Lets discuss

 What is LASER ?
 How is it different from Ordinary
light ?
• Light is a form of energy that stimulates our vision.
• The study of behaviour of light forms the subject of Optics.
• The application of Optics started with the manufacture of
Mirrors, Lenses, Prisms, Telescopes and Microscopes.
• The advent of ‘LASERS’ opened up an entirely novel
application of Light.
• Einstein gave the theoretical basis for the development of
‘LASER’ in 1917 , when he predicted the possibility of
Stimulated Emission.
• Scientist T.H. Maiman built the first ‘LASER’ device in
1960.
The word ‘LASER’ stands for
L - Light
A - Amplification by
S - Stimulated
E - Emission of
R - Radiation
 Incandescent vs. Laser
Light

1. Many 1. Monochromatic
wavelengths 2. Directional
2. Multidirectional 3. Coherent
3. Incoherent
 Laser Beam
Characteristics
 Coherence : waves in
Phase
 Monochromatic :
Single frequency
 Directionality :
Unidirectional
 Divergence : less
divergence,
propagates in the
form of plane waves
 Intensity :Tremendous
ly large
 COHERENCE
 Degree of coorelation between the
phase in light wave at different
point in space and time is caled
coherence . They are –

1. Temporal or time coherence .

2. Spatial coherence.
Temporal or time coherence

If the phase diff. between the two

waves crossing the two point lying
along the same direction of
propagation is time dependent then
the two waves are temporal
coherence .
 Spatial coherence.
laser beam is said to be posses
spatial coherence if the phase
difference between the waves
crossing two points lying
perpendicular to the direction of
propagation of the beam is time
independent .it is termed as
transverse or spatial coherence.
 INTERACTION OF
RADIATION WITH MATTER
 An atom can move from one Energy state to another when
it receives or releases an amount of energy equal to energy
difference between two states . It is termed as a Quantum
Jump or Transition.
 The energy will get absorbed (h) when atom gets excited
from the Lower energy level to the Higher energy
level.This energy absorption is equal to the difference of
energies between two levels I.e. h=E2-E1.
 Similarly the energy will get emitted when atom jump or
moves from Higher energy level to Lower energy
level .The emission of energy again is equal to the
difference of the energies between two levels in the form
of Photon I.e. E2-E1 = h.
 ABSORPTION
An atom residing in the lower energy state E1 may
absorb the incident photon and jump to the excited
state E2 as depicted in the figure. This transition is
known as Stimulated absorption or Induced absorption
or simply absorption. It may be represented as
A + h = A*
The number of atoms Nab
excited during the time t is
given by
Nab = B12N1Q t
 STIMULATED ABSORPTION
 Photons, of frequency ul, from incident
radiation are absorbed by the gas
 Atoms are excited from level E1 to level
E2

 Rate at which lower level E1 is de-populated

(loses atoms)

 ( dNl /dt ) = Nl Q() B12

abs

 B12 Einstein "B-coefficient" of absorption

for the transition
 proportional to the probability of a photon
being absorbed between the levels
 SI units of B12 are m3 J-1 s-2
ABSORPTION
 Spontaneous Emission
After the life-time of the state , the atom in the excited state , gets
de-excited itself and transition takes place from excited level E 2 to
lower level E1 spontaneously and emits a photon of energy h = E2
– E1. This is called Spontaneous Emission. It may be represented as
A* =A + h
The number of Spontaneous
transition NSP taking place
during the time t is given
by
NSP = A21N2 t
Where N2 :density of atoms
in stateE2 ,
A21 : Constant Of
 Characteristics Of Spontaneous
Emission
 Probabilistic in nature
 The process is not controllable from outside.
 The instant of transition , direction of propagation,Phase of photon
and plane of polarization of each photon are all random quantities.
 The resulted light is not monochromatic.
 Light emitted through this process is incoherent
 The net intensity is proportional to the number of radiating atoms,
thus
Itotal = NI
Where N – no. of atoms
I - Intensity of light emitted by one photon.
It is the process of spontaneous emission that dominates the
conventional light sources.
 Stimulated Emission
The interaction of photon having energy h = E2 – E1 with an
excited atom triggers the excited atom to drop to lower energy
state giving up a photon . This phenomenon of forced emission of
photon s is called Induced Emission or Stimulated Emission. It
may be represented as
A*+ h = A + 2h
The number of Stimulated
transition NST taking place
during the time t is given by
NST = B21N2Qt
Where
Q is spectral energy density
N2 is no. of atoms in state E2
 STIMULATED (INDUCED)
EMISSION

