MEDICAL LASER APPLICATIONS

FACULTY OF ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING

TEL511-Quantum Electronics and Laser Theory
Assoc. Prof. Mesut KARTAL
TERM PROJECT
Uğur Berkay Çalışkan 040200784
 INTRODUCTION

• Laser medicine consists in the use of lasers in medical diagnosis, treatments, or therapies, such

as laser photodynamic therapy and laser surgery.
Lasers used in medicine include in principle any type of laser, but especially:

-Diode Lasers
-Raman Lasers
-Dye Lasers
-Excimer Lasers
 DIODE LASER

Medical diode lasers can be used for coagulating blood vessels ,cutting tissue (frenectomy) or removing the
tissue. Michalik et al. [1] (2021) claims that, diode lasers are are still the most energy efficient and cost
effective lasers.
A laser diode is a semiconductor device similar to a light-emitting-diode in which a diode pumped directly
with electrical current can create lasing conditions at the diode’s junction.
The choice of the semiconductor material determines the wavelength of the emitted beam, which in today's laser
diode’s wavelengths range from 1mm to 400nm.
Diode lasers deliver 4 to 150 W output power with linewidth and wavelength tuning options. 
Polarization options are random, linear and circular.

Diode lasers allow up to 3inch beam diameter.

Diagram of a simple laser
diode
A simple and low-power laser diode

A laser diode is electrically a PIN diode. The active region of the laser diode is in the intrinsic region, and
the carriers (electrons and holes) are pumped into that region from the N and P regions respectively.
• Active laser medium (lasing medium) is the source of the optical gain within a
laser. The gain results from the stimulated emissions of photons through
moleculer transitions to a lower energy state from a higher energy state which
is simulated by a pump source.
The gain medium can be characterized with effective cross-sections of absorption
and emission.
•
• where values are effective cross-sections of absorption and emission at the
frequency of the signal.
• +=
• : concentration of active centers in the ground state.
• : concentration of excited centers Simplified scheme of levels in a
gain medium
• : concentration of active centers in the solid-state lasers.

• Efficiency in gain medium can be expressed as :

• and are the intensities of the pump and the signal.
 [1]

Most of the diode laser are used in cw(continous wave) and pulsed mode. A laser is called continuous-
wave if its output is nominally constant over an interval of seconds or longer.  Pulsed lasers concentrate
their output energy into brief high-power bursts.

Diode lasers are becoming increasingly popular in medical applications due to their small size, robustness
and compactness, cost-effectiveness, and ease of operation as well as high efficiency (reaching up to
70%).
 Littrow configuration
Littman-Metcalf configuration
The diode is coupled to an external cavity that incorporates
Here in Litmann-Metcalf configuration, The first order
a diffraction grating as a wavelength-selective element,
diffraction beam goes to an additional mirror, which
which then provides frequency-selective optical feedback
then reflects the beam back to the grating and into the
to the diode laser via its antireflection-coated output facet.
diode laser as optical feedback. Tuning is achieved by
This concept of frequency selective feedback allows the
varying the mirror angle instead of the grating angle,
laser to achieve narrow linewidth and remarkable
thus the zeroth-order output beam, to remain fixed as
tunability. The grating is aligned such that the first order
wavelength is changed. Relative to the Littrow design,
diffraction from the grating is coupled directly back into
the Littman-Metcalf configuration overcomes the
the laser while the zeroth-order diffraction is reflected as
problems of mode-hopping and beam angular
the output beam. The lasing wavelength is dependent on
displacement but does not share as high an output
the angle of the incident laser beam with respect to the
efficiency.
grating, otherwise known as the Littrow angle θ.
 (a) the basic double heterostructure diode; (b) gain-guided, striped
geometry diode;(c) index-guided, striped geometry diode
A double heterostructure junction consists of a very thin p-type layer (approximately 0.2 mu-m) of a direct-band-gap material having a
smaller band-gain than the thicker p-type and n-type layers above and below it. When a forward-biased voltage is applied to this p-p-n
junction, holes and electrons are injected from the outer regions into a central active layer, where they become trapped in the potential
well created by the wider-band-gain materials.

