CHAPTER-II

LASERS
(Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation)

STRUCTURE:

4.2.1) INTRODUCTION
OBJEVTIVES
4.2.2) CHARACTERISTICS OF LASER BEAM
4.2.3) ATTENUATION OF LIGHT IN OPTICAL MEDIUM
4.2.4) POPULATION
4.2.5) STIMULATED ABSORPTION
4.2.6) POPULATION INVERSION AND ACTIVE SYSTEM
4.2.7) EMISSION
4.2.8) SPONTANEOUS EMISSION
4.2.9) STIMULATED EMISSION
4.2.10) LASING ACTION
4.2.11) PUMPING
4.2.12) OPTICAL PUMPING
4.2.13) TYPES OF LASERS
A) RUBY LASER
B) He-Ne LASER
C) SEMICONDUCTOR LASER
4.2.14) APPLICATIONS OF LASERS
4.2.15) SUMMARY
4.2.1) INTRODUCTION:

Laser is one of the outstanding inventtion of the 20th century . Laser is a photonic device, which is
responsible for the new birth of new field, namely photonics. In interference of light we use the
term coherence between two sources of light. The two sources are coherent when they vibrate in
same phase or there is a constant phase difference. In recent years some sources are developed
which are highly coherent, i.e. the radiation gives out by all the emitters in the source is in mutual
agreement not only in phase but also in direction of emission and in polarization. These coherent
sources are called lasers. LASER stands for
Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Though it is a light source of
light,lasers differ vastly from the traditional light sources. It is not used for illumination purposes
and is used for radio wave and microwave transmitters and produce a highly directional coherent
monochromatic beam . laser is a tool in metal working , entertainment electronics, optical
communications, bloodless surgery weapon guidance in wars and in a wide verity of other fields.
The first successful laser was built by T.H.Maiman in 1960 . laser is a device to produce a powerful
monochromatic light of beam in which the waves are coherent. The beam emerges as a narrow
beam which can travel over long distances without much loss of energy
.
OBJECTIVES:
After studying this chapter you should able to: know
 About the features of lasers.
 About the special characteristics of lasers.
 About absorption, spontaneous emission, stimulated emission and population inversion.
 About different types of lasers like solid state laser, gas laser, and semiconductor laser.
 The applications of lasers in different fields.

4.2.2) SPECIAL CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF LASER BEAM:

The most outstanding characteristics of the laser beam are its high degree of directionality ,
monochromaticity , coherence and brightness.

 Directionality: the laser beam is highly directional. ex: a laser beam 10cm in diameter when
beamed at Moon’s surface.3,84,000km away is more than 5km wide. The laser beam spread
is less than 0.01mm for a distance of 1m.
 Monochromaticity: a laser produces light in more or single wavelength i.e. the line width
associated with laser beams are extremely narrow.
  Coherence: a laser beam is spatially and temporally coherent to an extraordinary degre

Temporal coherence: it refers to relative phase or coherence of the two waves at

two separate locations along the propagation direction of two beams.

Spatial coherence: it referred to transverse coherence. it is possible to observe

interference effect from two independent laser beams.

 Brightness: the laser beam is highly intense as compared to ordinary sources of light. It can
be used for such operations as weding which involve reaching high temperatures.

4.2.3)ATTENUATION OF LIGHT IN OPTICAL MEDIUM:

When light travels through a medium , a gradual reduction in its intensity occurs
mainly because of the process of absorption of light and scattering of light in the medium.

1. Light absorption occurs because part of incident light is transformed into the energy of
motion of atoms in the medium.

2. Light is scattered when it encounters obstacles of sizes smaller than a wavelength.

The reduction in intensity with distance in medium is called attenuation of length.
Fig:
4.2.4) POPULATION:
A material medium is composed of identical atoms which are characterized by a specific system
of energy levels. These energy levels are common to all atoms in the medium. A certain number of
atoms occupy a certain energy level. The number of atoms per unit volume that occupy a given
energy level is called population of that energy level.
A particular medium has atoms, which are characterized by only two energy levels. Let E1 be the
ground level and E2 be the excited level. Atoms are differently distributed in these two energy
levels. Let the populations in these two energy levels be N1 andN2 respectively. The number of
atoms in the lower energy level is always larger than the number of atoms in the higher energy
level .under normal conditions higher the energy of energy levels, lesser is population. Hence
N1>>N2. Such distribution of atoms among the energy level is termed normal distribution .if energy
difference (E2-E1)->0 again N2=N1. They show as long as medium is in thermal equilibrium the
population of higher energy level cannot exceeded the population of lower energy level.

