LASER

(Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation)

Presented by : -
Trushnamayee Mallick
+3 3rd year, Physics (Hons.)
Roll no: - 57R0116016
 Content
• Introduction
• Difference between laser and ordinary light
• Absorption of radiation
• Spontaneous emission
• Stimulated emission
• Einstein’s coefficient
• Population Inversion
• Metastable State
• Methods of achieving population inversion
• Main component of Laser
• Types of Laser
• Ruby Laser
• He-Ne Laser
• Application of Laser
• Disadvantages
Introduction
• The word LASER is an acronym for “Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of
Radiation”. Laser is a device that amplifies or increases the intensity of light and
produces highly directional light.
HISTORY

• Einstein gave the theoretical basis for the development of laser in 1917, when he
predicted the possibility of stimulated emission. In 1954, C.H. Townes and his co-
workers put Einstein’s prediction for practical realization.
• In 1960, the first laser device was developed by T.H. Maiman. It is called “Ruby Laser”.
• Soon after, in 1960 A. Javan developed first gas laser Called “He-Ne Laser”.
Features of laser are:
(i) Laser beam produces coherent light, i.e., in same sources and of same frequency while ordinary light sources such as incandescent
lamp sources produces incoherent light.
(ii) Laser beam is extremely intense while the intensity of ordinary light decreases with increase of distance.
(iii) Laser beam is highly monochromatic while ordinary light sources over a wavelength 100 Å to 1000Å.
(iv)Laser beam does not diverge while ordinary light sources are highly divergent.

So, a laser beam has a unique combination of coherence, monochromaticity, intensity directionality, which distinguish it from other
light source.
Light Amplification of Emission of
Radiation
Absorption of Radiation
Spontaneous Emission
Stimulated Emission
Population inversion
Metastable State
Absorption of Radiation
 The process of absorbing energy from
photons is called absorption of radiation.
 The light or photons energy applied to
excite the electrons can be mathematically
written as
=> hv = E2 – E1
Einstein’s coefficient of absorption
An atom in lower energy state 1 can absorb radiation from incident photon and get excited to higher
energy level 2. This is known as absorption. The rate of absorption R12 is proportional to the following
factors:
R12 α ρ(υ) (energy density of incident radiation)
α N1 (number of atoms in ground state 1)
Therefore, R12 α N1 ρ(υ)
 R12 = B­12 N1 ρ(υ)
where B12 is a proportionality constant and is known as Einstein’s coefficient of absorption.
Spontaneous Emission
The process by which excited electrons emit photons while
falling to the ground level or lower energy level is called
spontaneous emission.
The electrons in the excited state do not stay for a long period
because the lifetime of electrons in the higher energy state or
excited state is very small, of the order of 10-8 sec. Hence, after a
short period, they fall back to the ground state by releasing energy
in the form of photons or light.

Einstein’s coefficient of spontaneous emission

The transition from state 2 to state 1. The probability
(R21)sp of transition from state 2 to state 1 is directly proportional to the number of atoms (N 2) in the excited
state. Therefore,
(R21)sp α N2
 (R21)sp = A21 N2
where A21 is proportionality constant and is known as Einstein’s coefficient of spontaneous emission. This is
independent of energy density.
 Stimulated Emission
 The process by which electrons in the excited state
are stimulated to emit photons while falling to the
ground state or lower energy state is called
stimulated emission.
 All the photons in the stimulated emission
have the same frequency and travel in the
same direction.
Einstein’s coefficient of stimulated emission
In stimulated emission, the rate of stimulate emission
(R21)st is proportional to the following:
(R21)st α ρ(υ) (energy density of radiation)
αN2 (number of atoms in excited state)

Therefore, (R21)st α N2 ρ(υ)

 (R21)st = B21 N2 ρ(υ)
where B21 is a constant of proportionality and is known as Einstein’s coefficient of
stimulated emission.
Relation between Einstein Coefficient
Under equilibrium condition, the number of upward and downward transition per unit
volume per second are equal.
The rate of absorption = the rate of emission
R12 = (R21)sp + (R21)st
or B12 N1 ρ(υ) = A21 N2 + B21 N2 ρ(υ)

 ρ(υ) =
 
It can also be written as
 ρ(υ) = =
According to Boltzmann distribution law,

Substituting the above value, we get,
 ρ(υ) =
The Planck’s radiation formula for energy distribution in terms in frequency is given by

 ρ(υ) =
 
 =1 or B12 = B21
 
 =
where c is the velocity of light.