Carrier confinement means a higher efficiency, lower threshold current, less heat, and more light. This effect can be enhanced by adding
"current confinement" to the double heterostructure. Confining the current into a small region perpendicular to the plane of a junction
leads to a higher current density, higher concentration of charge carriers inside a diode, higher gain, and less heat. Thin ribbon of
positively charged metal is put between two insulator layers such as silicon dioxide (SiO2) and covers the p-p-n junction.

The effects of "carriers confinement" and "current confinement" can be enhanced further by introducing "photons confinement". he
index-guided technique is commonly applied to trap photons inside the optical cavity, and to increase the density of the cavity optical
power.
• PCSEL is practically an edge-emitting laser diode, where additional
angled facets are added to deflect the light vertically from the
surface. VCSELs, in contrast to the edge-emitting diode lasers, have
the resonator cavity in the plane perpendicular to the junction, with
mirrors built of thin-film HR (high-reflector) stacks, above and below
the junction layer.

Semiconductor materials used in laser diodes

 RAMAN LASER

• Raman lasers are used for Raman spectroscopy.  Raman spectroscopy is a

powerful analytical technique that can measure the chemical composition of
complex biological samples, such as biofluids, cells and tissues for medical
diagnostics.
• A Raman laser is a specific type of laser in which the fundamental light-
amplification mechanism is stimulated Raman scattering.
• Raman scattering is the inelastic scattering of photons by matter, meaning that Feynman diagram of scattering between two
electrons by emission of a virtual photon
there is a both an exchange of energy and a change in the light’s direction.

Inelastic scattering is a fundamental scattering process in which the kinetic energy of

an incident particle is not conserved (incontrast to elastic scattering).

The most commonly used wavelength in Raman spectroscopy is 785nm. It offers the
best balance between scattering efficiency and high-quality lasers.
• The 785, 830 and 1064 nm Raman lasers are narrow bandwidth (±0.5nm) for
precision in the Raman Spectroscopy process. Output power is generally
600mW.   i) Raman crystal is placed inside a cavity,
resonating the Stokes beam.

ii) Where both a Raman medium and the laser

medium are combined inside a single cavity, so the
fundamental and Stokes fields are both resonating
inside the cavity.

iii) Optical fiber used as the Raman gain medium,

both pump and Stokes beams are launched into it.
However this configuration is limited due their
narrow bandwidth. (approx. 5TH)

Stokes lines, radiation of particular wavelengths

present in the line spectra associated with
the Raman effect. When the molecule emits a
photon but not one with enough energy to take the
molecule back down to the ground state, Stokes
lines are formed of longer wavelength than that of
the exciting radiation responsible for the Raman
effect.
 All laser gain bulk materials have a tradeoff
between gain and bandwidth. Silicon and
silica are the leading lasses and silicon,
which have been two leading materiall in
photonic application. Silicon has a high
Raman gain and small bandwidth, whereas
silica has a large bandwidth, but a small
Raman gain.

Raman fiber lasers was the first continuous wave Raman lasers using an optical fiber as the gain medium.

Silicon Raman lasers has been demonstrated in silicon-based integrated-optical waveguides.

• Raman gain is optical gain arising from stimulated Raman scattering.

 Initially, the molecule lies in the ground

state, that is, its lowest electronic energy
level. Then, it simultaneously absorbs both
pump and Stokes photons, which causes a
vibrational (or rotational) transition with
some probability.

The intensity changes in pump and Stokes beams is approximated by

Ip and Is are the optical intensities (with

units of W/m2), νp and νs the optical
frequencies. gr is the Raman gain coefficient Rayleigh length
Where n and are the averaged refractive index and and beam waist.
 DYE LASER

• Dye lasers are used in a plethora of medical procedures and applications. Some of these medical applications include
dermatology, cosmetic, cardiology, laser treatment of vascular lesions, laser angioplasty, lithotripsy, thermolysis,
urology, laser cancer phototherapy and diagnostics.
• A dye laser is a laser that uses an organic dye as the lasing medium, usually as a liquid solution. Compared
to gases and most solid state lasing media, a dye can usually be used for a much wider range of wavelengths, often
spanning 50 to 100 nanometers or more. The wide bandwidth makes them particularly suitable for tunable lasers and
pulsed lasers. 