4.2.5) STIMULATED ABSORPTION:

The process of particle transfer from normal state corresponding to minimum energy of the system
to a higher energy state is termed as excitation and the particle itself is said to be excited. The
process is called stimulated or induced absorption.
If an atom is in the lower energy level E1 .if a photon of energy hv = (E 2-E1) is incident on atom it
imports its energy to the atom and disappears. Then the atom absorbed an incident photon. As a
result of absorption of energy, the atom jumps to the excited state E2. The transition is called
absorption or incident absorption.

Induced absorption involves the excitation of atom to the fixed energy level only. As a result N1
decreases and N2 increases. But under normal conditions N2cannot be greater than N1. As light
propagate through the medium
It gets absorbed. N2can be made greater than N1using special techniques.
POPULATION INVERSION AND ACTIVE SYSTEM:

Usually the population N2 of higher energy level is less than the population N1 of the lower energy
level. This condition is called normal condition or thermal equilibrium, N1>>N2
Making the number of particles n2 more in higher energy level than the number of particles N1 in
the lower energy levels (N2>N1) is called as population inversion .or inverted population.
Thus the condition where the no of atoms in the excited state exceeds that in lower state is called
population inversion. The state of population inversion is referred to as a negative temperature
state .It is not a physical quantity but signifying the equilibrium state of system. The states of
system, in which the population of higher energy state is more in comparison to the population of
lower energy states, are called negative temperature states. When the system has a number of
states .Then one of them may have a negative temperature with respect to other state or states. A
system in which population inversion is achieved is called an active system.
The state of population inversion is a non equilibrium state. The non equilibrium condition is
attained by employing pumping techniques to transfer large number of atoms from lower energy
level to higher energy level.

LIFE TIME OR MEAN LIFE: the particle can remain in the excited state for a limited time known as
life time .the life time of the excited hydrogen atom is of the order of 10-8sec.

METASTABLE STATES: the excited states in which the life time is greater than 10-8sec. These
states are called Meta stable states.

In the process of emission there are two types. They are

1.SPONTANEOUS EMISSION

2. STIMULATED EMISSION
4.2.8) SPONTANEOUS EMISSION:
An atom cannot stay in the excited state for a longer time. In a time about 10 -8s, the atoms return
to its lower energy state by releasing a photon of energy h ϑ ,where h ϑ=(E2-E1) .The emission of
photon occurs on its own and without any external agent given to excited atom . emission of a
photon by an atom without any external agent is called spontaneous emission.
Fig:

4.2.9)STIMULATED EMISSION:
An atom in the excited state need not wait for spontaneous of photon . before the atom
can make a spontaneous transition , it may interact with a photon with energy h ϑ=E2-E1 and
make a downward transition . the photon is said to stimulate the excited atom to emit the photon
of energy h ϑ=E2-E1 .In addition to the incident photon , there is a second photon which is
emitted by the excited atom.
The phenomenon of forced photon emission by an excited atom due to the action of an external
energy is called stimulated emission.
Fig
DISTINCTION BETWEEN SPONTANEOUS EMISSION AND STIMMULATED EMISSION:

SPONTANEOUS STIMULATED

1. Transitions occurs from higher energy level to 1. Transitions occurs from higher energy level to
lower energy level lower energy level
2. No incident photon is required 2. Photon whose energy is equal to difference of
two energy levels is required.
3. Single photon is emitted 3. Two photons of same energy are emitted.
4. The energy of emitted photon is equal to the 4. The energy of emitted photon is double the
energy difference of two levels energy the energy of stimulated photons.
5. This was postulated by Bohr 5. this was postulated by Einstein

4.2.14) LASING ACTION:

In stimulated emission, the emitted photon travels in the same direction as that of incident
photon. Now the two photons again stimulate emission of photon from two excited atoms. This
results in the emission of four photons from two excited atoms. In a similar way a chain reaction or
avalanche effect is produced. The phenomenon is known as lasing action. So, a monochromatic
intense and coherent beam having the same frequency as that of incident beam is obtained. This
is called a laser beam. This is the principle of working of a laser.
4.2.11) PUMPING:
The method of raising of the particle from lower energy state to higher energy state is called as
pumping or process of producing population inversion is known as pumping . this can be done by
number of ways the most commonly used methods are 1. OPTICAL PUMPING
2. ELECTRICAL DISCHARGE
3. INELASTIC COLLESSION OF ATOMS etc…
If the active medium is transparent and non conductivity in nature then the optical pumping is
used . if the medium is conducting in nature then the electric field is used to attain population
inversion.

