Laser sources:

Light Amplification & Stimulated Emission of Radiation

-First described in 1960.
-Works on the basis of quantum theory of radiation
Energy of each photon= h.
-Highly useful sources in analytical instrumentation due to
a)high intensities,
b)narrow bandwidths,
c)coherent nature of outputs,
-The laser sources are used in several routine analytical methods e.g.

Raman spectroscopy,

Emission spectroscopy,

Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy
(as a part of instruments)

-Produces a beam of highly monochromatic bandwidth of 0.01nm or less.
-Used important sources in UV/Vis. & IR regions of spectrum.
Components:
Principal components of laser source:

i)Lasing medium ii)Pumping medium

Lasing medium & pumping source:
-Solid crystals ,e.g ruby, a semiconductor(gallium arsenide),solution of organic dye or a gas such as argon or
krypton.
-It is activated by radiation from an external source.
-A few photons obtained from the pumping source trigger the formation of a cascade of photons of the same
energy.
-Pumping can also be accomplished by an electrical current or by an electrical device.
-The radiation produced by the lasing action is caused to pass back & forth through the medium numerous
times by means of a pair of mirrors:

a)Mirror b)Partially transmitting mirror.

-Repeated passage causes a highly parallel beam.
-Additional photons are generated with each passage
-Consequence is enormous amplification.
-The repeated passage causes about the escape of non- parallel radiation from the sides of the medium.
-A mirror is coated with a thin layer of reflecting material, so that a fraction of the beam is transmitted rather
than reflected.
-A lasing medium may be composed of many layers of atomic, ionic or molecular nature.

-Mechanism is same for all.
Mechanism in details:
-Let us consider only two molecules of molecular layer.
-Each having two electronic energy levels:

Ground state (E
x
) & Excited state(E
y
)

-E
y
is composed of various vibration levels E
y
, E
y
, E
y
, E
y
.

Mechanism of Laser action


-Vibration levels are not shown for (E
x
).
-Atomic or ionic lasers do not have vibrational levels but electronic levels.
-Mechanism of laser action can be divided into four steps:

a)Pumping,
b)Spontaneous emission(fluorescence),
c)Stimulated emission,
d)Absorption.

a)Pumping,

-The active species of the laser is excited by means of an

Electrical discharge

Passage of electrical current

Exposure to an intense radiant source


-In a molecular system, several of the higher electronic & vibrational energy levels of the active species are
populated(a).

-Staying of the electrons at vibrational level is very brief & relaxes to first excited electronic state.
-Some excited electronic states of laser materials enjoy life time considerably longer(often 1ms or more) than
their vibrational counter part.
-The long-lived state is called Metastable excited state.

b)Spontaneous emission(fluorescence),
-A species in an excited state may lose all or part of its excess energy by spontaneous emission of
radiation(fig.b).
-Spontaneous process is random . So that, the radiation produced by different excited species, differs
in direction & phase
-Hence, the result is incoherent monochromatic radiation.

c)Stimulated emission,
-It is the basis of laser behaviour(fig.c).
-The excited species are struck by photons having the same energy (E
y
- E
x
) as the photons produced by
spontaneous emission.
-Collision of this type cause the excited species to relax immediately to the lower energy state.
-Relaxation emits a photon of exactly the same energy & travels in the same direction as the photon that
stimulated the process.

-Hence, the emission is exactly in phase.
-Stimulated emission is totally coherent with the incoming radiation.

d)Absorption
-The absorption process competes with the stimulated emission(fig.d).
-Two photons with energies exactly equal to (E
y
- E
x
) are absorbed to produce the metastable excited state.
-This step is identical to the last step of fig.a.

Population Inversion and Light Amplification

-To achieve light amplification in a laser,

The number of photons produced by the stimulated

emission must exceeds the number lost by absorption.

-This condition prevails only when:
the number of particles in the higher excited state exceeds the number in the lower.
-There must be a state of population inversion from the normal distribution of energy state.
-Pumping creates this state.
-In the figure, nine molecules of the laser medium are in the two states E
y
& E
x
.
-Non-inverted system with three molecules are in excited state & six are in the lower energy level(fig a).
-The medium absorbs three of the incoming photons to produce three additional excited molecules.
-But relaxes rapidly to ground state with out attaining the steady state population inversion-state .
-The incoming radiation may stimulate emission of two photons from the excited molecules.
-Hence, incoming beam gives three photons for absorption & gains two photons by stimulated emission(Net
loss by one photon.
-In fig.b pumping two molecules into higher energy states, creates a population inversion between E
y
& E
x
.
-Six electrons in E
y
& three electrons in E
x
.
-In the inverted system, stimulated emission prevails over absorption to produce a net gain in emitted photons.

-Light amplification, or lasing then occurs.