A cuvette used in a dye laser. A thin

sheet of liquid is passed between the
windows at high speeds. The windows
are set at Brewster’s angle(air-to-glass
interface) for the pump laser, and at
Brewster's angle (liquid-to-glass
interface) for the emitted beam.
 Brewster's angle (also known as the polarization angle) is an angle on incidence at which light
with a particular polarization is perfectly transmitted through a transparent dielectric surface,
with no reflection.

where   is the angle of reflection (or

incidence) and   is the angle of refraction.

• The dyes used in these lasers contain rather large organic molecules which fluoresce. Most dyes have
a very short time between the absorption and emission of light, referred to as the fluorescence
lifetime, which is often on the order of a few nanoseconds.
• Fluorescence is the emission of light by a substance that has absorbed light or
other electromagnetic radiation.
 The dye laser is a four-level laser and the transitions occur
between the electronic levels which are modified strongly by
molecular vibration.

Energy levels of dye lasers

The pumping light (1) transfers the dye from the

ground-vibrational level (S0) of the lower electronic
state S0, to the excited vibrational level of the upper
electronic state S1. The excited system relaxes quickly in
a radiationless way (2) to the ground vibrational state.
In the third step, the emission (laser action) (3) occurs
between the upper electronic state (S1) and the lower
Spectral ranges that can be tuned for different classes of
electronic state(S0). The lower state (S0) is quickly
dye molecules.
depopulated by radiationless relaxation to the ground
vibrational level of the lower electronic
state (S0) ,(4).
 Different geometries of pumping
in dye lasers.
- Transverse pump
Longitudinal pump

Dyes require high pump powers. The dye molecules are optically pumped by flash lamps, arc lamps, or pulsed
and continuous lasers such as the neodymium.

A serious drawback of the resonators employed in dye lasers is

the special phenomenon of "holes burning". This effect makes
it difficult to obtain a single-mode operation, and destroys
mechanisms based on homogeneous band broadening. To avoid
these undesirable effects the ring resonator geometry is applied,
in which a traveling wave instead of the standing wave is
generated.

The ring geometry is achieved by internal reflections in the

Abbe prisms. The laser beam arrives at, and leaves the prisms
at the Brewster angle. The output beam is led out either by a
Ring laser, IF-P1 and IF-P2- beam splitter M, or by total internal reflection.
Fabry-Perot interferometers
 EXCIMER LASERS

• They have very efficient access to ultraviolet spectral region with high energies and high peak and average powers in
pulsed operations. However, they have some drawbacks, such as poor beam quality, their size, operating costs, and
maintenance requirements.
• The gas mixture in a typical excimer laser consists of 2-9% of a noble gas, 0.2% of a halogen gas, and 90-98%of a buffer
gas which serves as a medium to transport energy.

The laser transitions occurring between the excited state, E l, of the

excimer and the ground state, E0. The excimer medium has a very high
gain, and an output coupler reflectivity of10-30% is sufficient to achieve
an adequate output.

Energy scheme of the ground and the excited

electronic states in an excimer laser
 Typical excimer-laser gases
Typical excimer laser output parameters
Laser action in an excimer molecule occurs because it has a bound
(associative) excited state, but a repulsive (dissociative) ground
state. Noble gases such as xenon and krypton are highly inert and
do not usually form chemical compounds. However, when in an
excited state (induced by electrical discharge or high-energy
electron beams), they can form temporarily bound molecules with
themselves (excimer) or with halogens (exciplex) such
as fluorine and chlorine.
 REFERENCES

• 1) Michalik, M.; Szymańczyk, J.; Stajnke, M.; Ochrymiuk, T.; Cenian, A. Medical Applications of Diode Lasers: Pulsed
versus Continuous Wave (cw) Regime. Micromachines 2021, 12, 710. https://doi.org/10.3390/mi12060710
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Technology Partner for Optics, Photonics and Optoelectronics | Jenoptik.
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