LASER

Ruby Laser
The Ruby laser consists of a ruby cylindrical rod whose ends are optically flat and
ends are accurately parallel (Fig. 1). One end is fully silvered and other end is
partially silvered. The rod is surrounded by a glass tube. The glass tube is
surrounded by a xenon flash tube in the form of a spiral which acts as the optical
pumping system.

Fig. 1: Ruby laser

The ruby rod is a crystal of aluminium oxide (Al2O3). Doped with 0.05%
chromium oxide (Cr2O3), so that some of the aluminium atoms in the crystal lattice
are replaced by Cr3+ ions. The energy level diagram of these chromium ions is
shown in Fig. 2.
The chromium atoms have the property of green light. The Cr atoms are excited
from level E1 to level E3 by the absorption of light of wavelength 550 nm from the
xenon flash tube. The excited ions quickly undergo nonradiative transitions with a
transfer of energy to the lattice thermal motion, to the level E2. The E2 is a
metastable state with a lifetime of about 3×10-3 s. Now, the population of the E2
level becomes greater than that of the E1 level. Thus “population inversion” is
achieved.

Fig. 2: Principle of ruby laser

 Fig. 3: Energy level diagram

Some photons are produced by spontaneous transition from E2 to E1, and have a
wavelength of 694.3 nm (This is the reason why ruby is naturally red). The ends
of the ruby rod act as reflecting mirrors. Therefore, photons that are not moving
parallel to the ruby rod escape from the side, but those moving parallel to it are
reflected back and forth millions of times in the ruby with the help of the mirror
at the two ends. These stimulate the emission of similar other photons. The chain
reaction quickly develops a beam of photons all moving parallel to the rod,
which is monochromatic and is coherent. When the beam develops sufficient
intensity, it emerges through the partially silvered end.
Once all the chromium atoms in the metastable level have returned to
ground level, the laser action stops. It is then necessary to send one more
flash of pumping radiation through the rod. Thus the ruby laser operates
only in pulses.
Helium-neon laser
The laser tube is approximately 5mm in diameter and 0.5m long. It
contains a helium-neon mixture, in the ratio of 5:1, at a total pressure of
about 1 torr.

The tube has parallel mirrors, one of them is partly transparent, at both
ends. The spacing of the mirrors is equal to an integral number of half
wavelengths of the laser light.

The He-Ne mixture contained in the gas discharge tube is ionized by

passing a dc current through the gas.
Helium atoms are excited very
efficiently by electron impact into
the 2s level (Fig. 2) while the neon
atoms are much less readily excited
by the electrons. This excited 2s
state of helium is relatively long
lived.

The energy of this level (20.61eV) is almost the same as the energy of the 5s level
(20.66eV) in neon. Hence the energy of the helium atoms is easily transferred to
the neon atoms when they collide. This preferential transfer of the neon atoms to
the 5s state results in a population inversion between the 5s and 3p states. The
purpose of the He atoms is thus to help achieving population inversion in the Ne
atoms.
 The spontaneous transitions
from the 5s state to the 3p
state produce photons of
wavelength 632.8nm, which
then trigger stimulated
transitions.

Photons travelling parallel to the tube are reflected back and forth between the
mirrors placed at the ends, and rapidly build up into an intense beam which
escapes through the end with the lower reflectivity. The Brewster end windows
allow light of one polarization to pass through without any reflection losses.
Because the electron impacts that excite the He and Ne atoms occur all the
time, a He-Ne laser operates continuously.
Advantages of Gas laser
Gas lasers are preferred compared to Ruby lasers because

 The laser beam is more directional and more monochromatic.

 The defects due to crystalline imperfections, thermal distortion and

scattering are absent in gas lasers.

 Moreover, gas lasers can be operated continuously and there is no need for
frequent cooling as in the case of solid state laser.
Application of Laser
Lasers have thousands of applications in every section of modern society,
including consumer electronics, information technology, science, medicine,
industry, law enforcement, entertainment, and the military.
Some uses are:
 Medical purpose: Bloodless surgery, laser healing, surgical treatment,
kidney stone treatment, eye treatment, dentistry. cosmetic skin treatments.
 Industry: Cutting, welding, material heat treatment, marking parts, non-
contact measurement of parts.
 Military purpose: Marking targets, guiding munitions, missile defence,
electro-optical countermeasures (EOCM), alternative to radar, blinding
troops.
 Law enforcement: Laser is used for latent fingerprint detection in the
forensic identification.
 Research: Spectroscopy, laser ablation, laser annealing, laser scattering,
laser interferometry, fluorescence microscopy.
 Product development: laser printers, optical discs, barcode scanners,
thermometers, laser pointers, holograms, bubble grams.
 Laser lighting displays: laser light show.