Laser: Fundamentals and Applications

Prof. Manabendra Chandra

Department of Chemistry
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Lecture – 24
Solid state LASERs

Hello and welcome back. So, we were learning different types of laser. So, in the previous
lecture I told you that there are several different types of laser (Refer Slide Time: 00:32)

And we can categorize them into different sections like solid state laser, semiconductor
lasers, gas lasers, atomic as well as molecular gas lasers, chemical lasers dye lasers and so
on so forth. So, today we are going to look into different types of laser belong into these
different categories. So, we will start with the solid state laser. And the first one that we
will look at is the ruby laser.
(Refer Slide Time: 00:51)

So, ruby laser was the you know first laser that you know was invented. So, what is a ruby?
Ruby is a crystal. I mean most of you are aware that you know this has ornamental use and
it has a beautiful color which is known as ruby red color. Now what is the origin of this
color? The origin is actually because of some impurity, impurity of chromium ions in an
alumina crystal, alumina crystal lattice. So, without this chromium impurity, the alumina
crystal will be just colorless, whitish. Now a very little amount of chromium ion that is
essentially present as Cr2O3 and it exists in ruby by approximately 0.05 percent. So, you
can imagine how little it is, but this little amount of chromium does the work be it is color
or be it in the application in laser.

So, this particular chromium ions they provide the states, electronic states that can give
rise to population inversion and hence lasing. So, what is actually done? So, this chromium
ions which are essentially Cr3+, sitting in the you know alumina lattice. They are excited
by a broad band light source. So, from a you know flashlight. So, a flash light can have a
huge range of wave length. So, it can be you know a white light and that from that white
light this chromium ions they can take up the photon and go to certain excited states.

Now, this flash lamps they can be placed either parallel to this ruby crystal. So, like ruby
crystals how do they look like we will show you in a bit. So, essentially if you put this
ruby crystal, which is as a rod and the flash lamp just side by side and this flash lamp you
know continuously excite this chromium within this ruby crystal.
(Refer Slide Time: 03:47)

Or what you can do you can have a like a this flash lamp as a spiral. So now, what happens
during this optical excitation. So, on your screen you can see the energy level diagrams for
this ruby, which is essentially sitting in the aluminum lattice, the chromium sitting in the
aluminum lattice.

So, there are certain term symbols provided here. So, right now you do not worry about
the particular term symbol. Many of you maybe already aware of this, but this one this
course does not allow us to go through the detail of this term symbol. So, you take it as a
you know the symbol which is given to particular electronic or other states, with some
logic. So, their energy levels are given by E1, E2, E3, E4 so on in case of ruby we have
you know identified 4 such states, this 4T1, 4T2, to 2E, and 4A2.

So, though it has 4 levels, but it can be you know considered as a pseudo 3 level system,
why? Because this 2 states that is 4T1 and 4T2 both of them actually decay very rapidly to
the state 2E that is here. So, initial excitation is we will take the molecule either to this 4T2
or 4T1, but both of them will rapidly decay to the state 2E and this 2E is the metastable state.
So, the population inversion is created over the time, and once the population inversion is
created then a spontaneous emission can trigger the stimulated emission and stimulated
emission can come out from the laser cavity as a burst.
So, once this population inversion is lost then again it will take time to create the
population inversion. So, this is kind of inherently pulse laser we already have talked about
this one.

(Refer Slide Time: 06:20)

So, this was about the energy level diagram of this system. Now as I was saying, how
experimentally it is done. So, this ruby crystals they are like like innovative rod. So, if you
place this ruby rod and this lamp which is like a tube, linear tube side by side, then this
lamp can excite this ruby crystal.

Now, also you can have a geometry like spiral. This one also I was just talking about a
couple of minutes back. So, this spiral will surround this ruby crystal. So, that enough
excitation can be provided to the ruby crystal. Now there is something interesting here I
would like to point out. So, we know that a cavity given like between 2 mirrors right. So,
this is my cavity. One is high reflector another is output coupler. So, this will define the
axis of the laser cavity.

Now, the active medium which is emitting photon. So, first the flash light. So, the flash
light suppose is here. And my active medium is here. So, this is my active medium and
this is my flash light or flash lamp. So, these are giving light to this active medium, but
this is giving like to every other direction. Now maximum amount of light will be lost,
they will not release the active medium if this is the only configuration that I have, if you
if I have this 2 mirrors active medium flash light. So, most of the lights that flash light
gives us will be lost. And that is a quite big amount of loss, because we are providing
energy to the flash light and the flash light giving this energy in form of light to the active
medium. Now if all the energy that we are pumping into the flash light term is not being
converted or not going to the active medium then definitely this is not a good thing from
energy perspective.

