occurs by
stimulated emission rather than spontaneously.

E3 E3
Metastable state
E2 E2
Incident photon
Photon of energy E 2  E1

E1 E1 Emitted photon
Metastable system Stimulated emission
Light Amplification
Laser Action
The build-up of a Laser

1) Pumping
(excitation of atoms)

2) Stimulated emission
of atoms

3) The lasing process

is enriched by multiple
reflections between mirrors

4) A laser beam exits.

 LASER OUTPUT
• Lasers can be produced in two modes
1. Continuous Wave (cw) mode
2. Pulsed mode
 Population inversion:

Spontaneous Number of atoms

Depend upon
Emission in Excited state

While

Number of atoms
Stimulated in Excited state as
Depend upon
Emission well as number of
incident photons
It
means

If large number of atoms can be excited to upper energy levels then the
probability of stimulated emission i.e. light amplification increases.

The process of getting large number of atoms in excited state than lower
level is called as ‘population inversion’.
 The system in which population of
higher energy state is more than
population of lower energy state is
called as ‘Negative Temperature State’.

If, N1 = Number of atoms in lower E2 N2

Higher or excited
energy state E1. state
E1 N1
N2 = Number of atoms in excited Lower or ground state
energy state E2.
Normally , N1  N 2
 Depopulates
Process 1: Stimulated Absorption Ground state

The rate at which process occurs is expressed R 12  Pa . N1    (1)

as,

Stimulated Emission Depopulates

Process 2:
Excited state

The rate at which process occurs is expressed R 21  Pe . N 2    (2)

as,
 At Pa  Pe
equilibrium,
Absorption >
 N1  N 2  R12  R21
Emission

For LASER Emission > Absorption

To produce more emission it is essential to have N2 > N1.

This is called as ‘Population Inversion’.

The system in which population inversion is achieved is called as

‘active system’.

‘Population Inversion’ is achieved by a process called as ‘Pumping’.

 Pumping:

The method of rising atoms from lower energy level to

higher energy level and to achieve population inversion is
called as ‘Pumping’.

OR

The process of supplying energy to the medium with

which the system is converted into the state of
population inversion is called as ‘pumping’.
Most commonly used methods for pumping are,

1. Optical pumping.
2. Electric discharge and
3. Direct conversion etc.

Three important pumping schemes are widely used.

They are known as,

1. Two level pumping scheme.

2. Three-level pumping scheme.
3. Four-level pumping scheme.
 Two-level Pumping Scheme:

E2
Photon Photons
Photon
h  E2  E1

E1
pumping Lasing action

This type of pumping scheme is used in semiconductor

lasers, in which electrical energy is directly converted
into light energy.

There is no any role of meta-stable state in this type of

pumping. Population inversion is achieved by different
way.
 Three-level Pumping Scheme:
E3
Non-radiative transistion

E2
hPhoton
 E3  E1 Meta-stable state
Photons
Photon
h  E2  E1

E1
pumping Lasing action

Population inversion can be achieved with the help of

meta-stable state.
 Four-level Pumping Scheme:
E4
Non-radiative transition

E3
hPhoton
 E3  E1 Meta-stable state
Photon Photons
h  E2  E1

E2

E1
pumping
Lasing action

In this scheme also the population inversion can be

achieved with the help of meta-stable state but more
effectively and faster than three-level pumping scheme.
 Optical Resonator or Resonant Cavity:
Ground state atom
Stimulated to ground state Excited state atom
Photon

Fully Partially
Reflecting Reflecting
Active Medium
Surface Surface
E2

Emitted Photon
h  E 2  E1
Energy E1
Before After
 Optical Resonator or Resonant Cavity:
Ground state atom
Stimulated to ground state Excited state atom
Photon

Fully Partially
Reflecting Reflecting
Active Medium
Surface Surface

Optical resonator is most important and essential arrangement

in every LASER system. Because of this arrangement the atoms
bounce back and forth between two surfaces and cause further
stimulated emission so that the number of photons get
multiplied rapidly.
Types of Lasers

Engineering Physics
 Gas Laser: He-Ne Laser: Construction:

Fully reflecting surface Partially reflecting surface

Quartz tube containing He & Ne

LASER

Anode Cathode

Length of quartz tube ≈ 50 cm & Diameter of quartz tube ≈ 1 cm.

