What are Lasers?

What are Lasers?

• Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation
LASER
• Light emitted at very narrow wavelength bands
(monochromatic)
• Light emitted in a directed beam
• Light is coherenent (in phase)
• Light often Polarized
• Diode lasers much smaller but operate on similar principals
 Why Study Lasers: Market & Applications
• Market $6.0 billion (2006) (just lasers)
Major areas:
• Market Divided in laser Diodes (56%) & Non diode lasers (44%)
Traditional Non Diode Laser
• Materials Processing (30%)
• Medicine (8%)
Diode Lasers
• Entertainment/CD/DVD/Printers (~21%)
• Telecommunications (21%)
 Why Study Lasers: Laser Types
Traditional Lasers
• Solid State laser (Infra Red to Visible)
• CO2 Gas laser (Far Infra Red)
• Eximer Lasers (UV light)
• These mostly used in material processing

Diode Lasers
• Near Infra Red diodes dominate
• Mostly used in telecommunications and CD’s
• Visible diode use is increasing
• DVD’s driving this
 History of the Laser
• 1917: Einstein's paper showing "Stimulated Emission"
• 1957: MASER discovered: Townes & Schawlow
• 1960: First laser using Ruby rods: Maiman
first solid state laser
• 1961: gas laser
• 1962: GaAs semiconductor laser
• 1964: CO2 laser
• 1972: Fiber optics really take off
• 1983: Laser CD introduced
• 1997: DVD laser video disks
 World’s First Laser: Ruby Laser

Dr. Maiman: Inventor of the World’s First Laser (on left)

Electromagnetic Spectrum
 Light and Atoms
• Light: created by the transition between quantized energy states
c = νλ
hc
E = hν =
λ
c = speed of light
ν = frequency
hc = 1.24 x 10-6 eV m
• Energy is measured in electron volts
1 eV = 1.602 x 10 -19 J

• Atomic Energy levels have a variety of letter names (complicated)

• Energy levels also in molecules: Bending, stretching, rotation
 Black Body Emitters
• Most normal light emitted by hot "Black bodies"
• Classical radiation follows Plank's Law
2π hc 2 1
E( λ ,T ) = W m3
λ5 ⎡ ⎛ hc ⎞ ⎤
⎢exp⎜⎜ λ KT ⎟⎟ − 1⎥
⎣ ⎝ ⎠ ⎦
h = Plank's constant = 6.63 x 10-34 J s
c = speed of light (m/s)
λ = wavelength (m)
T = Temperature (oK)
K = Boltzman constant 1.38 x 10-23 J/K = 8.62 x 10-5 eV/K
 Black Body Emitters: Peak Emission
• Peak of emission Wien's Law
2897
λ max = μm
T
T = degrees K

• Total Radiation Stefan-Boltzman Law

E( T ) = σ T 4 W m 2
σ = Stefan-Boltzman constant = 5.67 x 10-8 W m-2 K-4
 Example of the Sun
• Sun has a surface temperature of 6100 oK
• What is its peak wavelength?
• How much power is radiated from its surface
2897 2897
λ max = = = 0.475 μ m
T 6100
• or Blue green colour
E (T ) = σ T 4 = 5.67x10 -8 x 6100 4 = 7.85x107 W m 2
• ie 78 MW/m2 from the sun's surface
 Black Body, Gray Body and Emissivity
• Real materials are not perfectly Black – they reflect some light
• Called a Gray body
• Impact of this is to reduce the energy emitted
• Reason is reflection at the surface reduces the energy emitted
• Measure this as the Emissivity ε of a material
ε = fraction energy emitted relative to prefect black body
Ematerial
ε=
Eblack body
• Thus for real materials energy radiated becomes
E (T ) = εσ T 4 W m 2
• Emissivity is highly sensitive to material characteristics & T
• Ideal material has ε = 1 (perfect Black Body)
• Highly reflective materials are very poor emitters
 Electro-Magnetic Nature of Light
• Classic light in vacuum has Electric field and magnetic field at 90o
• Obtained from Maxwell’s Equations
• Electric wave
⎡ ⎛ x ⎞⎤ ⎛ ⎡ 2π ⎤⎞
E y ( x, t ) = E0 cos ⎢ω ⎜ t − ⎟⎥ = E0 exp(i[ω t − kx]) = E0 exp⎜ i ⎢ω t − x⎥ ⎟
⎣ ⎝ c ⎠⎦ ⎝ ⎣ λ ⎦⎠
2π
Where k = Wave vector k =
λ
c = velocity of light
t = time (sec)
λ = wavelength
2π
ω= angular frequency (radians/sec) ω = 2πf =
τ
E0 ⎡ ⎛ x ⎞⎤
• Magnetic wave Bz ( x, t ) = cos ⎢ω ⎜ t − ⎟⎥
c ⎣ ⎝ c ⎠⎦
hc
• Photons are quantized wave packets with energy =
λ
• Coherent light: all the photons have waves aligned
• Photons waves are behaving as sections of the continuous wave
• Phase and E field direction are aligned but are discrete packets
 Irradiance or Light Intensity
• What we see is the time averaged energy S, not E or B field
t +T / 2
S (t ) = ∫ S (t ) dt
t −T / 2

