Dept.

of Physics, BIT

Module-1
LASERS
Introduction: The acronym of LASERS is Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of
Radiation.

Basic properties of laser beam:

 Directionality: A laser light is highly directional; this means that the light emitted by a laser
does not show much divergence. Directionality is achieved because the emitted photons
undergo multiple reflections through the mirror. Any time the light deviates from its axis, it
gets skipped. Thus only a highly focused light beam is achieved.
 Monochromaticity: Monochromaticity of laser light has very high degree. The
monochromaticity of the laser light is 10 million times more than the sodium light which is
also monochromatic light.
 Coherence: It is a major optical property of laser that exists due to stimulated emission. It
simply denotes that the wavelength of the waves of emitted light is in phase. When we talk
about the ordinary light source for example LED, then it does not show the property of
coherence because it gets generated due to the process of spontaneous emission of a photon.
 Intensity: Intensity of laser light has degree. Due to continuous reflections, a light of high
intensity and more power is produced by the laser diode. That resultantly allows the
generation of bright light through the device. The intensity of He-Ne gas laser light is 100 -
150 times more than the sun light when both are emitted per same area.
 Focusability: Focusability of the laser light is 100 times more the ordinary light due to the
above characteristics.

Interaction of radiation with matter:

1) Induced absorption
An atom residing in the lower energy level E1 may absorb incident light and jump to
the excited state E2 as shown in the figure. This transition is known as induced or stimulated
absorption. Corresponding to each absorption transition, one photon disappears from the
incident light and one atom adds to the population of the excited energy level E2. This
process may be represented as
A + hν → A*
where A denotes an atom in the lower state and A* an excited atom.

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The rate of absorption occurring in the material at any instant is proportional to population in
the lower energy level (N1) and the number of photons per unit volume (energy density) in
the incident beam. Thus the rate of absorption may be expressed as
Rabs = B12 Uν N1
where B12 is a constant of proportionality and Uν is the energy density of incident light. B12 is
called Einstein coefficient for induced absorption and indicates the probability of induced
transition from level 1→2.
2) Spontaneous emission
If an excited atom is not stimulated by any other agent during its short lifetime, it
undergoes a transition to the lower level on its own. During the transition, it gives up the
excess energy in the form of a photon as shown in the figure. This process in which an
excited atom emits a photon all by itself and without any external impetus is known as
spontaneous emission. This process is represented as
A* → A + hν

The rate of spontaneous emission depends only on the population of excited level (N2). Thus
the rate of spontaneous emission may represented as
Rsp = A21 N2
where A21 is called Einstein coefficient for spontaneous emission. It indicates the probability
of spontaneous transition from level 2 → 1.
3) Stimulated emission
If a photon with appropriate energy (hν = E2 - E1) interacts with the excited atom, it
can trigger the atom to undergo transition to the lower level and to emit another photon as
shown in the figure. The process of emission of photons by an excited atom through a forced

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transition occurring under the influence of an external agent is called induced or stimulated
emission. This process may be represented as
A* + hν → A + 2hν

The rate of stimulated emission is proportional to population in the higher energy level (N2)
and the number of photons per unit volume (energy density) in the incident beam. Thus the
rate of stimulated emission may be expressed as
Rst = B21 Uν N2
where B21 is called Einstein coefficient for stimulated emission.

Einstein’s A & B coefficients:

Under thermal equilibrium, the mean population N1 and N2 in the lower and upper
energy levels respectively must remain constant. This condition requires that the number of
transitions from E2 (upper level) to E1 (lower level) must be equal to number of transitions
from E1 to E2. Thus the number of atoms absorbing photons per second per unit volume must
be equal to the number of atoms emitting photons per second per unit volume.
Therefore, at thermal equilibrium,
Rate of absorption = Rate of spontaneous emission + Rate of stimulated emission
B12U N1  A21 N 2  B21U N 2
……………………..(1)
U ( B12 N1  B21 N 2 )  A21 N 2
A21 N 2
∴ U 
B12 N1  B21 N 2 ……………………..(2)
By rearranging the above equation, we get
 