4.2.12)OPTICAL PUMPING:
The most common method of pumping is optical pumping. Consider a three level system . let us
allow all transitions between these levels. If the system is exposed to a external source with a
frequency
Corresponding to the transform level1 to level3 .
Fig:
if the life time of the particles in level 3 is sufficiently long(meta stable state) , their number in
this level will exceed that in level 2. in this way level 3 is inversely populated with respect to
level2. thus by optical pumping , the condition for population inversion is obtained(N3>N2). For a
light of frequency ϑ23 the system acts as laser. The stimulated radiation together with original
incident radiation both coherent can stimulate the emission of more coherent , radiation by other
particles in the higher energy state . this process can go on ,provided enough molecules are in
higher energy state.
In fig (b) the population inversion N2>N1 is created. Here the necessary condition is that the state 2
must be in meta stable state. Optical pumping raises the particles to level3 , from where most of
them return to state1 but some go to state2. the probability of transition from state2 to state1 is
very low hence in due course of time N2>N1 , which is population inversion. In the presence of
external photon h ϑ12, stimulated emission takes place from state2 to 1. hence a laser beam of
energy h ϑ12 is obtained.
4.2.13) TYPES OF LASERS:
Among the various kinds of lasers, solid state lasers, gas laser, liquid laser, dye laser and
semiconductor laser are some important types of lasers.

1. SOLID STATE LASERS : Ruby laser, Nd:YAG laser

2. GAS LASER : He-Ne laser , CO2 laser
3. LIQUID LASER : European chelate laser, SeOCl2 laser
4. DYE LASER : Rhodamine 6G lasers
5. SEMICONDUCTOR LASER : InP laser ,GaAs laser.

A) RUBY LASER:
Ruby laser is a three level solid state laser and was constructed by Maiman in 1960. it is a pulsed
laser having very high power of hundreads of mega watt in a single pulse with about 10 nano
second duration
Ruby(Al2O3) laser uses a crystalline substance as a active material.
Construction: it consists of three main parts.
(1) an active working material: a rod of ruby crystal in the form of cylindrical rod 3 to5 mm in
diameter and 5 to 30 cm long.
(2) A resonant cavity: it is made of fully reflecting plate at the left of ruby crystal and a
partially reflecting plate at the right of ruby crystal . both the plates are optically plane and
exactly parallel to each other.
Exciting system: a helical xenon flash tube with power supply source.

Working: ruby is a crystal of aluminum oxide (Al2O3) in which some aluminum atoms are replaced
by chromium atoms. The active material in the ruby are chromium ions Cr+3. when the ruby crystal
contains about
0.5% of chromium its color is pink.
 In a ruby laser, a pink rod of 4 cm length and 0.5 cm in diameter is generally used. The end faces
of rod are made strictly parallel, ground and high degree. The end faces are silvered that one end
becomes fully reflecting while the other end partially reflecting. The ruby rod is surrounded by a
helical xenon flash tube which provides the pumping light to raise the chromium ions to upper
energy levels. The flash of xenon tube lasts several milliseconds and the tube consumes several
thousand joules of energy. Only a part of this energy is used in pumping the Cr +3 ions while the rest
heats up the apparatus. For this purpose a cooling arrangement is used.
1, 2 &3 represent the energy levels of chromium ion. In normal state, chromium ion is in lower
levels. When the ruby crystal is irradiate with the light of xenon flash, the chromium atoms are
excited and pass to upper level where the light absorption band is 5600 Ao. The absorption band
width of this level is about 800 Ao. New few excited chromium atoms return to ground level 1 and
other to level 2. The transition 3->2 are non irradiative. The chromium atoms give part of energy
to crystalline lattice in the form of heat.
Most of excited atoms in state 3 returns to state 1 but those which go to state 2 have a little
chance to return to state 1 spontaneously. After few milliseconds the level 2 becomes more
populated than level 1. And hence population inversion is achieved. The state of inverted
population is unstable and the probability of spontaneous transitions is very high. The spontaneous
transitions may cause an induced transition which produces a photon. This photon knocks out
second photon from neighboring atom. The atom from which the first photon was emitted is
brought to ground level. The photons will knock out two more photons and their total number will
be four and so on. Photon travelling parallel to the axis of the tube will start a cascade of photon
emission while the photon travelling in any direction other than this will pass out of ruby.
Photon beam parallel to the axis of crystal grows in strength and some of it burst through the
particle reflector and serves as laser output beam. The laser beam then causes till next flash of
xenon tube repeats the process. Thus the ruby laser is a pulsed laser.
The output beam has wavelength of 6943 Ao which is in the visible spectrum. The duration of
output flash about 300msec .It is very intense of about 10000 watts
 Fig: Energy level of ruby

