LASERS

Dr. A.Petrishia
TRP Engineering College
History
 1916, Einstein predicted the stimulated emission.
 1954, Townes and co-workers developed a Microwave
Amplifier by Stimulated Emission of Radiation(maser) using
ammonia, NH3.
 1958, Schawlow and Townes showed that the maser
principle could be extended into the visible region .
 1960, Maiman built the first laser using ruby as the active
medium.
 From then on, laser development was nothing short of
miraculous, giving optics new impetus and wide publicity
LASER Absorption and Emission of Radiation
+
Stimulated and spontaneous emission

Spontaneous emission
• Photons emitted in all directions and on a random time scale.
• The emitted photons are INCOHERENT

Stimulated emission
• Emitted and stimulating photons have the same :
• Frequency
• Direction
• Phase and polarization
• The emitted and incident photons are COHERENT
Rates of absorption and emission processes

• Life time of the excited electrons- t21

• Rates are determined by the Einstein coefficients for each process
dN 1
 N1B12  ( ) Absorption () is the energy density of
dt
the incident radiation and
dN 2
 N 2 B21  ( ) Stimulated emission N1 and N2 are the
dt populations of states 1 and 2
dN 2
 N 2 A21 Spontaneous emission respectively.
dt

Under thermal conditions the population of two states 1 and 2, is determined

by the Boltzman distribution.

N2   E 
 exp 
N1  kT 

Where E is the energy difference between the two states, T is the

temperature and k is Boltzmans constant.
 Einstein Relation
Population Inversion
Absorption of radiation
Optical feedback
 3. Cavity Configurations
 Plane-parallel cavity: very efficient ( good filling), difficult alignment(low
stability)
 confocal cavity: poor filling, easier to align
 concentric cavity (spherical cavity) : poor filling, easier to align
 hemispherical cavity: poor filling, much easy to align
 long-radius cavity: good compromise between the plane-parallel and the
confocal variety, type of cavity used most often in today's commercial lasers
L:distance between
mirrors
R:radius of curvature
 7.2 Practical Realization

4. Mode Structure

Assume: the cavity is limited by two plane-parallel mirrors.

the wavelength possible of the standing-wave pattern

inside the cavity is:
2
λ  L
q
L : length of the cavity
q : number of half-wavelengths, or axial modes

 the resonance condition for axial modes:

c
ν q
2 nL
n: index of medium contained in a laser cavity
two consecutive modes (which differ by q = 1), are
separated by a frequency difference ,
c
ν 
2S

different frequencies are closely, and evenly, spaced, lie

within the width of a single emission line.
 the output of the laser consists of a number of lines
separated by c/2S
 7.2 Practical Realization

 TEM: transverse electromagnetic, modes

 few in number, easy to see.
 Aim the laser at a distant screen, spread the beam out by a
negative lens.:
 bright patches, separated from one another by intervals
called "nodal lines".
 Within each patch, the phase of the light is the same,
but between patches the phase is reversed.
 7.2 Practical Realization
TEM00 :
TEM modes
 lowest possible transverse
mode
 no phase reversal across the
beam, the beam is "uniphase"
 highest possible spatial
coherence, can be focused to
the smallest spot size and reach
the highest power density.

lowest possible axial mode:

laser oscillates in one frequency
highest possible temporal coherence
 7.4 Applications

1. Beam Shape
laser operating in the TEM00 mode
the energy has a Gaussian distribution at a given distance r
from the axis, the irradiance I falls off exponentially
 ( 2 r / w) 2
I (r )  I 0 e
parameter w: the distance from the axis at which I has
dropped to 1/e2 of I0, the irradiance in the center
 7.4 Applications

w(z) :beam's radius

2
 z 
w( z )  w0 1   
2 
  w0 
 : wavelength w0:radius at the waist.