A  1 
U  21  
B 21  B12 N1 ……………………..(3)
 1
 B21 N 2 
But by Boltzmann’s law, we have

N1 N 2  e ( E2  E1 ) kT But ( E2  E1 )  h

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∴ N1 N 2  e h kT ……………………..(4)

Substituting for N1/N2 in equation (3), we get

 
 
A21  1 
U 
B 21  B12 hkT  ……………………..(5)
 e  1
 B21 

To maintain thermal equilibrium, the system must release energy in the form of
electromagnetic radiation. It is required that the radiation be identical with black body
radiation and be consistent with Planck’s radiation law for any value of temperature.
According to Planck’s law

8h 3  1 
U   e h kT  1 ……………………..(6)
c3

By comparing equations (5) and (6), we get

B12
1
B21

or, B12  B21 ……………………..(7)

A21 8h 3

B21 c3 ……………………..(8)

Equations (7) and (8) are known as Einstein relations or Einstein A and B coefficients.

B12
Putting  1 , and dropping the subscripts in A21 and B21 in equation (5), we get
B21

𝐴
𝑈𝜈 = ℎ𝜈
𝐵 [𝑒 𝑘𝑇 − 1]

This is the expression for energy density

Conditions for laser:

1) Population inversion
When an atomic system is in thermal equilibrium, N1 is greater than N2 leading to
absorption. But laser operation requires stimulated emission. To achieve a high percentage of
stimulated emission, a majority of atoms should be at the higher energy level than the lower
level. The non-equilibrium state in which the population N2 of the upper energy level exceeds
the population N1 of the lower energy level is known as the state of population inversion.

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Let us consider a system that has three energy states E1, E2 and E3. With the system in
equilibrium, the uppermost level E3 is populated least and the lowest level E1 is populated
most as shown in the figure (a). Since the population in three states is such that N3 ˂ N2 ˂ N1,
the system absorbs photons rather than emitting. However, if the system is supplied with
external energy such that N2 exceeds N1, we say that the system has reached population
inversion. Here the population inversion has taken between the levels E2 and E1 as shown in
figure (b). Under the population inversion condition, the stimulated emission can produce a
cascade of light. The first few randomly emitted spontaneous photons trigger stimulated
emission of more photons and those stimulated photons induce still more photons and so on.
Consequently, light gets amplified.

2) Metastable state
An atom can be excited to a higher energy level by supplying energy to it. Normally,
excited states have short lifetimes and release their excess energy in about 10 -9 s by
spontaneous emission. Thus population inversion cannot be established. For establishing
population inversion, the excited atoms are required to wait at the upper level till a large
number of atoms accumulate at that level. Such long lived upper levels, where atoms remain
for an appreciable time are called metastable states. Atoms stay in the metastable state for
about 10-6 to 10-3 s. The metastable population can exceed the population of a lower level and
lead to the state of population inversion.
Requisites for production of laser light:
There are three Requisites as follows:

1. Excitation source: Excitation source is very essential for excitation process.

Excitation sources are optical, electrical and chemical sources. Optical source is used
in Ruby laser and electrical source is used in gas lasers.
2. Active medium: Active medium is medium between whose energy levels population
inversion is achieved i.e. stimulated emission leads spontaneous emission and
3. Laser cavity: Laser cavity is very much necessary in order to tap certain amount of
energy for further process.

