TUTORIAL SHEET: 13

LASERS
1. A Ruby laser produces a beam of light of wavelength 6943 Ao with a circular cross -
section of 1cm in diameter. Calculate the diametre of this beam at a distance of 1000
kilometers. (1992)

2. Explain the general principle of laser action. What do you mean by population inversion?
Discuss the involved in the ruby laser. A pulsed laser is rated at 10 m W. It generates 3 ns
wide pulses at frequency 500 HZ. Compute the instantaneous power in the pulse. (1993)

3. The light ( = 6000 Ao) from a laser of sectional diameter 1.0cm and power 0.20 watt is
focused by a lens of focal length 10cm.Determine the area of the image and intensity in it
in watt/cm2. (1994)

4. Discuss the working principle of He Ne laser indicating the transitions involved in the
process. Determine the power output of a laser in which a 3.0 J pulse is delivered in 1.0 n
second. (1995)

5. Describe the working principle of a three level solid state laser giving the transitions
involved in the laser action. (1996)

6. Obtain an expression for the ratio of the probabilities of stimulated and spontaneous
emissions. What do you infer from this relation? How is population inversion interpreted
thermodynamically? (1996)

7. In a hydrogen atom for the 2p 1s transition the probability per unit is 6 108 s-1.
Calculate the angular frequency of the emitted photons and the order of Einsteins
coefficient B21 (1997)

8. A 3 MW laser beam which has a diameter of 1cm is focused by a lens of focal length 5
cm. The wavelength of laser is 10,000 Ao. Calculate the intensity at the focal plane of the
lens. (1997)

9. What is population inversion? Mention the methods of achieving population inversion.

Explain the concept of negative temperature. (1997)

10. A short - focus lens is used to focus a laser beam of wavelength 6328 Ao. If the beam
width is comparable to the focal length of the lens, calculate the area of cross-section of the
region of focus. (1999)

11. Explain why a two - level system is not adequate for laser operation. Draw the essential
parts of a ruby laser and explain the working principle. (1999)

12. Explain how Einsteins A and B coefficients are related to the phenomena of spontaneous
and stimulated emission of radiation, respectively. Derive the relation between A and B.
Establish that at very high frequency around X-ray wavelength regime, lasers cannot be
made as easily as at low frequencies e.g. far infra-red regime. (2006)

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13. Consider an ensemble of two level atoms in thermal equilibrium. Show that the ratio of
Einstein A and B coefficients is given by

A 8 hv3
=
B c3
Why is it not possible to achieve inversion of population in a two- level medium?
(2008)
13. What are the characteristics of Stimulated emission? Show that in the optical region
stimulated emission is negligible compared to spontaneous emission. (2009)
14. At what temperature are the rates of spontaneous and stimulated emission equal?
(Assume = 500 nm) (2009)
(ii) What are the important properties of a hologram?
(iii) Optical power of 1 mW is launched into an optical fiber of length 100 m. If the power
emerging from the other end is 0.3 mW, calculate the fiber attenuation. (2009)

15. A laser beam of 1 micrometer wavelength with 3 megawatts power of beam diameter 10
mm is focused by a lens of focal length 50 mm. Evaluate the electric field associated with
the light beam at the focal point.(Dielectric permittivity of free
space, 0 =
8 8542 1012 C 2 / N m 2 ) (2010)

16. What is the physical significance of Einsteins A-coefficient? Explain why it is more
difficult to achieve Lasing action at X-ray wavelength than at infra-red wavelength. (2014)

17. Explain the working principle of a 3-level laser with a specific example. Comment on why
the third level is needed. (2014)

18. What is the role of an optical resonator in a laser? Why does one prefer curved mirrors
instead of plane mirrors in designing an optical resonator? (2015)
19. Using the concept of Einsteins A and B coefficients for a two-level atomic system under
thermal equilibrium, determine the ratio of the number of atoms per wilt volume in the two
levels experiencing spontaneous and stimulated emission. How does the principle of
population inversion lead to the gain mechanism in. the active medium of the laser? (2015)
20. Explain the principle of (i) induced absorption (ii) spontaneous emission and (iii)
stimulated emission.
Show that the ratio of Einsteins coefficients is given by (2016)

A 8 hv3
=
B c3

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