LASER

LASER
❖ Introduction:
In 1917, Einstein gave the idea of laser when he introduced the concept of stimulated emission; where a photon interacts
with an excited molecule or atom and causes the emission of a second photon having the same frequency, phase, polarization
and direction. In 1957 Townes talked over some ideas about pumping light energy into atoms with Gordon Gould, a graduate
student who had been thinking along similar lines. Theodore Maiman developed the first working laser (Ruby laser) at
Hughes Research Lab in 1960 and his paper describing the operation of the first laser was published in Nature three months
later.

❖ Full form of LASER: Light

Amplification by
Stimulated
Emission of
Radiation

The acronym LASER stands for "Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation".

❖ Properties of Laser: The properties of laser are –

➢ Monochromaticity :

The light emitted from a laser is monochromatic, that is, it is of one wavelength (color). In contrast, ordinary white light
is a combination of many different wavelengths (colors).

➢ Directionaity & low divergence :

Lasers emit highly directional light. Laser light is emitted as a relatively narrow beam in a specific direction. Whereas,
,ordinary light is emitted in many directions away from the source. A perfectly collimated laser beam would have parallel
sides and would never expand at all. Its divergence angle is almost zero.

➢ Coherent :

The light from a laser is coherent, which means the wavelengths of the laser light are in phase in space and time.

➢ Intensity :
Due to low divergence, the effective focal spot area is very low for lasers. As a result lasers can be made of having very
high intensity.

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 ❖ Differences between Ordinary light & Laser:

Ordinary Light Laser

i) Ordinary light is a mixture of different colors i) The light emitted from a laser is highly
; i.e; non-monochromatic . monochromatic .

ii) Ordinary light is not directional and have ii) Lasers light that is highly directional and
high divergence . have very low divergence .

iii) It is incoherent in nature. iii) The light from a laser is coherent.

iv) The lasers can be made of having very high

iv) The intensity of ordinary light is low.
intensity.

❖ Working of Laser: The working principle depends on the two phenomena – absorption of energy and emission of
energy as photon radiation.

1. Absorption of energy: -

➢ Stimulated absorption :
When a photon of light having energy 𝐸1 − 𝐸2 = ℎ𝜐 is incident
on an atom in the ground state, the atom in the ground state 𝐸1
may absorb the photon and jump to higher energy state 𝐸2 .This
process is called stimulated absorption.
This is called so because the incident photon has stimulated
the atom to absorb the energy.
The rate of this process depends on the following two factors –
i) The incident radiation .
ii) The number of atoms in the ground state. Fig: Stimulated Absorption

2. Emission of energy:- This may happen by the following two processes –

➢ Spontaneous emission :
An excited atom in the higher energy level 𝐸2 , spontaneously returns to
its ground state 𝐸1 or to some intermediate energy level within 10−8 seconds
by releasing the absorbed energy in the form of a photon. This process is called
spontaneous emission.
The rate of this process depends on–
i) The number of atoms in the higher energy level.
ii) Surrounding medium. Fig: Spontaneous Emission
The photons generated by this process are incoherent in nature.

➢ Stimulated emission :
Sometimes when energy of suitable frequency is given to an excited atom
in the higher energy level 𝐸2 , it may be de-excited to its ground state 𝐸1
or to some intermediate energy level by releasing the absorbed energy in
the form of two photons. This process is called stimulated emission.
The rate of this process depends on–
i) The number of atoms in the higher energy level.
ii) The stimulating radiation.
The photons generated by this process are coherent in nature and are Fig: Stimulated Emission
responsible for lasing action.

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 ❖ Metastable State :
The life time of excited atoms in the higher energy levels is too short (10−8 sec ). But for stimulated emission, there must
be large number of atoms in the higher energy level in comparison to the lower energy level. Now to accumulate atoms
in the higher energy state, we need a special energy state in which excited atoms reside for a larger period of time.

Metastable state is a energy state in which the lifetime of excited atoms are nearly 10−3 𝑠𝑒𝑐 ; i.e ; 105 times greater
than the normal energy states. This type of energy state is necessary for lasing action because without this there will be
no population inversion..

❖ Population Inversion :
For lasing action, the number of atoms in the higher energy level must be greater than the number of atoms in the lower
energy level .The situation at which the number of atoms in the higher energy level becomes greater than the number of
atoms in the lower energy level is called population inversion.

Importance - Without population inversion there will be no lasing action.

❖ Basic components of Laser :

The basic components of a laser are – i) Active medium, ii) Optical resonator & iii) Pumping.

➢ Active medium : The atoms or molecules which are responsible for

lasing action is called active medium.
e.g - The atoms of He & Ne gas in case of He-Ne laser.

➢ Optical resonator : For sustained lasing action, some part of the laser
output is to be fed into the input . A pair of mirrors is used at the end faces
of the laser cavity to energize the output photons. This pair of mirrors is
known as optical resonator.
One of the mirrors is fully reflective and is kept
at the opposite side of the output while another partially reflective
mirror is kept at the output side of the cavity.
The photons that are generated within the cavity due
to lasing action suffer successive reflections at the two mirrors
before coming out from the laser cavity.