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Semiconductor Laser:
Construction:

It is formed by doping aluminium or silicon to gallium arsenide material in order to generate

n-type and p-type layer. Along with this, an additional active layer of undoped (natural) GaAs
is present between the two layers. The thickness of this active layer is of 10 - 100 μm and
length and breadth of gallium arsenide crystal is of 1 cm long. The aim of sandwiching this
layer in between p and n-type layers with the help of power supply is to increase the electron
and hole recombination leads to electron-hole pairs resultantly increasing the emitted
radiation. The laser output is taken from active region of the laser diode due to good
reflectivity. In laser diodes, polishing at the two ends of the junction is done in order to
provide a mirror-like surface. Through reflection from this surface, more electron and hole
pair gets produced. Resultantly that produces more radiation through the device.

Working:

When the PN junction is forward biased with high applied voltage, the electrons and holes are
injected into junction region in considerable concentration. The region around the junction
contains a large number of electrons in the conduction band and a large number of holes in
the valence band. If the population density is high, a condition of population inversion is
achieved due to stimulated emission without the aid of metastable state. The electrons and

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holes recombine with each other and this recombination produce radiation in the form of
light. When the forward biased voltage is increased, more and more light photons are emitted
and the light production instantly becomes stronger. These photons will trigger a chain of
stimulated recombination resulting in the release of photons in phase. The photons moving at
the plane of the junction travels back and forth by reflection between two sides placed
parallel and opposite to each other and grow in strength. After gaining enough strength, it
gives out the laser beam of wavelength 8400 Ǻ.

Applications of Lasers:
1. Laser cooling

Laser cooling is a technique used for cooling down atomic and molecular samples to a near
absolute zero temperature. The technique of laser cooling is based on the fact that an atom (of
any metal sample) changes its momentum (and energy) when it absorbs and then re-emits a
photon. Some of the methods of laser cooling are Doppler cooling, Sisyphus cooling,
resolved sideband cooling, Raman sideband cooling etc. But Doppler cooling itself is viewed
as called laser cooling.

Doppler Cooling
This is a mechanism that can be used to trap and slow the motion of atoms in order to cool a
substance. If an atom is travelling towards a laser beam and absorbs a photon from the laser,
it will be slowed because it is hit by the photon of momentum p = E/c = h/λ. In other words,
the atom would reduce its momentum by the amount equal to the momentum of the photon. It
would take a large number of such absorptions to cool the atoms to near 0 K. This would
require a large number of photons to reduce the atom’s momentum to zero. The change in
speed from the absorption of one photon can be calculated from
∆𝑃 𝑃𝑝ℎ𝑜𝑡𝑜𝑛 𝑚∆𝑣 ∆𝑣
= = =
𝑃 𝑚𝑣 𝑚𝑣 𝑣
𝑃𝑝ℎ𝑜𝑡𝑜𝑛
∆𝑣 =
𝑚
A laser can induce about 107 absorptions per second so that an atom can be stopped in a
matter of milliseconds. The head on collision is accomplished by tuning the laser below the
resonance absorption frequency of the atom. It is because as the atom approaches the photon
coming towards, it will notice the increase in apparent frequency and hence photon is seen as
Doppler shifted towards the resonant frequency leading to strong absorption. Sodium atoms
have been cooled from 500K to about 240 𝜇K using this method. The experimental technique
involves directing laser beams from opposite directions upon the sample, linearly polarised at
90o with respect to each other. Six lasers could then provide a pair of beams along each
coordinate axis. It is to be noted that absorption can also speed up an atom if it catches a
photon from behind, so it is necessary to have more absorption from head-on photons for
slowing down the atoms.

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2. Bar Code Scanner

A bar code consists of a series of strips of dark and white bands. These white and dark bands
are of different widths separated from each other by specific distances, and contain
information such as the country of origin, manufacturer of the product, the direction of scan,
price, reading error checking, weight of the product, and expiry date. A laser is used to scan
the bar code with the help of a rotating polygon mirror as shown in the figure. A typical
scanning speed is about 200 m/s. Such high speeds are chosen to ensure that even if the
product is moving while it is getting scanned, the scanned object does not move significantly
while getting scanned. When the laser beam is incident on the bar code, the amount of light
scattered depends on whether the strip is black or white. Since the bars are separated by
variable distance, light intensity varies with time and is recorded by the photodetector. The
signal is fed into an amplifier and later to a detector which displays the information on a TV
monitor and also sends it into product inventory system.

