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Lecture-1 Lasers Physics Basics

Lasers work by stimulating the emission of coherent light through population inversion. The document discusses the basic principles of lasers including absorption, spontaneous emission, stimulated emission, and Einstein's coefficients. It also covers characteristics of laser beams such as directionality, intensity, monochromacity, coherence, and types of pumping methods.

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Dr-Walid Femtosecond
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28 views23 pages

Lecture-1 Lasers Physics Basics

Lasers work by stimulating the emission of coherent light through population inversion. The document discusses the basic principles of lasers including absorption, spontaneous emission, stimulated emission, and Einstein's coefficients. It also covers characteristics of laser beams such as directionality, intensity, monochromacity, coherence, and types of pumping methods.

Uploaded by

Dr-Walid Femtosecond
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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LASERS

BASIC PRINCIPLES OF LASER


EINSTEIN’S COEFFICIENTS
CHARACTERISTICS OF LASER BEAM
What is LASER????

Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of


Radiation

• A device that produces a coherent beam of optical


radiation by stimulating electronic, ionic, or
molecular transitions to higher energy levels.
• When they return to lower energy levels by
stimulated emission, they emit energy.
Basic concepts for a laser

Absorption

Spontaneous Emission

Stimulated Emission

Population inversion
Lasers: Basic Principle
Absorption and Radiation Processes
Absorption

An electron in an atom can be excited from an energy level E1 to a

higher energy level E2 by absorption:

photon absorption─ hν = E2 – E1.


E2  E1
 
h
Spontaneous Emission

The atom decays from level 2 to level 1 through the


emission of a photon with the energy hv. It is a completely
random process.
Stimulated Emission

Atoms in an upper energy level can be triggered or stimulated


in phase by an incoming photon of a specific energy.
Stimulated Emission

The stimulated photons have unique properties:

 In phase with the incident photon

 Same wavelength as the incident photon

 Travel in same direction as incident photon


Einstein Coefficients

N2 E2
P12  B12u ( )

P21 Spon tan eous  A21

P21 Stimulated  B21u ( )

N1 E2
Relation between Einstein’s coefficients

Under equilibrium conditions we have :


 An atom in level E2 can decay to level E1 by emission of photon. Let us call A21
the transition probability per unit time for spontaneous emission from level E2
to level E1. Then the number of spontaneous decays per second is N2A21, i.e. the
number of spontaneous decays per second=N2A21.
 In addition to these spontaneous transitions, there will induced or stimulated
transitions. The total rate to these induced transitions between level 2 and level
1 is proportional to the density (U(ν)) of radiation of frequency ν, where ν =
( E2-E1 )/h , h Planck's constant.
 Let B21 and B12 denote the proportionality constants for stimulated emission and
absorption. Then number of stimulated downward transition in stimulated
emission per second = N2 B21 U(ν)
 Similarly , the number of stimulated upward transitions per second = N1 B12
U(ν)
 The proportionality constants A and B are known as the Einstein A and
B coefficients.
Contd..

N2 A21 + N2 B21 U(ν) =N1 B12 U(ν)

By solving for U(ν) (density of the radiation) we obtain

U(ν) [N1 B12 - N2 B21 ] = A21 N2


N 2 A21
U ( ) 
N1 B12  N 2 B21
A21
 U ( ) 
 B12 N 1 
B21   1
 B21 N 2 
Contd..

From Boltzmann distribution:

N2
  e  ( E 2  E1 ) / KT  e  h / KT
N1
A 21
 U(  ) 
 B12 h / KT  )1)
B 21  e  1
 B 21 
According to Planck’s formula of radiation

8h 3 1
U(  ) 
c3 
e h / KT  1  )2)
Contd..

from equations 1 and 2 we have


B12=B21 =1 (3)

8h 3 )4(
A21  3
B21
c

A21 It means that the probability of spontaneous emission dominates


 3
B21 above stimulated emission more and more as the energy
difference between the two states increases.

equations 3 and 4 are Einstein’s relations.

Thus for atoms in equilibrium with thermal radiation.


spon tan eous emission N1 A21 A21
 
stimulated emission N 2 B21U ( ) B21U ( )
Interpretation of Einstein’s Coefficients

A21 8h 3 Indicates that at a given frequency an atom in a given energy state

B21 c3 Can undergo either spontaneous or stimulated emission

Further it means that at high frequencies spontaneous emission is more likely


to occur than the stimulated emission. This makes the laser mechanism more
difficult at higher frequencies such as ultraviolet frequencies.

B12=B21 means that an atom in a given energy state can have the mechanism
of spontaneous and stimulated emission with equal probability.
Though the coefficients of upward and downward transition are equal , the
rate of upward or downward transition differ. This is because there rates
depend on the population densities N 1& N2
Population Inversion

 A state in which a substance


has been energized, or
excited to specific energy
levels.
 More atoms or molecules are
in a higher excited state.
 The process of producing a
population inversion is
called pumping.
 Examples:
→by lamps of appropriate
intensity
→by electrical discharge
Metastable states

An atom or molecule in an excited state remains


there for a certain time called the lifetime of that
state, before making a transition to a lower state. The
lifetime of a state is characteristic of the energy level
and varies over a wide range. Most of the states have
a short lifetime, of the order of 10-8 s. However, some
energy states have very long lifetime of the order of
10-3 s or higher. Energy states with such long life
times are called meta-stable states.
Pumping

 The population inversion can be achieved by exciting the


medium with suitable form of energy. This process is called
Pumping.
 There are several methods of pumping a laser and
producing population inversion necessary for the
occurrence of stimulated emission :
(a) Optical pumping
(b) Electric Discharge
(c) Inelastic atom-atom collision
(d) Direct Conversion
(e) Chemical reactions
Characteristics of Laser Beam

High directionality:
Directionality is the characteristic of laser light that causes it to travel
in a single direction with a narrow cone of divergence. It is defined in
terms of divergence angle.
Divergence angle is twice the angle made by the outer edge with the
axis of the beam.

The angular spread of beam on one side of the axis :



 
d
High Intensity

The intensity of light is defined as the energy passing per unit area per
second through a point normal to the direction of flow. For a spherical
source with output power P , intensity at a point distant r from the source
is given as:

P
I 
4r 2
Laser beam is highly intense because it emits light as a narrow beam and
intensity remains high even at large distance from the source.
Extraordinary monochromacity

If ∆ν is the frequency of a spectral line of frequency ν0then the degree of


monochromacity is defined as:
ε=∆ν/ν0

Smaller is the value of ε, higher is the monochromacity of light.


For laser source ε=10-12 while for ordinary source ε≈10-5
High Coherence

Degree of coherence is the measure of phase correlation in the radiation field


at different locations and different time.

Coherent
Incoherent
Temporal coherence

 If the phase difference of waves crossing the two points lying


along the direction of propagation of the beam is time dependent
then a beam of light is said to possess temporal , time or
longitudinal coherence.

X′ P Q X

 The average time interval for which the field remains sinusoidal (i.e., a
definite phase relationship exists) is known as the coherence time . The
distance for which the field remains sinusoidal is called coherence
length.
L=τ c
Spatial Coherence

In spatial coherence the phase difference of the waves crossing the two points lying
on a plane , perpendicular to the direction of propagation of the beam is time
independent. It is also called as transverse or lateral coherence.
Spatial coherence is the measure of the minimum separation between the
wavefront where two waves remain coherent.

Spatial coherence length of the source – lω=λ/θ, where θ is the angle


subtended by the slit in plane of observation.

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