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Requirements of a LASER
(i) Active Medium :- Gain per unit length is an inherent property.
(ii) Optical Resonator :- Length (L) dependence of gain ( but L can not be very very high without limit, rather it should be as low as possible).
(iii) Pumping Mechanism (Method of obtaining Population Inversion) :Has to be very effective in order to ensure high enough Population Difference.
NOTE :- All three of the above are equally important. However, having
chosen an active medium and optimized the resonator parameters, the factor most potentially tailored is the Pumping mechanism.
Most common
(iv) Gas dynamic Pumping (v) Laser Pumping (vi) Nuclear Pumping
Optically Pumped Lasers :Ruby (Al2O3 Cr3+) Nd:YAG (Nd Y2Al5O12), Yb:YAG, Er: YAG Nd:Glass, Er:Glass
Nd:KGW
Nd:YVO4 Nd:GSGG Solid State Lasers
Nd:YLF
Ti:Sapphire, Cr:LiSAlF, Cr:LiCaAlF Alexandrite (Cr doped chrysoberyl = BeAl2O4 Cr 3+) Dye Lasers (Liquid Laser) Cs Vapor (Gas Laser) Fiber Lasers
Electrically Pumped Lasers :Gas Lasers :(i) Atomic :- He-Ne, He-Cd, He-Zn, He-Hg, Cu Vapor, Au Vapor, Pb Vapor, Water Vapor (Far IR 30 m to 1.8 mm) (ii) Ionic :- Ar, Kr, Ne, Xe (iii) Molecular :- CO2, CO, N2, Excimer, CH3OH, C2H2F2, CH3F, HCN (Far IR)
Semiconductor Lasers :(i) Binary :- Ga As, In P, Zn Se ( II-VI), Ga N (Blue-Green) (ii) Ternary :- In Ga As, Ga Al As (iii) Quaternary :- In Al Ga As, In Al Ga P, Ga In As Sb, Al Ga As Sb
Laser Pumping :CH3 OH (by CO2 Laser), Nd:YAG (by Diode Lasers), Dye Laser (by doubled & tripled Nd:YAG, N2, Ar+, Excimer - KrF, XeF, XeCl, Q-switched Ruby, Copper vapor, Krypton Laser)
Nuclear Pumping :- X-ray Laser Other Pumping methods:Free Electron Laser (Particle-kinetic energy Pumping), X-ray Laser, Gamma Ray Laser
NOTE :- Gas lasers do not lend themselves so readily to optical pumping because of the small widths of their absorption lines and usually broad emission of the pumping lamps. However, He lamp (~ 390 nm) and Cs vapor absorption lines match and hence optical pumping of the gas laser is possible.
OPTICAL PUMPING
Optical Pumping
Many optically pumped lasers have a gain medium consisting of rare earth or transition metal ions doped into an insulating dielectric solid. In a laser that is optically pumped, the upper laser level is populated by absorption of a photon from some optical
ULL
E
source.
That is the laser material is illuminated with light at the right wavelength to excite the lasing species.
LLL
The upper levels of the pump transition usually span a range of energies. In fact, there are typically multiple upper levels, which all decay to the metastable ULL. This means the laser can be excited at many wavelengths corresponding to any transition between G and those many upper levels. Thus, many (solid state) lasers are optically pumped with light sources emitting a broad range of wavelengths.
Pumping Process :-
NOTE :Optical pumping is a process in which light is used to raise (or pump) electrons from a lower energy level in an atom or molecule to a higher
one.
The technique was developed by 1966 Nobel Prize winner Alfred Kastler in the early 1950s.
Schematic of Optical pumping of a laser rod (bottom) with an arc lamp (top). [Red : hot. Blue : cold. Green : light. Non-green arrows: water flow. Solid colors: metal. Light colors: fused quartz].
Lamp Lamp is a long Quartz tube coiled into a helix. Diameter of the helix is small and helix is
wound tightly.
Light reaches directly or after reflection at the specular cylindrical surface.
2. Elliptical / Cylindrical :Lamp is in the form of a cylinder (Linear Lamp) and the length is ~ that of the active rod. Lamp Lamp is placed along one of the focal axes F1 of the elliptical cylinder and the rod is placed along the second focal axis F2. The distance between the electrodes, referred to as the arc length of this lamp, is generally chosen to be about the same as the laser rod length. The bore of the flashlamp (the inside diameter of the quartz tubing or "envelope") is usually the same as the diameter of the laser rod. The lamp and rod are placed inside a reflecting housing with their axes parallel.
Rod
Cylindrical reflector
Elliptical reflector
Example :-
3. Close Coupled Configuration :The rod and the lamp are placed as close as possible and are surrounded by a close coupled cylindrical reflector. Cylinders made of diffusely reflecting
Cylindrical close-coupled
4. Multiple Configurations :Multiple configurations using more than one elliptical cylinder or several lamps are used.
Efficiency of multiple designs is lower than the corresponding single configurations, but are used in High Power systems.
