He – Ne Laser

Helium – Neon Laser Amplification by

Stimulated Emission of Radiation
Presented by Monu
 Contents
• About Helium
• About Neon
• About Helium Neon LASER
• Construction of He-Ne LASER
• Working of He-Ne LASER
• Advantages of He-Ne LASER
• Disadvantages of He-Ne LASER
• Applications of He-Ne LASER
• References
 Helium
Symbol: He
Atomic mass: 4.002602 u
Atomic number: 2
Electron configuration: 1s²

WHY HELIUM IS USED IN LASER?

• The direct excitation of Neon gas

inefficient,
is but the direct excitation of He gas REMEMBER
atoms is very efficient. Helium gas does not
• Also, An excited state of the He atom has an
energy level which is very similar to the energy
participate in the lasing
of an excited state of the Neon atom. process, but increases the
excitation efficiency
 Neon
Symbol: Ne
Atomic mass: 20.1797 u
Atomic number: 10
Electron configuration: [He] 2s²2p⁶

WHY NEON IS USED IN LASER?

Neon is used in laser to produce light as It
is capable to produce light when it gets
energy from Excitation of Helium.
 Helium Neon Laser
• Helium Neon Laser consists of
90% Helium and 10% Neon atom inside
it.
• It has pressure of about 1 torr inside
of a small electrical discharge.
• This Laser light gives light of 632.8 nm.
• It gives emission light in
continuous beam of laser.
• This is due to population inversion.
 Construction of He-Ne Laser

• The construction of laser consist of three essential

components :

High Voltage PowerSource Gain Medium Resonating Cavity

( Mixture of He &
Ne)
Construction of He-Ne LASER
 High Voltage Power Supply

• To produce Laser beam, Population

Inversion is essential.
• Population Inversion is process of
achieving more electrons in higher
energy states as compared to lower
energy states.
• As it is quite unstable condition, we
need to supply high enough energy
from source.
• This can be achieved by these high
voltage power supply.
 Gain Medium
• This is just a mixture of 90% He gas and
10% of Ne gas.
• Partial pressure of He is 1 mbar and that of
Ne is 0.1 mbar.
• As He is in more proportion we would have
to first excite the low energy states of
Helium atoms.
• In He-Ne Lasers , neon atoms are
active
centers (atom which produces light).
• Thus, we try to excite Ne atoms by exciting
helium atoms.
 Resonating Cavity
• This cavity is a glass tube with
two
mirrors placed opposite to each other.
• One mirror is partially silvered and
other one is fully silvered.
• This is called Resonating Cavity
because the small portion of produced
light oscillated between these two
mirrors.
• While oscillating this beam get
strengthen up and finally after getting
enough strength the ray comes out
from one side.
Working of He-Ne LASER
 Working of He – Ne Laser

As power switches on , a high voltage is

i. applied across gas mixture. ( 10kV
approx. )
ii. This high voltage DC produces
energetic
iii. electrons that travel through gas mixer.

• Thus, electrons accelerated between

i. anode and cathode
through the gas
ii. mixture.

• Due to these Helium atoms get excited.

• Lower state electrons of Helium atoms

i. gain enough energy and jumps into the excited
states or metastable states.
 Working of He – Ne
Laser
1. Metastable state electrons of the helium
atoms cannot return to ground state by spontaneous
emission.
1. Thus ,They can return to ground state by
transferring energy to the lower energy state of
electrons of neon atoms.
2. The lower energy state electrons of neon
atoms gain enough energy and
jumps
into higher energy states or metastable states.
 Working of He – Ne
Laser
• When millions of electrons of neon excited to
the metastable states, we would achieve
population inversion state.
• After this state ,electrons of neon atoms will fall
into next state with lower energy which is called
spontaneous emission.
• Thus photons are emitted by this transition.
• These photons oscillates back and fourth between two
mirrors until it stimulates other excited electrons of the
neon atoms and cause them to emit light.
Finally Optical Gain isAchieved.
 Working of He – Ne Laser

This process of photon emission is called

stimulated emission of radiation.

The light or photons emitted

stimulated emission will
escape through the partially
reflecting mirror or output
coupler to produce laser light.
 Advantages of He-Ne Laser

• Operates without damages at high

temperature.
• Highly Stable
• Economic (cheaper)
• Light emission in visible region.
 Disadvantages of He-Ne Laser

• Low Efficiency
• Low gain
• These lasers are limited to low power
tasks.
 Application of He – Ne
Laser
• These Lasers are used
to
demonstrateoptics
• experiment
These is alsoin laboratories.
laser
most commonly used
in holography.
Pointing beams
Barcode Scanners
Application of He – Ne Laser

Particle counting and Particle sorting

Non-contact
measuring
and
monitoring
TH A N K YO U