Einstein (1917):
• downwards transition (“inverse” absorption)
• induced emission has same probability as
absorption
• photon 2 in phase with photon 1
 Characteristic of Stimulated
Emission
 The emitted photon is identical to incident photon in all respect I.e.
frequency , phase, plane of polarization and direction.
 The process is controllable from outside.
 Produces intense coherent light beam.
 The net intensity is proportional to the square of number of radiating
atoms, thus
Itotal = N2I
Where N – no. of atoms
I - Intensity of light emitted by one photon
 The outstanding feature of this process is ‘Multiplication of
photons’

Therefore the process of Stimulated Emission is the key to

the operation of LASER.
 Lets discuss
 What is the difference between Self
emission and Stimulated emission ?
 Which process takes more time, Self
emission or Stimulated emission ?
 Multiplication of Stimulated Photons
into an avalanche

20 21 22
3
 Conditions For Light
Amplification

Light amplification requires that Stimulated emission occur

almost exclusively. The laser operation is achieved when
stimulated emission exceeds in a large way than the other
two processes I.e. absorption and spontaneous emission.
1) Condition for Stimulated emission to dominate
Spontaneous Emission
The ratio of
Stimulated transition B21N2Qt B21 Q
Spontaneous transition A21N2 t A21
This indicates that Stimulated transition will dominate the
Spontaneous Transition if radiation density Q is very large.
 2) Condition For Stimulated Emission to dominate
Absorption Transitions

The ratio of
Stimulated transition B21N2Qt B21N2
Absorption transition A12N1 Qt A12N1

This condition indicates that Stimulated transition will

overwhelm the absorption process if N2 is greater than N1. It
means that there should be more atoms present in the higher
energy level than lower energy level for stimulated emission to
dominate over the spontaneous emission.
 Population Inversion
In a state of thermal equilibrium there are more atoms in the
lower energy level and relatively lesser number of atoms in the
higher energy level is called normal state. .
Population inversion is a condition in which population of upper
energy level N2 far exceeds the population of lower energy level
N1 I.e. N2>> N1. The population distribution between the
levels E1 and E2 is inverted and hence it is known as
population inversion condition.
N2 N2

N1 N1
Normal State N 2 << N1
Inverted State N 2 >> N1
Thermal Equilibrium State
Thermal Equilibrium State
 3) Requirement of Metastable State
 Life-time of the excited state is of the
order of 10-8 second. However some of the
excited atoms have life-time greater than
this I.e. in the order of 10-3 second , such
states are known as Metastable State.
 Metastable state can be defined as a state
where excited atom can remain for longer
time than the normal excited state.
Metastable states play an important role
in Laser operation.
 There could be no population inversion
and no laser action , if metastable states
do not exist.
A medium amplifies light only when
 Components of Laser

The essential components of Laser are

 An active medium

 A pumping agent
 Optical Resonator
OVERALL LAYOUT (ANY KIND OF
LASER)
 Lasing Action
1. Energy is applied to a medium raising electrons to an
unstable energy level.
2. These atoms spontaneously decay to a relatively long-
lived, lower energy, metastable state.
3. A population inversion is achieved when the majority of
atoms have reached this metastable state.
4. Lasing action occurs when an electron spontaneously
returns to its ground state and produces a photon.
5. If the energy from this photon is of the precise
wavelength, it will stimulate the production of another
photon of the same wavelength and resulting in a
cascading effect.
6. The highly reflective mirror and partially reflective mirror
continue the reaction by directing photons back through
the medium along the long axis of the laser.
7. The partially reflective mirror allows the transmission of a
small amount of coherent radiation that we observe as the
“beam”.
8. Laser radiation will continue as long as energy is applied
to the lasing medium.
 1) Active Medium

 A medium in which light gets

amplified is called an active medium.
 The medium may be solid ,liquid or
gas.
 Out of different atoms in the
medium,only a small fraction of a
atoms of a particular species are
responsible for stimulated emission
and consequent light
amplification.They are called active
 2) Pumping
 The process of supplying energy to
the medium with a view to transfer it
into the state of population inversion
is known as pumping
 There are number of techniques for
collection of atoms to an inverted
state
Optical pumping
Electric discharge
Direct Conversion
 3) An Optical Resonator
An Optical resonator generally consist of two opposing plane
parallel mirrors , with the active material placed between them. One
of the mirror is semitransparent while the other one is made 100 %
reflecting This structure is known as Optical resonator or Fabry-
Perot resonator.
An Laser is an oscillator . All
Oscillators have
1) Amplification / Gain
2) Feedback
In a Laser
1) Amplification / Gain :
Stimulated emission in active
medium (Gas, Liquid or
Solid)
3) Feedback : Mirrors (Cavity)
Action of Optical Resonator
Optical
Optical resonator
resonator
PRACTICAL LASERS
All lasers consist of
A medium with suitable set of energy
levels
A pumping (energy) source
An optical cavity
Classified by active medium, e.g.
Solid state lasers
Gas lasers
Liquid lasers
Semiconductor lasers
Compared by output characteristics, e.g.
Wavelength
Coherence
Beam divergence
 PUMPING

