Difference between plane

waves and LASER

Lahiru De Silva
What is a plane wave?
• A wave whose wave fronts (surfaces of constant phase) are parallel planes (plane
wave fronts) normal to propagation direction.
• A plane wave's wave-fronts are equally spaced, a wavelength apart.
• EM plane wave fronts propagate at the speed of light
• Plane waves can be represented by the solution of “Wave equation”
• Initially EM waves emitted from a point source have spherical wave fronts, but
once they extend to infinity they can be considered as plane wave fronts
Wave fronts

Propagation
direction
3D wave equation
• Waves can propagate any where in 3D space .The propagation of a plane EM
wave in 3D space is represented by the 3D electromagnetic wave equation
  
r2  E
2   E  E  E
2 2 2

 E   2  0 Where  E 2  2  2
2

t x y z

• Solution for this wave equation is the plane wave represented by

r r
E( x, y, z, t )  E0 exp[i(k  r   t )] where E0  A exp(i )
Maxwells equations
% %
r
• Where K is wave vector k   kx , k y , kz 
• and r is Cartesian coordinate vector rr   x, y, z 
r r
k  r  kx x  k y y  kz z
1D wave equation
• 1 Dimensional wave equation is the simplest form of wave equation which shows
an electromagnetic (or any other) wave propagation in a scaler space.
• Assuming wave propagates in Z direction
 
 E
2
 E
2
 0 and 0
x 2
y 2

• 3D wave equation can be written as 1D wave equation obtained as

2E 2E
  2  0
z 2
t
• Solution for 1D wave equation is
f ( x, t )  E0 sin k z   t  E0  A exp(i )
What is a LASER?
• A laser is a beam of light produced through a process of optical
amplification based on the stimulated emission of
electromagnetic radiation.
• LASER = Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation
• Has only one wave length and moves in one direction
• Properties:
• High monochromaticity
• High coherence
• Highly Collimated
• Equation that describes a LASER is known as a Gaussian Beam
equation
x2  y2 ik ( x 2  y 2 )
 
w0
EA e w( z ) 2
 e i ( kz t )  e 2R( z)
 e  i ( z )
w( z )
Principle of operation of a LASER
• LASER work on the principle of stimulated
emission
• An atom is first “pumped” in to an excited state
by a photon emitted by flashing tube
• When the excited electron is hit by another
photon having an energy equal to the energy gap,
it stimulates the excited electron to fall back to
lower energy level.
• The excited electron releases a photon having
same phase and direction as the "stimulating"
photon when coming back, and is called
stimulated emission
• Inside a LASER tube, these photons are made to
reflect back and forth by 2 mirrors intensifying
the beam
• Once the beam is sufficiently intense it escapes
through the semi reflective mirror as a beam
Derivation of the Gaussian equation -1
r2 2 E
• Wave equation is  E   2  0
t
• Introducing a solution E ( x, y, z )  E0 ( x, y, z )eit
• Then we obtain wave equation as Helmholtz equation
 2 E0  2 E0  2 E0 E0
   2ik 0
x 2
y 2
z 2
z
 2 E0
• Considering variation of E in z direction as negligible z 2
0

• We obtain paraxial wave equation

 2 E0  2 E0 E0
  2ik 0
x 2
y 2
z
Derivation of the Gaussian equation -2
• Solution to this paraxial wave equation is the Gaussian equation
x2  y2 ik ( x 2  y 2 )
 
w0
EA e w( z ) 2
 e i ( kz t )  e 2R( z)
 e  i ( z )
w( z )
• where
w( z )  Beam width (at z  0, w(z)  w0 )
R ( z )  Radius of curvature of thewave front from z  0
z R  Raleigh range (z distance at which beam diverges)
k  wave number
z
 ( z )  tan 1 ( )
zR
Wave front shape change

x2  y2 ik ( x 2  y 2 )
w0  w ( z ) 2 
EA e  e i ( kz t )  e 2R( z)
 e  i ( z )
w( z )

Longitudinal Shift of wave to

Amplitude factor Plane wave nature
phase factor spherical wave front
Features that make a LASER
beam different from plane waves
1. Amplitude and beam width
• A plane wave has its amplitude spread to infinity spread w
in the transverse direction (x-y plane). y

• Since laser beam is more localized it can be assumed x

Laser beam
spot on wall
to have high amplitude near propagating direction z and
less amplitude when far away from z.
• Due to localized nature, we define a term called beam
width as w(z).
• At beam width, the amplitude of beam is 1/e times that
of the amplitude of beam at the z=0 axis.
2. Wave front shape
• Wave front radius is given by equation
• Initially when z=0, it an be seen radius is infinite
• Initially at beam waist radius is infinite. This means beam wave fronts
show plane wave nature
• When Z increases, radius too increases meaning wave fronts show
spherical nature
• This is opposite to plane waves which are spherical at the near field
and planer in far field.

Gaussian wave
Plane wave
3. Beam divergence
• For a certain distance ZR, LASER
beams follow plane wave
characteristics.
• But after a that, LASER beams beam
width diverges from being nearly
linear.
• Angle of deviation of beam width is
given by
Thank you