LASER

(acronym)

Light Amplification by Stimulated

Emission of Radiation
• The laser is a device that produces coherent ( All
waves are exactly in phase with one another) nearly
monochromatic, Less diverging and extremely
intense light beam.
Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation

Stimulated emission Spontaneous emission

 Interaction of light with excited media

Eexcited
De-excitation
Excitation
Emission
Absorption
Eg
Energy levels

• An atom absorbs and emits electromagnetic radiation only at

frequencies that correspond to the energy separation between
allowed states.
• Only those photons whose energy h matches the energy
separation ΔE between two energy levels can be absorbed by
the atom.
• Excited state: as a result of absorption some of the atoms are
raised to allowed higher energy levels are called excited state.
• Absorption: the photon excites the atom
to make the upward transition. At E2
ordinary temperature most of the atoms
in a sample in the ground state, if the
E1
atoms are illuminated with radiation of
all possible frequencies, only those Absorption
photons having energy E2-E1, E3-E1, E4-
E1…..are absorbed by the atoms.

• Spontaneous Emission: once an atom

E2
is in excited state, some probability
exists that the excited atom will jump
back to a lower energy level and emit a E1
photon in the process called Spontaneous
Emission
spontaneous emission. It happens
randomly without requiring an event to
trigger the transition.
• Stimulated Emission: suppose an atom is in
excited state E2. If the excited state is a
E2
metastable state that is if its lifetime (10 -3sec
or more) is much longer than the typical 10-8
sec lifetime of excited states then the time E1
interval until spontaneous emission occurs Stimulated
Emission
will be relatively long.
In that interval if a photon of energy h = E2 – E1 is incident on the
atom. There is a possibility that the interaction between the
incoming photon and the atom will cause the atom to return to the
ground state and thereby emit a second photon with energy
h = E2 – E1.

• In this process the incident photon is not absorbed and the

process is called Stimulated emission. After the emission, two
photons with identical energy exist-incident photon and emitted
photon. The two are in phase.
 Emission and Absorption – Basic ideas

excited state
Restrict ourselves to two level system N2
E2 temporary state
E2 – E1 = hn = hc/l

N1 E1
Number of atoms (or molecules) / unit volume ground state
N = number density N = N1 + N2 rest state
N1,2 = population of levels 1 & 2

Three basic processes

E2 E2 E2

E1 E1 E1
Spontaneous Stimulated
Absorption
Emission Emission