For a confocal cavity, this simplifies to

L
w0 
2
L : distance between the mirrors.
 7.4 Applications

far field: farther away from the laser

beam's parameters can be considered linear functions of the
distance
far-field half-angle divergence


 w0
 7.4 Applications

place a converging lens in the path of the light:

• beam to contract to a "focus“
• another waist where the beam's wavefronts are plane
• diameter radius of beam at the focus 2r:
4 f 
2r 
 d0
f: the lens a focal length
•radius of beam at the focus r
f 
r  1.22
D


Rayleigh's criterion :   1.22
D
7.3 Types of Lasers
1. Solid-state Lasers
ruby laser
Ruby is synthetic aluminum oxide, Al2O3, with 0.03 to
0.05% of chromium oxide, Cr2O3, added to it. The
Cr3+ ions are the active ingredient; the aluminum and
oxygen atoms are inert.
The ruby crystal is made into a cylindrical rod, several
centimeters long and several millimeters in diameter,
with the ends polished flat to act as cavity mirrors.
Pumping is by light from a xenon flash tube.
 7.3 Types of Lasers
E3: fairly wide and has a short Three-level energy diagram
lifetime; the excited Cr3+ ions typical of ruby
rapidly relax and drop to the next
lower state, E2. This transition is
nonradiative.
E2: metastable and has a lifetime
longer than that of E3, and the
Cr3+ ions remain that much
longer in E2 before they drop to
the ground state, E1.
The E2  E1 transition is radiative; it produces the spontaneous,
incoherent red fluorescence typical of ruby, with a peak near 694 nm.
As the pumping energy is increased above a critical threshold,
population inversion occurs in E2 with respect to E1 and the system
lases, with a sharp peak at 694.3 nm.
 Lasing Action Diagram

Excited State
Spontaneous
Energy
Emission
Metastable State
Introduction

Stimulated
Energy

Emission of
Radiation

Ground State
Requirements for Laser Action

fast

Metastable state

efficient pumping

slow relaxation
slow Population
inversion

Fast relaxation
 7.3 Types of Lasers

neodymium: YAG laser

The active ingredient is trivalent neodymium, Nd3+, added to an
yttrium aluminum garnet, YAG, Y3Al5O12.
It has four energy levels. The laser transition begins at the
metastable state and ends at an additional level somewhat above
the ground state.
 7.3 Types of Lasers
2. Gas Lasers
Gas lasers consist of a gas filled tube placed in the laser cavity. A
voltage (the external pump source) is applied to the tube to excite
the atoms in the gas to a population inversion. The light emitted
from this type of laser is normally continuous wave (CW).

helium-neon laser
Typically, it consists of a tube about 30 cm long and 2 mm in
diameter, with two electrodes on the side and fused silica windows at
both ends. The tube contains a mixture of 5 parts helium and 1 part
neon, kept at a pressure of 133 Pa.
 7.3 Types of Lasers

argon laser
It generates a strong
turquoise-blue line at 488 nm
and a green line at 514.5 nm,
in either pulsed or c. w.
operation.

helium-cadmium
It emits a brilliant blue at
441.6 nm.
 7.3 Types of Lasers
carbon dioxide laser
 high power: the first CO2 lasers had a continuous output of a
few milliwatts. Today we have powers of some 200 kW, more
than enough to cut through steel plates several centimeters thick
in a matter of seconds.
 High efficient: the efficiency in converting electrical energy
into radiation is better (more than 10%) than that of any other
laser.(TEA CO2 laser)
 Relatively simple in construction and operation are.
Tunable in a small range
Emission is at 10.6 m.
 7.3 Types of Lasers

Excimer lasers
contain rare-gas halides such as XeCl, KrF, or others.
These molecules are unstable in the ground state but bound
in the excited state.

exceedingly powerful, with outputs as high as several GW.

emit in the ultraviolet.
 7.3 Types of Lasers

3. Semiconductor Lasers
LED: light-emitting diode

main application :
• waveguides
• integrated optics

 emit almost anywhere in the spectrum, from the UV to the IR

 an efficiency much higher than with optical pumping (around
40% versus 3%).
 small ,less than 1 mm in diameter
 7.3 Types of Lasers

4. Tunable Lasers
 dye lasers: first tunable lasers
 parametric oscillator:
 more compact  less expensive
 easier to operate  tuning range much wider

 Color center lasers: tuned over wide bands in the UV,

the visible, and the IR.