So, we need to arrest this loss, how can we do that? If we have a mechanism by which if
there is a reflector and this light can be reflected back into this system towards the active
medium, then we really can bring down the loss to a great extent. So, in practical world
exactly that is what is done. So, this if you look at this picture. So, this ruby rod and the
flash lamp both of them are put inside a reflector chamber. So, you can see this, as if there
is a jacket of something around this ruby rod and the flash lamp. This jacket is essentially
the reflector. So, this is a curve reflector.

So, it is like a hollow tube whose inner sides are all reflectors. So, you can imagine like,
as if there is mirror inside this one, how you can do that? If you can polish the inner part
or for that matter any surface of some metal or you know metal coated surface then by the
very own property of the metal it can be highly reflective. Metals like gold are often used
for this purpose. So, gold coated surface. So, essentially you have a tube hollow tube at
inner portion is inner side walls are gold coated, and that can really reflect the lights
coming from the flash lamp with a high degree of reflectivity. So, efficiency is very high,
and the light goes back to the active medium or towards that.

Now so, that is about this direction. So now, one more thing one has to consider. Even if I
think about reflector all around this lamp and ruby crystal rod. It is not necessary that
reflector light will reach active medium that is ruby. So, we have to think about a particular
geometry which can certainly do that. So, that is the reason that this hollow reflector is
made in a way that a cross section of this hollow reflector looks like an ellipse. Actually it
is an ellipse, and this is cross section. So, if you take a cross section along this, that is
shown here. So, this is an ellipse and ruby crystal and the flash lamp are kept into the foci
of this ellipse.

What happen is given in this picture. So, the flash lamp gives light. So, the light can
directly go to the ruby crystal. So, it can go directly here, but most of the light will go
away. Now wherever it goes, because of the geometry of the ellipse and it its foci, it will
come back to this particular place. So, a simple knowledge of geometry will tell you this.
So, we are not really losing light from the flash lamp. And the efficiency of excitation is
increased by a great amount.

And this is very very necessary because if you recollect in our first couple of weeks lecture
when I we said that creating a population inversion in this kind of a 3 level system is really
hard because it needs very efficient pumping, otherwise because the ground state is
involved in the laser action, creating population inversion is really very difficult. So, we
need to pump really hard, and if I need to pump really hard I have to make sure that the
pumping source that is a flush lamp does not lose its most of the light unnecessarily. And
this kind of electrical reflected geometry ensures that we have a highly efficient reflection
system.

(Refer Slide Time: 13:45)

Now, here on screen you can see on the left side I have given an image of a ruby crystal.
So, it has the ruby red color and here particularly you can see that this ruby crystal is to
some extent transparent. So, for a given light this is definitely transparent. So, this ruby
rod is placed inside a cavity. So, one side of the ruby rod essentially attaches to the high
reflector. And this coil of flush lamp surrounds it, and also you have on the other side you
have a linear flush lamp side by side as if they are sitting at 2 foci of an ellipse. So, this is
the actual arrangement of the ruby laser.
(Refer Slide Time: 14:46)

Now, there are few more things about this we have already told that initial ultimately goes
to the state 2E creates population inversion and then from there it will lase. So, some
practical consideration that is what is the frequency of the light coming out of ruby. What
are the pulse duration, what is the pulse energy, and all. So, ruby laser is keeps gives a
particular wavelength of 694.3 nanometer that is equal to this gap. So, this is 694.3
nanometer. And the beam duration is pretty long. They are like 0.323 millisecond and the
pulse delay can be really long because it takes time to build up the population. And the
pulse energy can be really high, it can be even 200 joule.

(Refer Slide Time: 15:57)

So, next we will talk about Nd:YAG laser. Like in the case of ruby where the alumina was
just a host and chromium was playing the role of providing states for the laser action. Here
Nd3+ ion, they actually keeps us the you know states for laser action. YAG or yttrium
aluminum garnet which is which has this formula Y3Al5O2, it just you know acts as host
to this Nd3+ ions. So, these energy levels of Nd3+ ions are naturally degenerated; that
means, several states are there which has the same energy when you do not perturb of the
energy states. Now there is something called crystal field theory where it is said that if you
provide a crystal field to these energy states this degeneracy is lifted. So, before providing
any field to it by the surrounding environment or any approaching ligand, these states are
degenerated in Nd3+. Once a field is applied by say this yttrium aluminum garnet they
become separated. Now there are several energy states in a neodymium system. Now we
will look into this particular energy state diagram in a bit. Now the transition between
components of 4F3/2 and 4I11/2 states which are forbidden in the free state that is when they
are still degenerate. Once the field is applied and degeneracy is lifted they become allowed
and ultimately these two states get involved in laser action and they provide laser action.

So, here are the states that I was talking about. So, initially this particular state if I can just
show. So, this is 4I11/2and 4F3/2.