• Where T is the period of the wave

• Called the irradiance I in Watts/unit area/unit time
c
I == ε 0c E 2 = B2
μ0
• For sin waves this results in
cε 0 2
I = S = ε 0c E 2 = E
2
• Not true in absorbing materials because
• E & B have different relationship & phase there
• If just a black body light expands in all directions
• Thus intensity falls with inverse square of distance
• Consider a sphere radius r0 with intensity I0 at surface
• Then at distance r from the center of the sphere get
I
I (r ) = 02
r
• Laser sources, or sources with optics behave differently
 Equilibrium Energy Populations
• Laser are quantum devices
• Assume gas in thermal equilibrium at temperature T
• Some atoms in a Gas are in an excited state
• Quantization means discrete energy levels
• Atoms Ni (atoms/m-3) at a given energy level Ei
• E0 is the ground state (unexcited)
• Fraction at a given energy follows a Boltzmann distribution
Ni ⎛ [E − E0 ] ⎞
= exp⎜ − i ⎟
N0 ⎝ KT ⎠
T = degrees K
K = Boltzman constant 1.38 x 10-23 J/K = 8.62 x 10-5 eV/K
 Spontaneous and Stimulated Emission
• Consider 2 energy levels E0 (ground state) and E1 (excited state)
• Photon can cause Stimulated Absorption E0 to E1
• Excited state has some finite lifetime, τ10
 (average time to change from state 1 to state 0)
• Spontaneous Emission of photon when transition occurs
• Randomly emitted photons when change back to level 0
• Passing photon of same λ can cause "Stimulated Emission"
• Stimulated photon is emitted in phase with causal photon
• Stimulated emission the foundation of laser operation
 Einstein's Rate Equations
• Between energy levels 2 and 1 the rate of change from 2 to 1 is
dN 21
= − A21 N 2
dt
• where A21 is the Einstein Coefficient (s-1)
• After long time energy follows a Boltzmann distribution
N2 ⎛ [E − E1 ] ⎞
= exp⎜ − 2 ⎟
N1 ⎝ KT ⎠
• If (E2 - E1) >> KT then over a long time
N 2 ( t ) = N 2 ( 0 ) exp( A21t )
• Thus in terms of the lifetime of the level τ21 sec,
1
A21 =
τ 21
• illuminated by light of energy density ρ = nhν (J/m3)
(n= number of photons/m3) of frequency ν12 the absorption is
• At frequency ν12 the absorption is
dN 1
= N 1 B12 ρ (ν 12 ) emissions 3
dt m s
• B12 is the Einstein absorption coefficient (from 1 to 2)
• Similarly stimulated emission rate (with B21=B12) is
dN 2
= N 2 B21 ρ (ν 21 ) emissions 3
dt ms
 Two level system: Population Inversion
• In thermal equilibrium lower level always greater population
• N1 >> N2
• Can suddenly inject energy into system - pumping
• Now not a equilibrium condition
• If pumped hard enough get "Population Inversion"
• Upper level greater than lower level: N2 >> N1
• Population Inversion is the foundation of laser operation
Creates the condition for high stimulated emission
• In practice difficult to get 2 level population inversion
• Best pumping with light gives is equal levels
• Reason is Einstein’s rate equations
dN 2 dN 1
= N 2 B21 ρ (ν 21 ) = N 1 B12 ρ (ν 21 ) = emissions
dt dt m3 s
• Since B21=B12 then N1=N2 with light pumping
• Need more levels to get population inversion
 Three level systems
• Pump to E0 level E2, but require E2 to have short lifetime
• Rapid decay to E1
• E1 must have very long lifetime: called Metastable
• Now population inversion readily obtained with enough pumping
• Always small amount of spontaneous emission (E1 to E0)
• Spontaneous create additional stimulated emission to E0
• If population inversion: stimulated emission dominates: Lasing
• Common example Nd:Yag laser
• Problem: E0 often very full
 Four Level Systems
• Pump to level E3, but require E3 to have short lifetime
• Rapid decay to E2
• E2 must have very long lifetime: metastable
• Also require E1 short lifetime for decay to E0
• Now always have E1 empty relative to E2
• Always small amount of spontaneous emission (E2 to E1)
• Spontaneous photons create additional stimulated emission to E1
• If population inversion: stimulated emission dominates: Lasing
• In principal easier to get population inversion
• Problem: energy losses at E3 to E2 and E1 to E0
 Absorption in Homogeneous Mediums
• Monochromatic beam passing through absorbing medium
homogeneous medium
• Change in light intensity I is
ΔI = I ( x + Δx ) − I (x)
ΔI = −αΔxI (x)
where α = the absorption coefficient (cm-1)
• In differential form
dI ( x)
= −αI ( x)
dx
• This differential equation solves as
I ( x) = I 0 exp(−αx)
 Gain in Homogeneous Mediums
• If we have a population inversion increase I
• Stimulated emission adds to light: gain
I ( x) = I 0 exp( gx)
g = small signal gain coefficient (cm-1)
• In practice get both absorption and gain
I ( x) = I 0 exp([g − a ]x)
• Gain is related directly to the population inversion
g = g 0 ( N1 − N 0 )
g0 = a constant for a given system
• This seen in the Einstein B Coefficients
• Thus laser needs gain medium to amplify signal