The above equation shows the ratio of Einstein’s coefficient of spontaneous emission to
Einstein coefficient of stimulated emission is directly proportional to the cube of
frequency (υ3). This shows that probability of spontaneous emission increases rapidly
with the increase of energy difference between two states.
Population Inversion
Population inversion is the process of achieving greater population of higher energy state as
compared to the lower energy state. Population inversion technique is mainly used for light
amplification. The population inversion is required for laser operation.
Metastable State
Metastable state is an excited state of an atom or other system with a longer lifetime than the
other excited states. However, it has a shorter lifetime than the stable ground state. Atoms in the
metastable state remain excited for a considerable time in the order of 10-6 to 10-3. During
metastable state, all the parameters associated with state hold stationary values. A large number
of excited atoms are accumulated in the metastable state.
Methods of Population Inversion
Optical pumping is a process in which light energy is used to excite electrons from a lower to
higher energy level. It was first developed by Alfred Kastler in the early 1950s and is primarily
used to pump laser medium during laser construction.
 
The pumping process (applying
energy from external source) excites
the atoms to go level E3 directly from
E1. In the optical pumping, the laser
medium is irradiated by radiation of
frequency υp such that
E3 - E1= h υp
 where υp is the pumping frequency.
 Electric Discharge, in this method of pumping, electric discharge acts as the pump source
or energy source. A high voltage electric discharge (flow of electrons, electric charge,
or electric current) is passed through the laser medium or gas.

The process of achieving population inversion in the gas laser is almost similar to the solid laser.
The only difference is the pump source used for supplying energy and the type of material or
medium (solid or gas) used as a laser medium. In solid lasers, an external light source like xenon
flash lamp is used as pump source whereas, in gas lasers, a high voltage electric discharge is used
as a pump source.
Direct Conversion
 In this method, electric energy is applied to direct band gap semiconductor like GaAs. The
combination of electrons and holes take place. During this process, the electrical energy is
directly converted into light energy. This method of pumping is used in a semiconductor
laser.

 Other Few Methods of Population Inversion

Inelastic collision between atoms
Thermal Pumping
Chemical Method
Main component of Laser
Active Medium-This is the basic material in which
atomic transitions take place. When the active
medium is excited, it achieves population inversion.

Energy Source of Pump Or Excitation Mechanism

The excitation mechanism is the source of energy that
raises the atoms, molecule or ions in the active
medium into their excited state.

Optical Resonator or Laser Cavity

Optical resonator plays a very important role in the generation of the laser output. It provides
high directionality to the laser beam as well as produces gain in the active medium.
Types of Lasers

 Solid-state laser( Ruby Laser)

 Gas laser( He-Ne Laser)
 Liquid laser(Dye Laser)
 Semiconductor laser( Laser Diode)
RUBY LASER
The first laser to be operated successfully was ruby laser. First demonstration of laser action
using ruby crystal was given by T.H. Maiman in 1960. It is a solid state laser.
Construction
• Ruby is a crystal of aluminium oxide (Al2O3) in which some of the aluminium ions (Al3+) are
replaced by chromium ions (Cr3+). This is done by doping small amounts of chromium oxide
(Cr2O3) in the melt of purified Al2O3.
• These chromium ions give the crystal a
pink or red colour depending upon the
concentration of chromium ions. Laser
rods are prepared from a single crystal
of pink ruby which contains 0.05% (by
weight) chromium. Al2O3 does not
participate in the laser action. It only
acts as the host.
E1, E2 and E­3 represents the energy level of chromium ion. In normal state, the chromium ions are in
lower energy level E1. When the ruby crystal is irradiated with light of xenon flash, the chromium
ions are excited to upper energy level E3 where light absorption band is 5500 Å. The transition 1 is
optical pumping transition.
The excited ions gives up, by collision, a part of their energy to crystal lattice and decay to
the metastable state E2. The corresponding transition 2 is thus, radiation less transition. Metastable
state has relatively longer life time ( 10-3 sec) than usual life time(10-8 sec). Thus, the number of ions
in state E2 goes on increasing while due to pumping, the number of ions in ground state E 1 goes on
decreasing. In this way, population inversion is established between metastable state E 2 and ground
state E1.
 Frequency of output-The frequency of output
beam is 4.32 ×1014 Hz.
 Wavelength of output- The wavelength of
output beam is 6943 Å.
 Nature of output-The nature of output is
pulsed beam of light.
Drawbacks:-
1. The laser requires high pumping power.
2. The efficiency of ruby laser is very well. Here, only the green component of pumping light is
utilized while the rest of the components of incident lights are left unused.
3. The laser output is not continuous. The output occurs in the form of pulses of microsecond
duration.
4. The defects due to crystalline imperfection also present in this laser.
 