 free-electron laser:
 high powers of the order of megawatts
 very efficient
 tuned through a wide range of wavelengths.
Tunable lasers are most welcome to spectroscopists
 WAVELENGTHS OF MOST COMMON LASERS

Laser Type Wavelength (m)

Argon fluoride (Excimer-UV) 0.193 Helium neon (yellow) 0.594
Krypton chloride (Excimer-UV) 0.222 Helium neon (orange) 0.610
Krypton fluoride (Excimer-UV) 0.248 Gold vapor (red) 0.627
Xenon chloride (Excimer-UV) 0.308 Helium neon (red) 0.633
Xenon fluoride (Excimer-UV) 0.351 Krypton (red) 0.647
Helium cadmium (UV) 0.325 Rohodamine 6G dye (tunable) 0.570-0.650
Nitrogen (UV) 0.337 Ruby (CrAlO3) (red) 0.694
Helium cadmium (violet) 0.441 Gallium arsenide (diode-NIR) 0.840
Krypton (blue) 0.476 Nd:YAG (NIR) 1.064
Argon (blue) 0.488 Helium neon (NIR) 1.15
Copper vapor (green) 0.510 Erbium (NIR) 1.504
Argon (green) 0.514 Helium neon (NIR) 3.39
Krypton (green) 0.528 Hydrogen fluoride (NIR) 2.70
Frequency doubled 0.532 Carbon dioxide (FIR) 9.6
Nd YAG (green) Carbon dioxide (FIR) 10.6
Helium neon (green) 0.543
Krypton (yellow) 0.568
Copper vapor (yellow) 0.570

Key: UV = ultraviolet (0.200-0.400 µm)

VIS = visible (0.400-0.700 µm)
NIR = near infrared (0.700-1.400 µm)
 Principle of laser mode-locking
1. Lasing in inhomogeneously broadened lasers:

i) Laser gain and spectral hole-burning.

ii) Cavity longitudinal mode frequencies.

iii) Multi-longitudinal mode operation.

Fundamentals of Photonics 2018/2/2 44

 2. Laser multimode operation:
Single mode lasers: E t   E0 cos 0t   t 
N

Multimode lasers: E t    Ei cos i t   i t 

i 1
c
Mode-frequency separations: ~
nL
Phase relation between modes: Random and independent!
Total laser intensity fluctuates with time !

The mean intensity of a

multimode laser remains
constant, however, its
instant intensity varies with
time.
Fundamentals of Photonics 2018/2/2 45
 3. Effect of mode-locking:
(i) Supposing that the phases of all modes are locked together:
 i t    0  0
(ii) Supposing that all modes have the same amplitude:
Ei  E0 purely for the convenience of the
mathematical analysis

(iii) Under the above two conditions, the total electric field
of the multimode laser is:
N i i t 
E t   Re  Ei e  where
 i 1 
 N  1 c
 i   0  i    c  c 
 2  L
Fundamentals of Photonics 2018/2/2 46
 0 is the frequency of the central mode, N is the number
of modes in the laser, c is the mode frequency separation.
i is the frequency of the i-th mode.
Calculating the summation yields:

 c t 
sin N  Note this is the optical
Et   E 0  2 
cos 0 t
 field of the total laser
 c 
t
sin  Emission !
 2 

The optical filed can be thought to consist of a carrier wave of

frequency 0 that amplitude modulated by the function
sin Nx 
AN x  
sin x 
Fundamentals of Photonics 2018/2/2 47
 4. Characteristics of the mode-locked lasers:
The intensity of the laser field is:
  c t 
sin 2  N 
I t   E02  2 
  c t 
sin 2  
 2 

The output of a mode-locked laser consists of a series of pulses.

The time separation between two pulses is determined by RT
and the pulse width of each pulse is tp.