3. Laser Printer
The principle of a laser printer is much closer to the photocopier principle, based
on xerography. The heart of a laser printer is a drum made from a light-sensitive material.
This drum is an insulator, so that it can be electrically charged, but the electric charge will
leak away in places where the drum is struck by light. The principle of the laser printer is to
charge the drum completely and then make the drum conductive in selected parts by being
struck by a laser beam. The beam is switched on or off and scanned across the drum as the
drum rotates. This process is controlled by the pattern of signals held in the memory of the

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printer, and enough memory must be present to store information for a complete page. A
schematic for a typical laser printer is shown in the figure.
Once the scanning process is complete, the drum will have electrical voltage ‘image’ on its
surface corresponding to the pattern that exists in the memory, which in turn corresponds to
the pattern of black dots that will make up the image. Finely powdered resin, the toner, will
now be coated over the drum and will stick to it only where the electric charge is large, i.e. at
each black dot of the original image.

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Optical fibers
Introduction:
Optical fibers have major role in telecommunication industry to transport the signals from
one place to other place where mass transportation of signals is there such as audio, video,
data, photo, etc. These were made from plastics and ordinary glasses by materials scientists
and used to test the transportation of signals. But, optical fiber loss was very high with which
signals could not get proper signal at output. Charles K Kao, who got Nobel Award for his
remarkable work, did theoretical work and proposed as well as did successful mathematical
calculations which suggested that attenuation/loss of power of signal should not exceed 20
dB/km. Based on this, materials scientists again made silica glass optical fibers by using
silica (sand). Finally, these were tested with just 2 dB/km loss. So, optical fibers have made
revolution in telecommunication field.
Principle of optical fiber:

An optical fiber is a very thin, flexible fiber of transparent plastic or glass in which
light is transmitted through multiple reflection. The principle on which works is total internal
reflection.

In the above figures, MON is the normal drawn to the surface XOX 1. AO is the
incident ray of light travelling form optically denser medium to optically rarer medium. If the
angle of incidence (i) in the denser medium is equal to critical angle (θc ), the ray undergoes
grazing emergence as shown in Figure 1. If the angle of incidence in the denser medium is
greater than the critical angle, the ray comes back to the denser medium as shown in Figure 2.
This is called total internal reflection.
Structure of Optical Fiber:

Polyurethane jacket
Cladding
Core
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Optical fiber has mainly two parts. Central one is tubular structure called core which is made
up by plastics or glass. Another tubular structure called cladding which is surrounded the core
and it is also made up by plastics or glass. Both have material continuity. Core has refractive
index, n1 and cladding has refractive index, n2 where n1 is slightly greater than n2. Both core
and cladding are surrounded from protective layer called polyurethane jacket which protects
the optical fiber from crushing, abrasion and other problems.

Angle of acceptance and numerical aperture

In the above figure, the incident ray of light AO enters into the core at an angle θ0 and
finally emerges along BC. However, if the angle of incidence is less than θ 0 , the ray
undergoes total internal reflection and finally emerges through the other end of the fiber. If
the ray OA is rotated around the fiber axis, a cone is formed. Thus, if light enters into the core
of the fiber within the cone, it will undergo total internal reflection and eventually emerge
through the other end. The cone is called acceptance cone, the angle θ0 is called acceptance
angle and sin θ0 is called numerical aperture.
Expression for numerical aperture (N.A)
Let n0 , n1, n2 be the refractive indices of surrounding medium, core of the fiber and
cladding respectively. By applying Snell’s law for refraction at the point of entry of the ray
OA into the core, we have
n0 sin 0 n1 sin1

= > sin 0 
n1
n0
n
sin1  1
n0
1  cos  
2
1 ……………….(1)