Ratio of He-Ne in the quartz tube is 10:1.
Pumping is done by electric discharge.
 Energy Level Diagram:

Energy transfer through atomic collision

Helium Neon
20.66 eV 20.66 eV N6
H3
33900 A0
N5
H2 20.61 eV 20.61 eV N4 Photons
6328 A0
11500 A0 N3
Spontaneous
emission
Excitation N2
by collision De-excitation
with electrons by collision
H1 N1

He-Ne Laser is a Continuous

laser.
 Semiconductor Laser:

Semiconductor laser differs from the solid state and

gas lasers in many aspects.

It has,
1. Remarkably small size.
2. Having high efficiency.
3. Can be operated at low temperature.
4. Simple in operation.
5. It is a P-N junction. By controlling doping level,
laser of any wavelength and power can be
generated.
 Semiconductor Laser:

Diode of P N Energy generated

Si & Ge in the form of
heat

Diode of Energy generated

GaAs in the form of
Light
 Construction:

+ Electrode
Partially reflecting
Fully reflecting surface
surface

Depletion
P
Region
N

_ Electrode
 Both P and N regions are heavily doped as
compared to LED.

The length of the junction must be precisely related to

the wavelength of light to be emitted.
The forward bias plays the role of pumping.
The population inversion (i.e. large number of electrons
and holes are injected into the depletion region) is
achieved by increasing the forward current beyond a
certain threshold..
 Energy Level Diagram:
Ec
EV
EF
EF
Ec

Ev

N-type Junction P-type

Active region
EF Electrons
Ec
Ec

EV
EV Holes
EF
Applications of Lasers

Engineering Physics
 Syllabus

• Applications in Industry (drilling, welding,

micromachining etc), Medicine (as a surgical tool),
Communication (Principle and advantages only),
Information Technology (Holography- Recording and
reconstruction).
 Applications of Laser:
1. In Information Technology:
Holography: Holography is three-dimensional (3D) laser photography.

Holography not only records the amplitude but also the phase of the light
wave with the help of interferometric techniques.
The technique of holography was invented by Gabor in 1947.

Hologram Recording:
Beam Splitter
Object
LASER Beam

Photographic Plate
 Hologram Reconstruction:

Virtual Real
Image Image

Hologram
Eyes

Reflector Laser
Beam
 Applications of Holography:

1. Used in three dimensional display of an object.

2. Used to store large amount of data. Holographic
storage mainly used in ROM devices.
3. Study of air pollution, measurement of size, density
distribution, and velocity of particle can be possible
with holography.
4. Used to determine Young’s modulus of metallic rods.
Laser Printer:
Paper Exit
Photo-recepter
Drum Assembly

Corona
Wire
Laser Source
Discharge
Lamp
Toner Hopper

Developer Roller

Fuser

Paper Tray
 2. In Communication:

Fiber Optic Communication:

Because of capability for higher modulation frequency,

lasers were identified as an important means of carrying
information.

Laser beams of high frequency are used as a carrier

waves on which more message can be imposed by
modulation.
 Fiber Optic Communication:

Carrier Laser Core Refractive index =

Acceptance Cone
µ
Cladding
1 Refractive index = µ2
Cladding Core
µ 1 > µ2
θi
Laser beam is
transmitted from the
cable based on the
θ0 principle of total
internal reflection.
 0  accep tan ce cone  sin 1  12   2 2 
 
Advantages of communication through fiber optic:
1.Due to large bandwidth it can transmit large number of
channels at a time.
2.Material used is dielectric in nature hence it does not
generate or receive any electromagnetic or R.F.
interference. Therefore crosstalk between the adjacent
signals is avoided.
3.As glass fibers or plastic fibers are cheap, has low cost.
4.Low signal loss. Loss of signal communicated through
optic fiber is 3 dB/km only.
5. Being an insulator it can provide a good isolation
between the input and output ports.
6. Not affected by moisture and corrosion.
7. No permanent damage takes place due to nuclear
radiation.
8. Does not pickup any conducted noise.
9. Can be operated over high temperature range.
10. Fibers are light and occupy very less space.
3. Industrial and Engineering Applications
of Laser:
i. Welding.
ii. Cutting.
iii. Drilling.
iv. Micromachining.

4. Medical Applications:
I. Bloodless surgeries.
II.Ophthalmology.
III.
Study of genetics.
IV.Laser microprobes can be used as dental drills
giving advantage of no heating, no anesthetic
and no pain to the patient.
V. Used for localized treatments of skin growth.
5. Scientific Applications:

I. Tracking the satellite.

II. Guiding a missile or bullet.