The process of achieving population

inversion is called pumping .
Methods of pumping:-
(1) Optical pumping (in ruby laser)

(2) electric discharge (helium-neon )

(3) chemical reaction ( semiconductor laser)

 Two-Level System

E 2 , N2 E 2 , N2

E 1 , N1 E 1 , N1

Even with very a intense pump source, the

best one can achieve with a two-level system
is
excited state population = ground state
population
 Three-Level System

E3
RAPID DECAY
UPPER LASING LEVEL
E2
PUMPING

E1 LOWER LASING LEVEL

 Two-, three-, and four-level
systems
It took laser physicists a while to realize that four-
level systems are best.
Three-
Two- level Four-
level system level
system system
Fast decay Fast decay
Pump Laser Pum
Transit Pump
Laser Lase
Transiti p
n ion Transi Transi r
Tran
tion tion Tran
Fast decay
sitio
sitio
At best, you
If you hit it n
hard, you get n
get equal Lasing is easy!
lasing.
populations.
No lasing.
Principal Pumping Schemes
 SOLID STATE LASERS
 Active medium is a piece of
crystalline insulator doped with a
small number of impurity ions.

 Impurity constituent which provides

the required energy structure to
produce laser action.

 The impurity dopant is usually an

ion of a transition or rare earth
element, for example chromium or
neodymium
 Ruby-laser
 Principle:-based on three level
pumping

 Construction;-ruby rod, xenon flash

lamp, two reflecting mirror.
 Ruby-laser
cavity
Maiman (1960): L =n l

Xe
Ruby-laser
Ruby: Al2O3 + Cr
 He-Ne-laser
Neon atom
0.61 eV Helium atom collision Meta
20.66stable
eV 6328A
state
0
6328A0
Sponta
neous
emissio
n
empact
Radiatio
n less
transitio
n
Ground state Ground state
Helium-Neon Laser
1) Helium atoms are
excited to first shell
by bombarding it with
20.61 eV photons.
2) He-Ne collisions
transfer electron from
excited He to Ne
atom.
3) Electrons from highest
state of Ne quickly fall
to intermediate meta-
stable state.
4) The meta-stable state
electrons fall back to
ground state of Ne
emitting laser light.
 He-Ne-laser

mp He to metastable state (20.61 eV)

nsfer excitation to Ne metastable state (20.66 eV)
er transition
ontaneous emission (2 times) to deplete lower level (-> low pum
t very efficient! (20.6 eV vs 2 eV)
He-Ne laser
 SEMICONDUCTOR
SEMICONDUCTOR OR
OR DIODE
DIODE LASER
LASER
• Very small and efficient, emission at
wavelengths above about 350 nm

• Single frequency mode output using

external cavity (ECDL) or distributed
feedback (DFB) architecture to write grating
on diode itself

• Frequency can be swept at very high rates

• Further development of these lasers is

active area of research (higher power, lower
and higher wavelengths)
 semiconductor lasers
• photon production by electron hole pair recombination as in L
• above a treshold current, stimulated emission occurs -> lasing

L =n l
Diode laser
 LASER TYPE WAVELENGTH (Nanometers)
Argon Fluoride 193
Xenon Chloride 308 and 459
Xenon Fluoride 353 and 459
Helium Cadmium 325 - 442
Rhodamine 6G 450 - 650
Copper Vapor 511 and 578

Argon 457 - 528 (514.5 and 488 most used)

Frequency doubled Nd:YAG 532

Helium Neon 543, 594, 612, and 632.8

Krypton 337.5 - 799.3 (647.1 - 676.4 most used)

Ruby 694.3
Laser Diodes 630 - 950
Ti:Sapphire 690 - 960
Alexandrite 720 - 780
Nd:YAG 1064
Hydgrogen Fluoride 2600 - 3000
Erbium:Glass 1540
Carbon Monoxide 5000 - 6000
Carbon Dioxide 10600
 Applications
 Electronics industry
 Welding
 Drilling and Cutting
 Fiber Optic
Communications
 Military purposes : As
a war weapon, ‘death
ray’ which could
annihilates anything
near or far
 Investigation the
structure of
Molecules
 Medical Applications :
in the treatment of
detached retina,
cancer surgery,
 • What is the difference between Laser and Ordinary
Light?

• Why we need Metastable state?

• Why we need Active medium?

• Why we need population inversion?

• Why these atoms do not go to higher energy states even

when energy is supplied through stimulation ?