B) He-Ne LASER(GAS 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 gas lasers the vapors of metals are
employed as active medium .the main advantage of gas lasers are high monochromaticity, most
pure spectrum and high stability of frequency. The out put power of gas laser is moderate. They
have wide application in science and it engineering pertucurlly in communications. It is a four
level laser system
In 1961, A.JAVAN, w.Bennett and D.Herriot reported a continuous gas laser.

CONSTRUCTION: the gas laser consists of a fused quartz tube with a diameter of about 1.5 cm
and 80 cm long. The tube is filled with a mixture of neon under a pressure of 0.1mm of mercury
and helium under a pressure of 1mm of mercury . There is a majority of He atoms and minority
of Ne atoms. And one end of the tube there is a perfect reflector on the other end is partial
reflected . the active material is excited by means of high frequency generator with a frequency
of several tens of MHz and an input of about 50 watt.

Fig:
WORKING: when a discharge is passed through the gas , the electrons are accelerated towards the
positive electrode. During their passage the collide with He atoms and excite them into upper
states labeled He2 and He3.
These are meta stable states . The atoms remain in these levels for a sufficiently long time. Now
these atoms interact with neon atoms which are in ground state. The interaction excite the neon
atoms to their Meta stable state labeled Ne4 and Ne6 while He atoms returns to their ground state.
As the energy exchange continuous, the population of neon atoms in excited states increases more
and more. When an excited ne atom passes spontaneously from meta stable states Ne4 and Ne6 to
states Ne3and Ne5 it emits a photon. This photon travels through gas mixture. If this photon is
moving parallel to the axis of tube, it is reflected back and forth by the reflectors until it
stimulates an excited neon atom and causes it to emit a fresh photon in phase with stimulating
photon. This process is continuous and laser beam builds up in tube. When the beam becomes
intense a portion of it escapes. Through partially reflected end. The neon atom now passes down
spontaneously to a lower state Ne2 by emitting incoherent light. Finally the Ne atom comes to
ground state through collision with tube walls. This is radiation less transition.
Gas laser emit light which is more directional and monochromatic. Gas lasers are capable of
operating continuously with out need of cooling.

C) SEMICONDUCTOR LASER (Ga-As LASER):

Semiconductor laser is also called as diode laser. These have important applications in fiber optic
communication.

PRINCIPLE: when a current is passed through a p-n junction, p region positively biased. Holes are
injected from p region into n region and electrons from n region to p region. the electrons and
holes recombine and release of energy takes place near the junction region .this energy is called
active energy depends on type of semi conductor . In semiconductors like germanium and silicon ,
most of the energy released in the form of heat because the recombination of carriers of opposite
sign takes place through interaction with atoms of crystal. But in case of Gallium Arsenide the
energy is released as light because the atoms of the crystals are not involved in the release of
energy. The wavelength of emitted light depends on activation energy of the crystal.
Photons emitted at the moment of recombination of an electron with a hole will stimulate
recombination of other carriers of electric charge. The result will be stimulated emission of
radiation. If these radiations moving in the plane of the junction are made to move back and forth
in the plane of junction by reflection at opposite parallel sides and perpendicular to plane of
junction, a very powerful laser beam can be produced.
In semiconductor laser, the active medium was a single crystal of GaAs cut into plate having
thickness of 0.05 mm. The plate let consists of two parts exhibiting electron conductivity and a
whole conductivity. The emission is stimulated in p-n junction layer which is very thin. Electric
current is applied to crystal platelet through a strip electrode fixed to its upper end.
Fig:
 When exciting currents are small, a small part of carriers undergo recombination. The process of
spontaneous. The laser radiation is random and incoherent. When the current density is increased
the emission becomes more and more coherent and radiation intensity increases. Now efficiency
of GaAs lasers reach 40%.
When cooled to 20k, semiconductor lasers have delivered output of more than 2 watts of
continuous power. The semiconductor lasers may reach 100% efficiency. They have a high stability
of output frequency.