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 ➢ Pumping : The process of giving energy to the active medium of a laser is called pumping. It may be of different
types. Some of them are given below –
i) Optical pumping – Light energy is used . e.g – Ruby laser.
ii) Electrical pumping – Electrical energy is used . e.g – He-Ne laser.
iii) Chemical pumping – Chemical energy is used . e.g – HF (DF) laser.
❖ Different types of Laser :
Lasers may be of different types depending on the active medium. Some of them are –

i) Solid state Laser : Ruby laser .

ii) Liquid Laser or Dye Laser : Rhodamine .

iii) Gas Laser : He-Ne Laser.

iv) Semiconductor Laser : Nd-YaG Laser

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 ❖ Derivation of Einstein’s “A” & “B” coefficients :
Let us consider a system having large number of atoms and molecules at thermal equilibrium at temperature T K.
Suppose - 𝑃12 = Probability of stimulated absorption.
𝑃21 = Probability of spontaneous emission.
′
𝑃21 = Probability of stimulated emission.
𝑁1 = Number of atoms in the lower energy level.
𝑁2 = Number of atoms in the higher energy level.

The rate of stimulated absorption varies with the intensity of incident radiation 𝑢 (𝜐) & no. of atoms in ground state 𝑁1 .
So we can write - 𝑃12 ∝ 𝑢 (𝜐)

∴ 𝑃12 = 𝐵12 𝑢 (𝜐)

where 𝐵12 is the Einstein’s coefficient of absorption. Now the no. of atoms that jumps to the higher energy level from lower
energy level per unit time can be given as –
𝑁1 𝑃12 = 𝐵12 𝑢 (𝜐) 𝑁1 …………………………. (i)

The rate of spontaneous emission varies with the no. of atoms in the higher energy level 𝑁2 . So the no. of atoms that jumps
from the higher energy level to lower energy level by spontaneous emission per unit time can be given as –

𝑁1 𝑃21 = 𝐴21 𝑁2 ………………………….. (ii)

Here 𝐴21 is the Einstein’s coefficient of spontaneous emission.

Similarly we can find out the no. of atoms that jumps from the higher energy level to lower energy level by stimulated
emission as –
′
𝑁2 𝑃21 = 𝐵21 𝑢 (𝜐) 𝑁2 ………………………….. (iii)

Here 𝐵21 is the Einstein’s coefficient of stimulated emission.

Now at equilibrium, the number of atoms that are going to the higher energy level is equal to the number of atoms coming
back to the lower energy level; i.e; we can write -
′
𝑁1 𝑃12 = 𝑁1 𝑃21 + 𝑁2 𝑃21

𝑂𝑟, 𝐵12 𝑢 (𝜐) 𝑁1 = 𝐴21 𝑁2 + 𝐵21 𝑢 (𝜐) 𝑁2

𝑂𝑟, 𝐵12 𝑢 (𝜐)𝑁1 − 𝐵21 𝑢 (𝜐) 𝑁2 = 𝐴21 𝑁2

𝑂𝑟, [ 𝐵12 𝑁1 − 𝐵21 𝑁2 ]𝑢 (𝜐) = 𝐴21 𝑁2

𝐴21 𝑁2
𝑂𝑟, 𝑢 (𝜐) =
[ 𝐵12 𝑁1 − 𝐵21 𝑁2 ]

𝐴21
⁄𝐵
21
𝑂𝑟, 𝑢 (𝜐) =
𝐵 𝑁
[ 𝐵12 𝑁1 − 1 ]
21 2
………………………….. (iv)
According to the Maxwell-Boltzmann statistics,
𝑁1 ℎ𝜗
= 𝑒 𝐾𝑇
𝑁2
Hence we can write equation (iv) as –
𝐴21
⁄𝐵
21
𝑢 (𝜐) = ℎ𝜗
𝐵
[ 𝐵12 𝑒 𝐾𝑇 − 1 ]
21
………………………….. (v)
But , according to Planck’s radiation law –

8𝜋ℎ 𝜈 3 1
𝑢 (𝜐) =
𝑐3 ℎ𝜗
𝑒 𝐾𝑇 − 1
………………………….. (vi)

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 Comparing equations (v) & (vi) we get –
𝐴21 8𝜋ℎ 𝜈 3
=
𝐵12 𝑐3
𝐵21 𝑐3
𝑂𝑟, =
𝐴21 8𝜋ℎ 𝜈 3

i.e; for higher rates of stimulated emission the frequency of incident radiation should be low. That is why, using
microwaves we can get efficient lasing action.
And also ,
𝐵12
=1
𝐵21
i.e; the rate of stimulated absorption is equal to the rate of spontaneous emission.

❖ Ruby Laser :

➢ Construction –

i) Active medium : Ruby crystal (𝐴𝑙2 𝑂3 ) doped with 𝐶𝑟 +3 ions.

ii) Optical Resonator : The two ends of Ruby rod acts as optical resonator. One end is very much polished &
silvered such that it reflects all the photons incident on it and the end at the output side is made partially reflective.

iii) Pumping : A Xenon flash lamp of spiral shape surrounds the Ruby rod .Here the pumping is done using optical
energy (𝜆 =550nm) of this Xenon flash lamp.

➢ Working – The lasing action in Ruby laser takes place by the following steps –

i) Absorption of optical energy: The Xenon flash lamp emits a green light of wavelength 550nm while connected to
the power supply. This optical energy excites a large number of 𝐶𝑟 +3 ions from ground state 𝐸1 to the higher energy
states 𝐸3 & 𝐸4 as shown in the energy-level diagram beside.

ii) Emission of absorbed energy: The excited 𝐶𝑟 +3 ions come to the relatively lower energy state 𝐸2 within 10−8
seconds by emitting photons spontaneously. These photons further induces stimulated emission in the metastable
state 𝐸2 and population inversion is achieved. Finally the excited atoms jump to the ground state 𝐸1 releasing photons by
stimulated emission of wavelength 694.3 nm.

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