3.1. Laser basics --The material is taken from BJ, Chap.

15

Preliminary: Einstein A and B coefficients

Consider a two –level system in a radiation field

medium _______________ |2>

_______________ |1>   E 2  E1

The number of transitions per unit time from |2> to |1> and from |1> to |2> are given by

Where W is the transition rate, A is the spontaneous emission rate, and the B terms give the
absorption or stimulated emission. At thermal equilibrium the two equations above are equal, while
is given by the Planck distribution law. Since , we have . Recall that the
absorption cross section σ is defined by

i.e., the ratio of energy absorbed per atom per unit intensity. Einstein has shown that and
that A is related to B, see BJ, Eq. (4.108b).

1. Masers and Lasers

Consider an EM wave of intensity I, frequency  , passing thru a medium, let

d a : change of average energy density due to absorption

dt
d s : change of average energy density due to stimulated emission
dt

da
  N1  W21
dt
d s
 N 2  W12 W12  W21
dt

(N is large so spontaneous emission is neglected.) The rate of change of total photon energy in the
medium is

d
= (N2-N1) W12    I (N2-N1)
dt
If the beam has cross section A along the z-axis, then this equation becomes
 dI
  I ( N 2  N1 ) the lasing condition
dz

This shows that will intensity will grow exponentially with z when population inversion is
achieved— such a medium is called an active medium.

Maser (1954): Townes et al.

Lasers (1958): Schawlow and Townes
Amplifiers used: (maser) → use resonant cavity
laser → active materials between two mirrors

Laser properties:
monochromatic
directional
bright
spatial coherence → between two points P1 and P2 → coherent length  coherent area
temporal coherence → between  at point P → coherence time

2. Methods of Achieving Population Inversion

(a) Amonia maser  select quantum states by inhomogenous electric field (Townes)
(b) Hydrogen maser  by magnetic field using inhomogeneous magnetic field (Ramsey)

3. Lasers—of different kinds (mostly 3-level or 4-level systems)

(a) The ruby laser (A 3-level system) Red~ 6943oA

1960 Maiman Al2O3 Al3+ ions replaced by Cr3+
(b) YAG lasers (4-level system) Yb 3 replaced by Nd3+ YbAl5O12 ← host
Nd:YAG pump 730 nm and 800nm
 transition   1064nm
(c) Nd:glass
Replace Yb by phosophate or silicate glasses

 ~ 1054nm (NOVA)
(d) Ti:sapphine (doping Ti2O3 into Al2O3)

(e) Dye lasers

→ gives tunable sources of laser radiation

(f) Semiconductor lasers

Normally use hole-electron recombination II-IV or III-V materials normally weaker power.

(g) Gas lasers (discharge to pump)

Ne-laser
5S → 3p (red, 6330oA) – scanning, low power
4S → 3P
5S → 4p
Ar laser (Ar+ is the medium) visible region
Kr e- + Ar → Ar+
e- + Ar+(3p-1) → Ar+ (3p44s) – short 4p → 4s transition
4p – long lifetime
He* + Ne → He+Ne*

used as a pump for solid state lasers

 (h) CO2 lasers
-- transitions involving vibrational levels of CO2
*
pumped e-+N2 → N 2 + e- N *2 +CO → CO*
  10.6m
very powerful, reaches 100kW

(i) excimer lasers ( UV regime)

KrF at 249 nm
XeCl
ArF
308nm
193nm
} very powerful, not narrow

(j) Free-electron lasers - to reach intense short-wavelength light sources

Relativistic e- beam in undulators emitted light

scattering by e- beam : ranges from infrared to new push toward x-rays

Flash (since 2005) : wavelength : from 44 nm to 4.1 nm

Single pulse energy: 10-100 µJ
Pulse duration : 10-70 fs

LCLS(since 2010) : photon energy: 0.5 to 10 keV

Pulse energy: 3 mJ at 8.3 keV and 0.83 keV (1012 photons/pulse)
Pulse duration: tens of fs, but hard to know, chaotic