4.2.9) APPLICATIONS OF LASERS:

Because of high directionality, high coherence, high monochromaticity and high intensity lasers
are widely used in the fields of
(1) communication (2)computers (3)industry (4)scientific research (5)military operation
(6)medicine

LASERS IN COMMUNICATION:
In case of optical fiber communication, semiconductor lasers diodes are used as optical sources
and its band width is used very high compared to radio and microwave communication.
(1) as it has large band width , more amount of data can be sent.
(2) Signals cannot be tapped.
(3) Due to its high directionality and less divergence, it has greater potential used in space
crafts. And submarines.
Used in high speed photo copiers and printers.

LASERS IN COMPUTERS:
(1) In LAN , data can be transferred or transmitted from the memory storage of one
computer to another computer using laser for short time
(2) CD-ROM stores large amount of data used in CD-ROM s during recording and reading
the data.
 LASERS IN INDUSTRY :
(1) Lasers can be used to blast holes in diamonds and hard steel.
(2) To cut teeth in saws, drill eyes in surgical needles, and test the quality of a fabric.
(3) Used as source of intense heat.
(4) Lasers range finder is used to measure distance to making maps by surveyors.
(5) Laser welding has advantages over gas welding, such as
• Purity of the material is not altered.
• Localized heating by small spot size can be accurately controlled by
programming with computer to reproduce exact characteristics.

LASERS IN SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH:

(1) Separating isotopes of Uranium using laser.
(2) Used to clean delicate pieces of art, develop hidden finger prints.
(3) Used in the field of 3D – photography called holography.
(4) Holography plays a very important role in optical signal processing.
(5) Used to produce certain chemical reactions.
(6) In plastic industries, the monomers are united by laser irradiation to produce
polymers.
(7) The internal structure of microorganisms and cells are studied very accurately.
(8) To produce Raman spectrum for small samples.
(9) To confirm Doppler shifts in frequency for moving objects.

evaluating the velocity of a moving object.

LASERS IN MEDICINE:
(1)Doctors use the heating action of a laser beam to remove diseased body tissue.
(2)Used to correct a condition called retinal detachment by eye specialist.
(3)Used in opening blocked arteries, reconnecting several nerves and treating bleeding
ulcers.
(4)Instead of traditional sutures, the surgery allows doctors to weld injured muscles and
ligaments with out use of heat.
(5)Used for elimination of moles and tumors which are developing in the skintissue.
(6)Pulse neodymium laser is employed in the treatment of liver cancer.
(7)The endoscopes are made from optical fibers which are flexible with a suitable laser
(8)CO2 laser is used in spinal and brain tumors excision kidney stone extrusion.
 4.2.15)SUMMARY:

 LASER means light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation.

 Excitation of atoms from lower energy state to higher energy state due to interaction of
radiation with matter is known as stimulated absorption.
 When electron in the excited level E2 falls spontaneously to lower energy level E1 after its
life time a photon is emitted. This process is called spontaneous emission.
 When electron in the excited level E2 is induced by a photon of energy E2-E1 the electron
moves to lower energy level E1 emitting another photon of energy E2-E1. This process is
called stimulated emission.
 Stimulated emission of radiation results in amplification of light.
 To get the LASER beam the population of excited state must be greater than the population
of lower energy state. This condition is called population inversion.
 There are different pumping mechanisms to excite the atoms from lower energy state to
higher energy state.
 There are different methods to get laser beam for example ruby laser, He-Ne laser, and solid
state laser.
 Due to high energy laser beam possess so many applications in many fields like engineering,
medicine, military etc.