At the point B on the interface, the angle of incidence = 90- θ1

Again applying Snell’s law, we have
n1 sin90  1  n 2 sin 90
n2
=> n1 cos1  n2 Or cos1  ……………………..(2)
n1
Substituting for cos θ1 in equation (1) using equation (2), we get

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n1 n2 n12  n22
sin 0  1  22 =
n0 n1 n0
If the medium surrounding the fiber is air, then n0 = 1,
Therefore, sin 0  n12  n22
But, sin θ0 = N.A
Hence, N.A = n12  n22
Condition for propagation
If θi is the angle of incidence of an incident ray, then the ray will be able to propagate if
θi < θ0
i.e., sin θi < sin θ0
Or sin θi < n12  n22
i.e., sin θi < N.A
This is the condition for propagation.

Classification of optical fibers:

1. Single mode optical fiber:

a. Geometry:

Core, n1 d = 8 - 10 μm

Cladding, n2 d = 60 - 70 μm

Geometry of the single mode optical fiber is shown in figure. Diameter of the core part has 8
-10 μm and diameter of the core part has 60 -70 μm. Since, diameter of the core part is very
small, it will allow only one mode of propagation. So, it is called as single mode O.F.

b. Refractive index profile:

n2 n1

The refractive indices of core and cladding are constant in single mode O.F. So, R.I.P. takes
small step at core part.

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c. Propagation of light ray:

Since the diameter of the core part has small, this O.F. allowed singe mode only and
propagating in Zig-Zag form in the core part as shown in the above figure. Single mode O.F.
is used in submarine cable system.

2. Step-index multimode optical fiber:

a. Geometry:

Core, n1 d = 50 - 200 μm

Cladding, n2 d = 100 - 250 μm

Geometry of the step-index multimode optical fiber is shown in figure. Diameter of the core
part has 50 - 200 μm and diameter of the core part has 100 - 250 μm. Since, diameter of the
core part is large, it will allow multimode of propagation. So, it is called as multimode O.F.

b. Refractive index profile:

n2 n1

The refractive indices of core and cladding are constant in step-index multimode O.F. Since,
the diameter of the core part has large; R.I.P. takes big step at core part. So, it is called as
step-index multimode O.F.

c. Propagation of light ray:

Since the diameter of the core part has large, this O.F. allowed multimode and propagating in
Zig-Zag form in the core part as shown in the above figure. It is used in datalinks.

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3. Graded-index multimode optical fiber:

a. Geometry:

Core, n1 d = 50 - 200 μm

Cladding, n2 d = 100 - 250 μm

Geometry of the graded-index multimode optical fiber is shown in figure. Diameter of the
core part has 50 - 200 μm and diameter of the core part has 100 - 250 μm. Since, diameter of
the core part is large, it will allow multimode of propagation. So, it is called as multimode
O.F.

b. Refractive index profile:

n2 n1

The refractive index of core is variable and refractive index of cladding is constant in graded-
index multimode O.F. Since, the diameter of the core part is large and refractive index of core
is variable at all places of core part; R.I.P. takes wave nature at core part. The curve keep on
increasing towards the axis and decreasing from the same point towards opposite boundary
layer between core and cladding. So, it is called as graded-index multimode O.F.

c. Propagation of light ray:

Since the diameter of the core part has large, this O.F. allowed multimode and propagating in
wave form in the core part as shown in the above figure. It is used in telephone trunks in
central offices.

Attenuation:
Attenuation is defined as loss of power of signals when they are propagating through optical
fiber.

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Expression:
10 𝑃
α=- log( 𝑃𝑜𝑢𝑡) dB/km
𝐿 𝑖𝑛

where α = attenuation

L = length of the fiber through which signals propagated

Pin = input power which is launched

Pout = output power which is received

Attenuation mechanism:
1. Absorption mechanism:

hγ

Optical fiber has impurities such as transition metal oxides in which valence electrons are
present in the outermost cell. When light, which is form of packets of energy/photon, is inter-
acting with transition metal oxides during propagation of light, valence electrons are
interacted with photons, absorbed energy, excited to higher energy levels, de-excited to
ground state with releases of a photon which has different wavelength and mismatched with
incident photon. Hence, it is a loss.
Absorption also takes place from the optical fiber material itself.