Close-coupled (Double)
Double- Ellipse
Close-coupled configurations (a) Circular cylinder; (b) Single-lamp closewrap; (c) Double-lamp close-wrap (d) Four-lamp close-wrap (e) Closecoupled multiple coaxial design
Four-lobe Elliptical
Spherical
NOTE :-
Laser pumping lamps. The top three are xenon flashlamps while the bottom one is a krypton arc lamp
These gas discharge lamps show the spectral line outputs of the various noble gases.
NOTE : Three sources (lamps) for Optical Pumping :(a) Flash lamps (Pulsed pumping) (b) Arc lamps (CW pumping)
tube.
The Krypton lamp produces most of its output light in the infrared region of the absorption bands of Nd:YAG and Nd:Glass. Thus, it is the
Xenon lamps usually have lower efficiency. But they have sufficient output in the desired spectral region & their lower efficiency is usually acceptable.
Xenon flash lamps have greater emission in the blue-green region of ruby laser absorption. Thus, they are used with all ruby lasers.
In spite of being expensive, high efficiency requirements and high power Nd:YAG and Nd:Glass systems demand the use of Krypton lamps.
End pumping
Side pumping
Pumping Efficiency :To calculate or estimate the pumping efficiency, the pump process can be divided into four distinct steps : 1. Emission of radiation by the lamp
2.
3. 4.
Thus, the pumping efficiency P can be written as the product of four terms as follows
P r t a pq
. . . . . . . . . . . (1)
t = Transfer efficiency
a = Absorption efficiency pq = Power quantum efficiency
Lamp radiative efficiency (r) = The efficiency of conversion from electrical input to light output in the wavelength range corresponding to the pump bands of the laser medium. Transfer efficiency (t) = The ratio of the pump power actually entering the rod to that emitted by the lamp in the useful pump range. Absorption efficiency (a) = The fraction of the light entering the rod that is actually absorbed by the material. Power quantum efficiency (pq) = The fraction of the absorbed power that leads to the population of the ULL. Typical Values :-
r = 0.43
= 0.36
for flash lamp pumped Nd:YAG laser for flash lamp pumped Alexandrite laser for elliptical pump cavity for helical lamp
t = 0.9 0.8
= 0.62
[ 6.3 mm diameter rod ; Elliptical pump chamber, lamp current density 2000
3000 A/cm2 ; Lamp diameter = 5 mm ]
r (%) 27 36 43 43 43
t (%) 78 65 82 82 82
a (%) 31 52 17 28 54
pq (%) 46 66 59 59 48
Summary :1. 2. Radiative efficiency is < 50 % in each case. Absorption efficiency for Nd;Cr:GSGG is about 3 times that of Nd:YAG (because of Cr doping). 3. 4. Absorption efficiency for Alexandrite is quite high. Nd:Cr:GSGG and Alexandrite show high overall efficiency.
Nd:YAG pumped by GaAlAs QW laser at 808nm with emission Bandwidth 1-2 nm. It can be seen that radiative and transfer efficiency is almost same but there is very large increase in absorption efficiency which leads to higher overall pump efficiency.
Dye Laser
Stimulated emission observed from an organic dye, chloroaluminum phthalocyanine
P. P. Sorokin and J. R.Lankard IBM J. Res.Dev. 10, 162 (1966).
755 m
Dye Laser A dye (Liquid) laser is a laser which uses an organic dye as the lasing medium, usually as a liquid solution. Compared to gases and most solid state lasing media, a dye can usually be used for a much wider range of wavelengths. The wide bandwidth makes them particularly suitable for tunable lasers and pulsed lasers. Moreover, the dye can be replaced by another type in order to generate different wavelengths with the same laser, although this usually requires replacing other optical components in the laser as well. Some of the dyes are Rhodamine 6G, fluorescein, coumarin, stilbene, umbelliferone, tetracene, malachite green.
Attractions :1. Unusual flexibility and Tunability Near UV to Visible and Near IR 2. Extremely narrow Spectral Bandwidth (Ultrapure light) 3. Ultrashort pulses (ps to ~ 25 fs)
Disadvantages : Rapid degradation during operation Very Complex liquid handling requirement Limited output power Need for pumping with green or blue laser, making the pump sources expensive
Construction Since organic dyes tend to degrade under the influence of light, the dye solution is normally circulated from a large reservoir. The dye solution can be flowing through a cuvette, i.e., a glass container, or be as a dye jet, i.e., as a sheet-like stream in open air from a specially-shaped nozzle. With a dye jet, reflection losses from the glass surfaces and contamination of the walls of the cuvette are avoided. These advantages come at the cost of a complicated alignment. Dye lasers emission is inherently broad. In order to produce narrow bandwidth tuning there are many types of cavities and resonators which include gratings, prisms and etalons.
The most popular dye used for the dye laser is Rhodamine 6G. The reasons for its popularity : Its low cost Effectiveness
Easy availability
Low toxicity Using Rhodamine 6G as the dye enables tuning of the output laser beams wavelength between 540 nm to 640 nm, (peak energy at 590 nm) depending on other factors in the laser.
