Module-2: Lasers and Optical fibers

 Lasers: Principle of laser, Einstein coefficients, conditions for

laser action, Types of Lasers, Construction and working principle
of CO2 laser, Applications of Laser: welding, cutting, drilling,
remote sensing.
 Self-Learning Topics: Semiconductor Lasers, Applications of
Laser: holography, laser cooling and trapping.
 Optical fibers: Structure, principle, acceptance angle,
acceptance cone and Numerical Aperture, types of optical fibers,
modes of propagation, losses in optical fibers. Applications - fiber
optic communication system, Medical Endoscope.
 Self-Learning Topic: Fiber Bragg Grating Sensors.
What is a LASER?
 LASER is the acronym for Light Amplification by
Stimulated Emission of Radiation.
 Laser is a light source of high intensity, monochromatic,
coherent and a parallel beam of light.
Characteristics / Properties of Laser
➢ Monochromatic :

Laser is a highly monochromatic beam of light as all the photons emitted are
from a single similar transition.

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➢Directionality

➢The laser can travel as parallel beam up to a distance of d2 / l

➢ d- is the diameter of the aperture
➢ l is the wavelength of the laser
➢Coherent

➢ If the phase difference between the two waves is constant

with position and time then they are said to be coherent

➢Coherence is the most important property which

distinguish the laser light from other types of light.
➢Highly intense

➢The intensity of laser is so much high that, the light from 1 mW

He-Ne laser is 100 times more intense than the light starting
from the surface of the sun.

➢Focussability

 Laser can be focused using lens.

 The diameter of the focused spot will be close to the wavelength
of the focused light.
 Ex: He:Ne laser can be focused to nearly 6823Å spot.
Principle of LASER
 When radiation interacts with the matter, there will be a change in
the quantum system of the matter.

 When radiation of frequency, [ν = (E2 – E1)/h] interacts with the

system, there is a transition in the system.
 There are three possible ways of interaction of photon with matter.

 Absorption

 Spontaneous Emission

 Stimulated Emission
 Absorption

 When an atom which is in E1 state absorbs the photon of

energy, i.e. hν = (E2 – E1), it excites to a higher energy
level (E2)
 atom + photon (h ν) = atom*
 atom* represents an atom in excited state.
Spontaneous Emission

 An atom which is in an excited state (E2) emits the photon

and makes a transition to a lower energy state (E1) without
any external aid.
 atom* = atom + photon (h ν )

 The emitted photons have random nature (Incoherent).

Stimulated Emission

 An atom which is in an excited state (E2) emits the photon under the
influence of stimulating photon of energy hν = (E2 – E1) and makes a
transition to a lower energy state (E1)
 atom* + photon (h ν) = atom+2 photons (h ν)
 The two photons (Stimulating photon and stimulated photon)
emerging out are in the same direction, phase, energy and frequency.
 Hence they are ‘Coherent Photons’.
Einstein’s coefficients: Expression for energy
density at thermal equilibrium.
 Consider a system of two energy levels E1& E2
containing N1& N2 number of atoms per unit volume,
respectively.

 Under thermal equilibrium, total energy of the system

remains constant.

 Number of transitions from E1 to E2 = Total number of

transitions from E2 to E1

 The rate of absorption = The rate of emission of light.

Rate of absorption / emission : The number of transitions per sec. per unit volume
 Transition from E1 to E2 can occur through Induced absorption

 Transition from E2 to E1 can occur either through spontaneous

emission or stimulated emission

 Case -1: Absorption

 Rate of induced absorption, 𝑅12 ∝ 𝑁1

 ∝ 𝜌𝜈 ρv - Energy density of radiation

 Thus, 𝑅12 = 𝐵12 𝜌𝑣 𝑁1 …….. (1)

 B12 - Einstein’s coefficient of absorption. ( the probability of

absorption per unit time.)
Case -2: Spontaneous emission

Rate of spontaneous emission, 𝑅21 (𝑆𝑃) ∝ 𝑁2

𝑅21 (𝑆𝑃) = 𝐴21 𝑁2 …….. (2)

Where, A21 - Einstein’s coefficient of spontaneous emission.

𝐴21 is the probability per unit time that the atoms will
spontaneously fall to the ground state.
 Case -3: stimulated emission

 Rate of stimulated emission, 𝑅 (𝑆𝑇) ∝ 𝑁2

21

∝ 𝜌𝑣

 𝑅21 (𝑆𝑇) = 𝐵21 𝜌𝑣 𝑁2 ------- (3)

 B21 - Einstein’s coefficient of stimulated emission.
 𝐵21 is the probability per unit time that the atoms undergo transition
from E2 to E1 by stimulated emission.
 Under thermal equilibrium condition
 Rate of absorption = Rate of emission

 B12N1 𝜌𝑣 = A21N2 + B21N2 𝜌𝑣

 𝐵12 𝜌𝑣 𝑁1 − 𝐵21 𝜌𝑣 𝑁2 = 𝐴21 𝑁2
𝐴21 𝑁2
 𝜌𝑣 = …….. (4)
𝐵12 𝑁1 −𝐵21 𝑁2

Dividing both Nr and Dr by 𝑁2 𝐵21

𝐴21
𝐵21
 𝜌𝑣 = 𝐵12 𝑁1 ……. (5)
−1
𝐵21 𝑁2
From Maxwell-Boltzmann statistics, number of atoms (N) in a
given energy level is given by

−𝑬𝟏ൗ −𝑬
( 𝟐ൗ𝒌𝑻)
𝑵𝟏 = 𝒆 𝒌𝑻 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑵𝟐 = 𝒆
𝑵𝟏 −𝐄 +𝐄 )
( 𝟏 𝟐 ൗ𝒌𝑻)
=𝒆
𝑵𝟐
𝐄 −𝐄
= 𝒆( 𝟐 𝟏ൗ𝒌𝑻)
(𝐡𝝂ൗ𝒌𝑻)
=𝒆 ----------- (6)

Substituting equation (6) in (5), we get

𝑨𝟐𝟏 𝟏
𝜌𝑣 = 𝒉𝝂 --------------- (7)
𝑩𝟐𝟏 𝑩𝟏𝟐
𝑩𝟐𝟏
𝒆 𝒌𝑻 −𝟏
 From Planck’s law of Radiation

𝑨𝟐𝟏 𝟏
𝟖𝝅𝒉𝝂𝟑 𝟏 𝜌𝑣 =
 𝜌𝑣 = 𝒉𝝂 ---------- (8) 𝑩𝟐𝟏 𝑩𝟏𝟐 𝒉𝝂
𝑪𝟑
𝒆 𝒌𝑻 −𝟏
𝑩𝟐𝟏 𝒆 𝒌𝑻 − 𝟏

 Comparing with Planck’s law of radiation

 Comparing equations (7) & (8), we find
𝑨𝟐𝟏 𝟖𝝅𝒉𝝂𝟑

𝑩𝟐𝟏
= 𝒄𝟑
and
𝑩𝟏𝟐

𝑩𝟐𝟏
=𝟏
 i.e. B12= B21

 which means the number of stimulated emission is generally

equal to number of induced absorption.
Conditions for laser operation
 Meta stable state
 In the excited state, atoms stay only for 10-8s.
 Metastable states are intermediate states
where the lifetime of atoms is ≈ 10-3s.
 This property will help in achieving population inversion.
 Population inversion
 The condition where the number of atoms in the higher energy level
exceeds number of atoms in lower level.