Water window: Between 2.3nm and 4.4 nm. Water is transparent in this region.
Possible to investigate samples in aqueous solution. For biological samples, carbon atoms
are higher opaque but the surrounding water is transparent.
(k) High-intensity lasers/short pulses
oscillator →trains of pulses of short duration
amplifer
CPA → (1985) Mourou and Strickland
stretch in time by grating 
1990’s Nd:YAG   1064nm , ps  1012W  1018 W/cm2
repetition rate 1/shot/min.
Ti: Sapphire--
stretch-- amplify-compres

4. High-resolution spectroscopy

4.1. Doppler broadening

 : lab frame,   : moving frame
    kv = (1  v / c) k   / c  2 / 

     kv 

v
     kv

Let  o be the rest frame frequency of the atom,    o ,

 v
Atoms moving with v absorbs  when   o    o  kv or  .
o c

Atoms at temperature T follows Maxwell distribution

Mv 2

M 1
f ( v)dv  e 2 k BT dv  e v / u dv
2 2

 2k B T u 
 where u  2k BT / M is the most probable speed at T

The absorption has the shape

v2
c  ( o ) 2
g D ( )  e u2
 normalized.
uo 

D u u
The FWHM  2 2n 2 ~ 1.7
o c c

Example: T = 300oK
H D / o  10 5
CS 10-6

Thus Doppler broadening limits resolution to 10-5 or 10-6.

4.2. Beating Doppler broadening: The Cross Beam Method

use supersonic jets small vertical velocity  lower T

needs high-intensity and narrow-freq. bandwidth of laser light.

4.3 Saturation absorption spectroscopy (see BJ p. 843). First used in 1971

(1) Use a high intensity laser to saturate the transition a  b so half of

_______ b
the atoms at each level.
a ba  (2) For atoms with velocity v, the  is shifted to  (1 - v/c)
________ a
Transition can occur only if
(1  v / c)  b /  b : natural width

In the intense laser, atoms with velocity in the range above will be depleted to level b. This
causes a depletion in the thermal velocity distribution

cb
v 


When a probe beam is used to scan the resonance, the hole will be observed.
4.4. Doppler-free two-photon transitions(two counter propagating beams)

________(b)
________(a)

If the atom absorbs one photon from each beam, then the Doppler Shift cancels out

 (1  v / c)   (1  v / c)  2  ba
1
  ba
2

Typical two-photon absorption profile from two counter-propagating lasers. The width of the
center peak measures the natural width.

Note: All atoms participate in the Doppler-free two-photon absorption. For saturation spectroscopy,
only the atoms with specific velocity are absorbing the photons  measures b / 2 , i.e., half of the
natural width.

4.5. Two-photon spectroscopy of 1s  2s transition in atomic hydrogen

1
b (2s)  1 Hz lifetime= sec wavelength=1216oA
8

Need UV radiation  ~243 nm (by frequency doubling)

source of errors:
transition time
collision broadening
laser bandwitdth (10ns  100 MHz)
second order Doppler effect
A.C. Stark shift
Lots of experiments continuing to achieve ever higher precision. Also works in He+ ions.

5. Calibration in laser spectroscopy--how to know the wavelength precisely

Use the frequency of Cs as standard and define the speed of light to define the length.

(1) Calibration of relative frequency.

 (2) Absolute calibration
often takes many steps - the old ways
 needs to go to the Cs frequency standard and use chains of lasers to go from
microwave to optical

 Frequency comb—new way—revolutionalize high-precision spectroscopy, atomic

clocks, in combination with cold atoms.

See: Condiff and Jun Ye, RMP 75, 325 (2003)

The optical frequencies can be expressed as

For a broad-band spectra, one can use the second harmonic to beat against the pulse itself, the
difference frequency gives
 )=

This allows the determination of the frequency offset fo.