2. Scattering mechanism

Scattering centre

Scattered photon

Core part of the optical fiber has sometimes scattering centres which have different refractive
indices due to defects during manufacture. When light ray is incident on such scattering
centres, ray scattered due to the wavelength of light ray which has comparable with size of
the scattering centre like scattering takes place in nature. So, rays which are deviate its path,
reaches cladding and escaped to cladding part without total internal reflection. Hence, it is
loss.

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3. Radiation losses
a. Macroscopic bending

Macroscopic bending

Macroscopic bending occurs due to sharp bending when optical fibers are spooling around
bobbin. Optical fiber has critical radius which should not be less or more. The critical radius
at macroscopic bending is less at one side and more at other side. So, when light ray is
incident at bending, it will not be taken total internal reflection. Hence, escaped to cladding
without total internal reflection and it is loss.

b. Microscopic bending

Microscopic bending

Suitable pressure should be maintained at inert atmosphere in industry when the optical fibers
are making. If variation in pressure occurred, microscopic bending will be occurred as shown
in the above figure. Whenever signal carrying light ray is incident at such bending, light ray
escaped to cladding without taking total internal reflection. Hence, it is loss.
Applications of optical fiber:
1. Fiber Optic networking

Fiber Optic networking is a means of communication that uses signals encoded in light to
transmit information in various types of telecommunications networks. It is a form of optical
communication that relies on optical amplifiers, lasers or LEDs and wave division
multiplexing (WDM) to transmit large quantities of data, generally across fiber-optic cables.
These include limited range local-area networks (LAN) or wide-area networks (WAN),
which cross metropolitan and regional areas as well as long-distance national, international
and transoceanic networks. Because it is capable of achieving extremely high bandwidth, it is
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an enabling technology for the Internet and telecommunication networks that transmit the
vast majority of all human and machine-to-machine information. The most common fiber-
optic networks are communication networks, mesh networks or ring networks commonly
used in metropolitan, regional, national and international systems. Another variant of fiber-
optic networks is the passive optical network, which uses unpowered optical splitters to link
one fiber to multiple premises for last mile applications.
Components of a fiber-optical networking system include:

 Multi-mode or single-mode optical fiber

 Laser or LED light source
 Multiplexer/demultiplexer
 Optical switch, to direct light between ports without an optical-electrical-optical
conversion
 Optical splitter, to send a signal down different fiber paths
 Circulator, to tie in other components, such as an OADM (optical add-drop multiplexer)
 Optical amplifier
 Wave division multiplexer

2. Fiber Optic Communication (point-to-point communication system)

Analog System Optical fiber

Receiver

Information Coder Phototransmitor

such as voice

Light signal
in pulse
form

Analog System

Information Decoder Photodetector

Receiver such as voice

Block diagram of point-to-point communication system using optical fiber is as shown in the
above figure. Suppose a person who is speaking at initial point with receiver. Receiver
receives the talking such as voice and sent to analog system where voice is converted in to
sound signal. Sound signal sent to coder where signal is converted in to electrical signal.
Electrical signal sent to photodetector where signal is converted in to light/optical signal, also
converted into pulse form and transported to the input point of optical fiber. Pulse form
carries the signal through optical fiber on the phenomenon of total internal reflection and sent
to the output point. Pulse form receives from the photodetector where pulse form converted
in to light signal and sent decoder. Decoder converted the light signal in to electrical signal
and sent to analog system. Analog system receives electrical signal and converted it in to
sound signal such as voice. Receiver receives the voice which talking and hearing from the
other person at output end.

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