1 CHAPTER 14 : LASER Objective i) ii) iii) 14.

1 Explain the meaning of the term laser and the principle of its production. State the meaning of spontaneous emission, stimulated emission and population inversion. State the main properties of laser and the advantages of laser. Laser and principles of laser production

The word laser is an acronym for light amplification emission of radiation, so that stimulated emission is the key to laser operation. Einstein introduced this concept in 1917. Although the word had to wait until 1960 to see an operating laser, the groundwork for its development was put in place decades earlier. i) Spontaneous emission

In figure 14.1 a), the atom is in its excited state and no external radiation is present. After a time, the atom will move of its own accord to its ground state, emitting a photon of energy, hf in the process. We call this process spontaneous emission-spontaneous because the event was not triggered by any outside influence. The light from the filament of an ordinary light-bulb is generated in this way. Normally, the mean life of excited atoms before spontaneous emission occurs is about 10-8 s. However, for some excited states, this mean life is perhaps as much as 105 times longer. We call such long-lived states metastable; they play an important role in laser operation. ii) Stimulated emission

In figure 14.1 b), the atom is again in its excited state, but this time radiation with a frequency given by equation 14.1 is present. hf = E2 E1 (14.1) A photon of energy hf can stimulate the atom to move to its ground state, during which process the atom emits an additional photon, whose energy is also hf. We call this process stimulated emission-stimulated because the event is triggered by an external photon. The emitted photon is every way identical to the stimulating photon. Thus, the waves associated with the photons have the same energy, phase, polarization and direction of travel. Figure 14.1 c) describes stimulated emission for a single atom. Suppose now that a sample contents a large number of atoms in thermal equilibrium at temperature T. Before any radiation is directed at the sample, a number N0 of these atoms are in their ground state with energy, E0, and a number Nx are in a state of higher energy Ex. Ludwig Boltzmann showed that Nx is given in terms of N0 by :

2 N x = N 0e ( E x E0 ) / kT (14.2)

in which k is Boltzmanns constant. This equation seems reasonable. The quantity kT is the mean kinetic energy of an atom at temperature, T. The higher the temperature, the more atoms-on average-will have been bumped up by thermal agitation (that is, by atom-atom coliisions) to the higher energy state Ex. Also, because Ex > E0, equation 14.2 requires that Nx < N0; that is, there will always be fewer atoms, in the excited state than in the ground state. This is what we expect if the level populations N0 and Nx are determined only by the action of thermal agitation. Figure 14.2 a) illustrates this situation. If we now flood the atoms of figure 14.2 a) with photons will disappear via absorption by ground-state atoms, and photons will be generated largely via stimulated emission of excited-state atoms. Einstein showed that the probabilities per atom for these two processes are identical. Thus, because there are more atoms in the ground state, the net effect will be the absorption of photons. To produce laser light, we must have more photons emitted than absorbed; that is, we must have a situation in which stimulated emission dominates. The direct way to bring this about is to start with more atoms in the excited state than in the ground state; as in figure 14.2 b). However, since such a population inversion is not consistent with thermal equilibrium, we must think up clever ways to set up and maintain one.

Figure 14.1 : The interaction of radiation and matter in the processes of a) Absorption, b) Spontaneous emission and c) Stimulated emission. An atom (matter) is represented by the red dor; the atom is in either a lower quantum state with energy E0 or a higher quantum state with energy Ex. In a) the atom absorbs a photon of energy hf from a passing light wave. In b) it emits a light wave by emitting a photon of energy hf. In c) a passing light wave with photon energy hf causes the atom to emit a photon of the same energy, increasing the energy of the light wave.

Figure 14.2 : a) The equilibrium distribution of atoms between the ground sate E0 and excited state Ex, accounted for by thermal agitation. b) An inverted population, obtained by special methods. Such an inverted population is essential for laser action. 14.2 i) Main properties of laser Laser light is highly monochromatic : Light from an ordinary incandescent light-bulb is spread over a continuous range of wavelengths and is certainly not monochromatic. The radiation form a fluorescent neon sign is monochromatic, to about 1 part in about 106. However, the sharpness of definition of laser light can be many times greater, as much as 1 part in 1015. Laser light is highly coherent : Individual long waves (wave trains) for laser light can be several hundred kilometers long. When two separated beams that have traveled such distances over separate paths are recombined, they remember their common origin and are able to form a pattern of interference fringes. The corresponding coherence length for wave trains emitted by a lightbulb is typically less than a meter. Laser light is highly directional : A laser beam spreads very little; it departs from strict parallelism only because of diffraction at the exit aperture of the laser. For example, a laser pulse used to measure the distance of to the Moons generates a spot on the Moons surface with a diameter of only a few meters. Light from an ordinary bulb can be made into an approximately parallel beam by a lens, but the beam divergence is much greater than for laser light. Each point on a lightbulbs filament forms its own separate beam, and the angular divergence of the overall composite beam is set by the size of the filament. Laser light can be sharply focused : If two light beams transport the same amount of energy, the beam can be focused to the smaller spot will have the greater intensity at that spot. For laser light, the focused spot can be so small that an intensity of 1017 W/cm2 is readily obtained. An oxyacetylene flame, by contrast, has an intensity of only about 103 W/cm2.

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4 Question 1. 2. 3. Objective i) ii) 14.3 Give examples of laser system and its advantages. Describe the uses of laser. Types of Lasers Explain the meaning of laser? State the properties of laser? Compare spontaneous emission to stimulated emission.