Doubled Nd at 532 nm
Lasers suitable as pump source for Dye Lasers Nitrogen (N2) Argon Ion Q-switched Ruby Copper vapor KrF
XeF
Frequency doubled Nd:YAG Frequency tripled Nd:YAG XeCl Krypton
transition (in a few femtoseconds), so that the molecule settles into the S1,G level. This transition does not produce laser radiation.
There are five paths by which the dye molecule may leave the S1,G state. These are : Spontaneous emission Stimulated emission Excited-state absorption of a pump photon Excited-state absorption of a laser photon Decay into a triplet band Only stimulated emission produces a usable laser beam. The other processes generally only reduce the amount of usable energy for the output beam and increase the heating of the solvent.
states from which laser emission takes place are called Singlets
(S). The Triplet states (T) do not contribute to lasing process. Absorption of radiation takes the molecule from the
Lasing begins when incident energy is absorbed by the dye, exciting it from the lowest singlet state to a high-energy level within the upper singlet band. From the high-energy level the dye falls to a slightly lower state within the same singlet band, which serves as an upper lasing level. A laser transition can then occur between the upper lasing level and the lower singlet state, which serves as a lower lasing level. NOTE :An alternative pathway exists to destroy laser action in the triplet states of the dye.
NOTE :
The singlet states result when the excited electron spins in the
direction opposite to the lower-energy-state valence electrons still in the dye molecule.
Because triplet states have lower energies than corresponding singlet states, dye molecules can easily migrate to those states and in doing so depopulate the upper lasing level.
Thus, Triplet quenching is required for efficient operation of Dye lasers. This is done by either (a) Rapidly flowing the dye (b) Using a pump source with a short pump pulse (e.g., N2 laser
with 10 ns pulses)
(c) Adding triplet quenching additives like cyclooctatetraene. They provide deexcitation pathway; dye molecules re-enter. NOTE : Triplet states are metastable and have much longer lifetimes
Pumping Configurations :1. Longitudinal/End Pumping Dye laser cavity is collinear with the pump laser cavity.
Pump Laser
Output
Dye Cuvette
Mirror
Mirror
2. Transverse Pumping
Cylindrical Lens
Pump Laser
Dye Cuvette
Mirror
Output
590 nm
Problems :-
ELECTRICAL PUMPING
Electrical Pumping
Achieved by allowing a current to pass through the gas mixture. Generally,
the current through is passed either along the laser axis direction
(Longitudinal discharge) or transversely to it (Transverse discharge). An electric discharge may be produced in a gas contained inside a glass tube
NOTE :- The positive ions, owing to their much heavier mass, are accelerated to lower velocities and thus do not play any significant part in the excitation process. Electrical pumping occurs via one or both of the following processes
(i)
(ii) Resonant Energy Transfer (Indirect) Eg: He-Ne Laser, CO2 Laser
Electron Impact
e X X* e
Here, the gas consists of only one species. X is the atom in the ground state and X* is in excited state. This is called Collision of the 1st kind
The electron loses KE. Energy lost by the electron is converted to internal excitation energy of the atom. Total energy (Internal + KE) before and after the collision are the same. The internal energy added to the molecule may be in the form of vibrational
A B A B E
* *
The energy difference E will be added to or subtracted from the translational energy. This is called Collision of the 2nd kind. This is an attractive way of pumping B, if the upper state of A is metastable forbidden transition. Hence, once A is excited to its upper level, it will remain there for a long time, thus constituting an energy reservoir for excitation of the species B.
Here, the 1st species drops to a lower level and the 2nd species is raised to a
higher level. This means there is an excitation transfer. Hence, one requirement is : The photon emitted by the donor species must
be within the absorption linewidth of the acceptor species, i.e., there must
be a resonance (or near-resonance) of the atomic transitions. The transfer cross-section is large, when the corresponding atomic or
The energy defect (E) can be made up from translational degrees of freedom, thus in accordance with the Law of Conservation of Energy.
Based on whether the temperature of the system is raised or lowered, the energy defect can be of two types :-
A* + B = A + B* + E
B*
the temperature of
the system
There is Exothermic excitation transfer. The extra energy E after the excitation transfer appears as additional KE of A & B.
A* + B = A + B* - E B*
E
This endothermic process lowers the temperature of the system AB. The
defect in energy is made up for at the expense of the collision partners. The
KE of AB after the excitation transfer is less than that before the transfer.
CO2 Laser
Lasing in a CO2 molecule was first demonstrated by CKN Patel in 1964.
CO2 is a linear tri-atomic molecule, and the three atoms are situated on a straight line with the Carbon atom in the middle. Three vibrational modes of CO2 molecule are illustrated :
Bending mode
N2 (V = 0)
Lasing in CO2 laser occur when there is a transition from higher energy level of the asymmetric mode into one of the other two.
V1 001
100
020
010
V0
Gas pressure inside the CO2 laser tube is 5-30 [Torr], of which 10% CO2 gas, 10% N2 and the rest is He. Note :- The specific heat (which determines the thermal conductivity) of He [1.24 cal/gr* 0K] is five times that of Nitrogen [0.249 cal/gr* 0K].