(Refer Slide Time: 18:47)

So, this is one and this is one step. So, before we had this crystal field effect these were
degenerated and several states had the same energy. And once the field is applied they are
splitted like this. Now earlier this transition was forbidden, now this transition is allowed.
Or, transition to and from, so, if you are considering any transition from say this state, so,
that is 4F3/2 to 4I11/2 . Essentially this is the one, which was earlier forbidden. Now, once
degeneracy is lifted then this becomes allowed. So, these are now allowed. So, what
happens. Once we provide light energy, provide photons from the flash lamp, just like in
case of ruby laser, the Nd3+ ions they make transition from the ground state to 4F9/2 and
from there it rapidly decays to this 4F3/2. So, this is the rapid decay. So now from there it
can come back to radioactively to these 4I11/2 states, which are now split states after the
crystal field is provided. So, you get laser emission due to the transition from this 4F3/2
states to 4I11/2 states.

(Refer Slide Time: 20:56)

So now I will show you how an Nd:YAG laser is constructed, how it looks like you know
actually. So, this is the region. So, this part is the heart of the system, where you have the
Nd:YAG crystal and the flashlight, flash lamp that kept. So, here also the same technique
is used that is you wrap this flash lamp and the Nd:YAG crystal in a elliptical reflector
tube. Now there are some practical concerns, this flash lamp is flashing and it gives very
high amount of photon energy.

So, you can understand that amount of energy is provided is very very high, and that gives
rise to heat and one has to cool down the Nd:YAG crystal which senses that heat. So, how
do you do that? You have to put this whole system in water and you have to flow the water.
So, what is done? You pump in water and then you take out that water. And you have to
maintain the temperature of the YAG rod. So, this flash light will create lot of heat and
you cannot allow the heat to increase, you have to maintain the temperature, because all
these states population will be affected by the heat. So, the performances of the laser will
be degraded if this increasing heat is not taken care of.

So, you do this by flowing cold water through that and you maintain a certain temperature,
normally like you know 18 to 20 degree C. So many occasions what you need to do, you
need to couple this water circulation system to a chiller unit, but the modern days lasers
they are quite efficient. So, just circulating water without coupling it to a chiller unit is
sufficient. So, these are called air cooled chiller, air cooled laser system. And apart from
this active medium and flash lamp system the Q-switch is essentially placed within the
laser cavity. So, the laser cavity is comprised of this high reflector. So, this is the real
mirror or high reflector right here and you have the output coupler here. And this part is
essentially not actually a part of the cavity. This is some extra.

So, up to these, you have the cavities. So, from this region to this region constituent my
cavity. So, this Q-switch here it contains the pockel cell and polarizer combination. So,
after the cavity, the beam comes out and there you can do whatever engineering you can
do with that particular thing. You need to expand or you want to shrink the beam you can
do with particular beam, you need to expand, or you want to string the beam, you can do
everything.

If you want to convert the wavelength of the light to some other things, you can also do
that. You can do using something called non-linear optics. So, those part are done outside
the cavity. For safety, most of the time the some extra portion is covered outside the cavity
where you have this extra elements which is used to say expand a beam or shrink the beam
or you know converting the wavelengths to another, all these. And here in this particular
case, an explicit laser system real laser system is shown, where you can see the what are
inlet outlet system and you know this is the position of the rod and other side to be lamp
and water will be circulating you know, through these pipes and you can see explicitly the
place where the polarizer is kept Q- switch is kept and the output coupler immediately.

And you can also see that you know the color of the light is green although the Nd:YAG
laser, it gives the wavelength of 1064 nanometer. So, which means that inside this one you
kept another crystal, which can convert that 1064 to a visible green wavelength which is
532 nanometer; when we talk about the application part, we will talk about how this can
be done using the laser. And this particular image tells you that this is a Q-switch laser.
So, now in this particular picture you cannot see any pulse output, but here you can nicely
see that they are pulsed. So, like they are coming like a bunch of photons at a time and
then there is no photon. So, you can take that picture by using an appropriate camera. So,
that camera that has to be synchronized with pulse repetition rate. So, in that way, you can
actually see this pulse stream flowing.

(Refer Slide Time: 27:32)

So now little bit detail into this Nd:YAG system. So, these 4F3/2 levels which are initially
populated due to the non-radioactive decay from that higher level. So, next step what
happens? You have an emission due to the jump of this you know in the Nd3+ system from
4
F3/2 to the 4I11/2 giving rise to 1064 nanometer near infrared laser light. A few practical
things about Nd:YAG laser that it is a very high power source of high power light. Of
course, a power can be controlled, you can go beyond 200 watt which is like really really
powerful.

And you can operate it in continuous wae mode it is like a 4 level laser. And it is actually
a 4 level laser. If you look at energy states you can see that the transition is taking place
between this level and this level. So, the ground state is down somewhere here. So, this is
essentially a 4 level kind of system and you use Q- switch to create the pulsed output and
in case of pulsed operation the energy still can be quite high as high as 100 joule. So, we
will continue discussing about other types of lasers in the following class.

Thank you very much.