Fundamentals of Photonics 2018/2/2 48

 5. Properties of mode-locked pulses:
i) The pulse separation RT:

  c t 
Sin 2  0 c t  2
 2 
2 2L
 RT   The round-trip time of the cavity!
 c c

ii) The peak power: Considering sin    when  is small,

E 2 0  N 2 E 02
N times of the average power. N: number of modes.
The more the modes the higher the peak power of the
Mode-locked pulses.
Fundamentals of Photonics 2018/2/2 49
 iii)The individual pulse width:
  c t  2
sin  N 0 t p 
 2  N c

N
 a 2 1
 c
t p   a: bandwidth of
 a  a the gain profile.

 RT
Narrower as N increases. t p 
N

The mode locked pulse width is reversely proportional to

the gain band width, so the broader the gain profile, the shorter
are the mode locked pulses.

Fundamentals of Photonics 2018/2/2 50

 Techniques of laser mode-locking
Active mode-locking:
Actively modulating the gain or loss of a laser cavity in a periodic way,
usually at the cavity repetition frequency c/2nL to achieve mode-locking.
Amplitude modulation:
A modulator with a transmission function of
   2t  

T  1   1  cos  

    RT  
is inserted in the laser cavity to modulate the light. Where  is the
modulation strength and  < 0.5. Under the influence of the modulation
phases of the lasing modes become synchronized and as a consequence
become mode-locked.

Operation mechanism of the technique:

Fundamentals of Photonics 2018/2/2 51
 Time domain analysis:
Consider the extreme case where a shutter is inside the cavity, and
the opens only for a short time every second. Is the cavity round
trip time. In this case only a pulse with pulse width narrower than
the opening time can survive in the cavity, all the CW type of
operation will be blocked by the shutter. To have a pulse moving
in the cavity the phase of all lasing modes must be synchronized.
The laser modes will arrange themselves to realize such a state.
It is a natural competition and the fittest will survive.
Shutter losses

Fundamentals of Photonics 2018/2/2 52

 Frequency domain analysis:
Amplitude modulation Sidebands generation

Em t    m sin m t  m   m   0 1   cos t 

Electrical filed of each mode Amplitude of each mode is modulated

   
E m t    0 sin  m t   m   sin  m   t   m   sin  m   t   m 
 2 2 
Sidebands are generated by the modulation

m m- m m+
Without modulation After amplitude modulation
Fundamentals of Photonics 2018/2/2 53
 In the case of a multimode laser

As all modes are modulated by the same frequency, the

sidebands of one mode will drive its adjacent modes, and
as a consequence, all modes will oscillate with locked phase.

From both the time domain and the frequency domain analysis it
is easy to understand why the modulation frequency must be
exactly the cavity longitudinal mode separation frequency.

Fundamentals of Photonics 2018/2/2 54

 Passive mode-locking:
Inserting an appropriately selected saturable absorber inside the laser
cavity. Through the mutual interaction between light, saturable absorber
and gain medium to automatically achieve mode locking.

A typical passive mode locking laser configuration:

laser medium
saturable
absorber
Mechanism of the mode-locking:
i) Interaction between saturable absorber and laser gain:
Survival takes all!
ii)Balance between the pulse shortening and pulse broadening:
Final pulse width.
Fundamentals of Photonics 2018/2/2 55
 Transform limited pulses
Gaussian pulses:
In our analysis we have assumed
that En=E0

The real gain line has a Gaussian

profile,which results in that the lasing
mode amplitudes have a Gaussian
distribution.

A Gaussian gain line shape function a Gaussian

mode-locked pulse intensity variation, namely a Gaussian pulse.

 1   
2

            exp i t 
E t   E0   exp  
2 t
    1  
 0

  2ln 22   
 2 ln 2   0 
Fundamentals of Photonics
 2018/2/2
 56
 Intensity of the pulse:
2   
2

     
I t     exp     Gaussian intensity profile!
  0     
  2ln 22

1
2 ln 2
 
Transform limited pulses:

If the product of pulse width and spectral bandwidth of a Gaussian

pulse equals 0.441, then the Gaussian pulse is called a transform
limited pulse as in this case the pulse width is purely determined
by the Fourier transformation of the pulse spectral distribution.

t p  L  0.441 For transform limited

Gaussian pulses!

tp: pulse width, L: spectral bandwidth

Fundamentals of Photonics 2018/2/2 57

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