There are many different types of lasers. The laser medium can be a solid, gas, liquid or semiconductor. Lasers are commonly designated by the type of lasing material employed: i) Solid-state lasers have lasing material distributed in a solid matrix (such as the ruby or neodymium:yttrium-aluminum garnet "Yag" lasers). The neodymium-Yag laser emits infrared light at 1,064 nanometers (nm). A nanometer is 1 x 10-9 meters. Gas lasers (helium and helium-neon, HeNe, are the most common gas lasers) have a primary output of visible red light. CO2 lasers emit energy in the far-infrared, and are used for cutting hard materials. Excimer lasers (the name is derived from the terms excited and dimers) use reactive gases, such as chlorine and fluorine, mixed with inert gases such as argon, krypton or xenon. When electrically stimulated, a pseudo molecule (dimer) is produced. When lased, the dimer produces light in the ultraviolet range. Dye lasers use complex organic dyes, such as rhodamine 6G, in liquid solution or suspension as lasing media. They are tunable over a broad range of wavelengths. Semiconductor lasers, sometimes called diode lasers, are not solid-state lasers. These electronic devices are generally very small and use low power. They may be built into larger arrays, such as the writing source in some laser printers or CD players. Examples of laser system and its advantages.

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14.4

14.4.1 A Ruby Laser A ruby laser (depicted on the previous page) is a solid-state laser and emits at a wavelength of 694 nm. Other lasing mediums can be selected based on the desired emission wavelength (see table below), power needed, and pulse duration. Some lasers are very powerful, such as the CO2 laser, which can cut through steel. The reason that the CO2 laser is so dangerous is because it emits laser light in the infrared and microwave region of the spectrum. Infrared radiation is heat, and this laser basically melts through whatever it is focused upon.

Other lasers, such as diode lasers, are very weak and are used in todays pocket laser pointers. These lasers typically emit a red beam of light that has a wavelength between 630 nm and 680 nm. Lasers are utilized in industry and research to do many things, including using intense laser light to excite other molecules to observe what happens to them. Shiny lamp Laser beam

Full covered mirror High Voltage Ruby rod Figure 14.3 : Ruby laser system 14.4.2 The Helium-Neon Gas Laser Figure 14.4 shows a type of laser commonly found in student laboratories. It was developed in 1961 by Ali Javan and his coworkers. The glass discharge tube is filled with a 20 : 80 mixture of helium and neon gases, neon being the medium in which laser action occurs. Figure 14.5 shows simplified energy-level diagrams for the two atoms. An electric current passed through the helium-neon gas mixture services-through collisions between helium atoms and electrons of the current-to raise many helium atoms to state E3, which is metastable. The energy of helium state E3 (20.61 eV) is very close to the energy of neon state E2 (20.66 eV). Thus, when a metastable (E3) helium atom and a ground-state (E0) neon atom collide, the excitation energy of the helium atom is often transferred to the neon atom, which then moves to state E2. In this manner, neon level E2 in figure 14.5 can become more heavily populated than neon level E1. This population inversion is relatively easy to set up because (1) initially there are essentially no neon atoms in state E1, (2) the metastability of helium level E3 ensures a ready supply of neon atoms in level E2, and (3) atoms in level E1 decay rapidly (through intermediate levels not shown) to the neon ground state E0. Suppose now that a single photon is spontaneously emitted as a neon atom transfers from state E2 to state E1. Such a photon can trigger a stimulated emission event, which, in turn, can trigger other stimulated emission events. Through such a chain reaction, a coherent beam of red laser light, moving parallel to the tube axis, can build up rapidly. This light, of wavelength 632.8 Half covered mirror

6 nm, moves through the discharge tube many times by successive reflections from mirrors M1 and M2 (Figure 14.4), accumulating additional stimulated emission photons which each passage. M1 is totally reflected but M2 is slightly leaky so that a small fraction of the laser light escapes to form a useful external beam.

Figure 14.4 : The elements of a helium-neon gas laser. An applied potential Vdc sends electrons through a discharge tube containing a mixture of helium gas and neon gas. Electrons collide with helium atoms, which then collide with neon atoms, which emit light along the length of the tube. The light passes through transparent windows W and reflects back and forth through the tube from mirrors M1 and M2 to cause more neon atom emissions. Some of the light leaks through mirror M2 to form the laser beam.

Figure 14.5 : Four essential energy levels for helium and neon atoms in a helium-neon gas laser. Laser actions occurs between levels E2 and E1 of neon when more atoms are at the E2 level than at the E1 level.

Here are some typical lasers and their emission wavelengths: Laser Type Argon fluoride (UV) Krypton fluoride (UV) Nitrogen (UV) Argon (blue) Argon (green) Helium neon (green) Helium neon (red) Rhodamine 6G dye (tunable) Ruby (CrAlO3) (red) Nd:Yag (NIR) Carbon dioxide (FIR) Wavelength (nm) 193 248 337 488 514 543 633 570-650 694 1064 10600

14.5

The uses of laser

Bar-codes The products in a supermarket are marked with a series of parallel black bars. The laser scans across the bar-code and the change in intensity of the reflected light is detected by a photo-detector to identify the product.

Laser communication Signals are generated by semiconductor lasers.The signals are transmitted by the Optics Fibers. More signals can be transmitted and also loss in signals is reduced compared with the transmission with radio waves.

Medical laser Uses : To remove benign tumors Lasers are good for microsurgery because of its high power density at the point absorption. The tissue vaporizes rapidly before heat conducts to the surrounding healthy tissues.

8 Ablation of the cornea

Laser printers Fine toner powder will stick to the drum and then transfer to a paper by contact. The image is fixed by heating.

Laser used for information Laser is used to read compact disc (CD) and digital versatile disc (DVD) Laser printers are quieter, faster and sharper the inkjet printers. Laser light is used to form an electromagnet image of the picture on a light sensitive drum Information is stored on track and can contain a series of pits. The laser is focused on the track. The reflected light is measured by a photodiode where the pattern of low and high intensity of light is converted to a binary digital electronic signal.

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