Advantage:
The ruby laser has following advantages:

1) The crystal is hard and durable.

2) It has good thermal conductivity
3) It is chemically very stable.
4) The laser rods can be grown with the high degree of optical qualities.
Helium-Neon Laser
The main drawback of ruby laser is that the output beam is not continuous though very intense. For
the continuous laser beam, gas lasers are used. In 1961, A. Javan, W. Bennett and D. Herriot
reported a continuous He-Ne gas laser.
Construction
 The gas laser consists of a fused quartz tube
with diameter of about 1.5 cm and 80 cm long.
This tube is filled with a mixture of neon (Ne)
under a pressure of 0.1mm of mercury and
helium (He) under a pressure of 1 mm of
mercury. There is a majority of helium atoms
and minority of neon atoms.
 The end faces of the discharge tube are inclined at the polarising angle so that laser light is
plane polarised. Such an arrangement is known as Brewster window. At one end of the tube,
there is not perfect while on the other end is a partial reflector. These reflecting surfaces form
an optical resonator.
When a discharge through the gas mixture, helium atoms are excited to higher energy level E 2 and E3
through collisions with accelerated particles. This is termed as pumping. The states E2 and E3 are
metastable states from which there are no allowed transitions.
The excited helium atoms then collide in elastically with neon atoms still in ground state and
transfer energy to them. The advantage of this collision process is that fairly light neon atoms can
easily jumped to energy states. It is important to mention here that after collision, the helium atoms
are returned to ground state. The higher Ne states and are metastable states and have longer life
times than. Therefore, a population inversion takes places between.

 Wavelength of output: The

wavelength of laser output is 6328
Å.
 Nature of output: The nature of
output is continuous waves.
 Power output: The power output of
laser Beam is 0.5-50 mill watts.
 
Drawbacks: -

As internal mirrors are used in He-Ne laser to act as optical resonators, but these mirrors are
usually eroded by the gas discharge and have to be replaced.

Advantages of He-Ne laser

 
1. This operates in a continuous wave mode.
2. It is more monochromatic and more directional than solid state lasers.
3. It has high stability of frequency.
4. No cooling us required.
5. It is less inexpensive.
 
Applications: -
 
6. It is used in laboratory experiments to produce interference and diffraction patterns.
7. It is used in optical communication without fiber for moderate distance.
8. It is used for aligning the ruby laser.
9. It is used in ophthalmology.
10.It can be used to produce holograms, i.e., 3D photographs.
Applications of Laser
Lasers in Medicine
1. Lasers are used for bloodless surgery.
2. Lasers are used to destroy kidney stones.
3. Lasers are used in cancer diagnosis and therapy.
Lasers in Communications
1. Laser light is used in optical fibre communications to send information over large
distances with low loss.
2. Laser light is used in underwater communication networks.
3. Lasers are used in space communication, radars and satellites.
Lasers in Industries
1. Lasers are used to cut glass and quartz.
2. Lasers are used in electronic industries for trimming the components of Integrated
Circuits (ICs).
3. Lasers are used for heat treatment in the automotive industry.
Lasers in Science and Technology
1. Lasers are used in computers to retrieve stored information from a Compact Disc (CD).
2. Lasers are used to store large amount of information or data in CD-ROM.
3. Lasers are used to measure the pollutant gases and other contaminants of the atmosphere.
Lasers in Military
1. Laser range finders are used to determine the distance to an object.
2. Lasers are used to dispose the energy of a warhead by damaging the missile.
3. Laser light is used in LIDAR’s to accurately measure the distance to an object.
Disadvantages of Laser

➨It is expensive and hence more expenditure to the patients requiring laser based treatments. 
➨It is costly to maintain and hence more cost to doctors and hospital management. 
➨Increases complexity and duration of the treatment based on laser devices or equipment's. 
➨Lasers can not be used in many commonly performed dental procedures e.g. to fill cavities
between teeth etc. 
➨Laser beam is very delicate to handle in cutting process. The slight mistake in adjusting distance
and temperature may lead to burning or discoloring of the metals. Moreover it requires higher
power during the cutting process. 
➨It is harmful to human beings and often burns them during contacts. 
Thank You