Lasers

Laser is an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. Here the
process of stimulated emission is used to amplify light radiation.

Spontaneous emission: When energy is given to an atom some of its electron moves
from ground state to higher energy states and atom is said to be in excited state. The
electron remains in the higher state for a very short duration (of the order of ns to s) and
then returns by itself back to the ground state emitting extra energy as light radiation. The
process of emission of light radiation this way is called spontaneous emission.

Population inversion: In a system generally the number of atom in the lower energy
state is always larger than the number of atoms in the excited energy state. If we
externally supply some energy to the system to excite atoms to higher energy states and
maintain it such a way the number of atoms in the excited state is more than that in the
ground state. The system is said to be in population inversion. Thus the population
inversion refers to the state of the system in which the number of atoms in the higher
energy levels is more than that in the lower energy levels. The two situations are
represented below in energy level diagram. Figure (b) shows population inversion
occurring between energy levels E3 and E1.

E6

E4
E
E3

E2

E1
No. of atoms No. of atoms

Figure 1. (a) Normal state (b) State of population inversion

Stimulated emission: If in a system where there exist population inversion, we allow a

photon of energy, equal to the energy difference between the levels between which
population inversion exists, then the incident light photon may interact with the excited
atom and force it to go back to its ground state emitting thereby an another light photon
of same frequency, phase and same state of polarization. These two photons are perfectly
coherent In this process the incident photon make emission of another photon from
excited atom and is named as stimulated emission. It is sort of induced emission and
takes place only, if there exist a population inversion in the system. It is basic condition
responsible for operation of laser.

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Main components of a laser: In any laser there are three main components, namely, the
active medium, pumping system and optical resonator. Each of these are described in
details as below.

Active medium: It is also called amplifying medium and is consists of a collection of

atom, molecules or ions. It may be solid, liquid or gas. Under normal conditions the
number of atoms in the lower energy state is always larger than the number of atoms in
the excited energy state. A light wave passing through such a collection of atoms would
cause more absorption than emissions and therefore the wave will be attenuated. To have
laser action by stimulated emission it is necessary to create population inversion between
the two atomic states in the medium. A light wave passing through such a collection of
atoms, which are in the state of population inversion will cause more stimulated
emissions and make the lasing action possible. Many lasers are named after the material
used as active medium. For example ruby lasers, He-Ne lases, CO2 laser and
semiconductor laser.

Pumping system: The pumping system consists of an external source that supplies
energy to active medium and helps in obtaining the population inversion. The excitation
of atoms may occur directly or through atom-atom collision. It can be optical, electrical
or thermal in nature. For example in ruby laser it is optical pumping, in He-Ne laser it is
electric discharge pumping. The energy supplied by pumping system excites the atoms to
higher energy levels and through spontaneous emission or non-radiative process atoms
relax to lower levels and in some way the population inversion is established between
two energy levels of the active medium.

Optical resonator: It consists of a pair of spherical mirrors having common principal

axis. The reflectivity of one of the mirrors is very near to 100% and that of the other is
kept somewhat less than 100%. It enables a part of internally reflected beam to escape out
as laser beam. It is basically a feedback device that direct the light photons back and forth
through the active medium and in the process the number of photon is multiplied due to
stimulated emission causing thereby amplification

Classification of Lasers:

Three level lasers: It is impossible to create steady state population inversion between
two energy levels by using pumping between these levels. Practically laser action is
possible between three or more laser levels. In three levels laser system atoms are excited
from ground level E1 to an upper excited state E3. As the lifetime of electrons in excited
state is few ns, electrons relax down to level E2. This level is chosen to be a metastable
level with lifetime of about few milli seconds. Thus the number of atom having their
electrons at E2 increases and lead to population inversion between E2 and the ground
state. The laser action takes place between these levels.

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 E3
Rapid non-radiative or
spontaneous emission
E2
Pump
Excitation
Laser emission

E1
(a) (b)
Figure 2. Energy level diagram of three level lasers (a) it gives continuous wave laser
and (b) gives pulsed wave laser

Four level lasers: The energy level diagram of a four level laser system is shown below.
E4
Fast non-radiative
transition
E3

Laser emission
Pump
excitation
E2

De-excitation

E1
Figure 3.Energy level diagram of four level laser

In order that atom do not accumulate in level E2 and hence destroy the population
inversion between levels E3 and E2, level E2 must have a short lifetime so that atoms are
quickly removed to level E1 ready for pumping to level E4 again. Level E4 can be a
collection of levels or broad level. In such a case, the pumping source emitting over a
broad range can be used to pump atoms from level E1 to E2.

Type of lasers:
i) Solid state lasers: Ruby (Cr:Al2O3) laser, Nd-YAG (Nd:Y3Al5O12,., Neodymium
doped yttrium aluminium garnet) laser, Nd-glass laser.
ii) Gas lasers: He-Ne laser, CO2 laser, argon ion laser.
iii) Liguid lasers: dye lasers (Organic substances dissolved in water, ethyl alcohal,
methanol, ethylene glycol etc.)
iv) Excimer lasers: Excimers are molecules which are bound in their excited
electronic states but are unstable in their ground states e.g., Argon fluoride,
krypton chloride, Krf, XeBr etc.
v) Semiconductor lasers: Also called junction laser or diode laser and today very
important type of lasers having its applications in fiber optics communication.
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Ruby laser:
Ruby is a crystal of aluminium oxide Al2O3 in which some aluminium ions are
replaced by chromium ions. It contains 0.05-0.5 % by wt. of chromium and its colour is
pink. It is the energy levels of chromium, which takes part in lasing action. Aluminium
oxide is a host material. The energy level diagram of chromium is shown in Figure 4
below.

E3

4000

E2
M ( =3 ms)

Pump excitation
5500 Laser emission
6943

Figure 4: Energy level diagram of chromium ions in ruby laser.

As it is evident from the figure that ruby laser is three level laser. The level indicated G is
the ground state of the chromium, the E1 and E2 are broad levels and M is a metastable
level with a lifetime of about 3 ms.

The pumping of chromium ions is performed with the help of flash lamp (e.g.,
Xenon or Krypton flash lamp). The chromium ions in the ground state absorb radiation
around wavelength of 5500 and 4000 and are excited to the broad levels E1 and E2.
The chromium ions excited to these levels relax rapidly through non-radiative transition
(in a time ~ 10-8 to 10-9 s) to metastable level M which is upper laser level. Once
population inversion is established between metastable level M and the ground state G,
laser emission starts at an output wavelength of 6943. The metastable level M is
actually consists of a pair of closely spaced levels corresponding to laser wavelengths of
6943 and 6929 . However laser action takes place predominantly of the 6943
because of higher inversion.

The flash lamp operation in ruby laser leads to a pulsed output of the laser. As
soon as the flash lamp stops operating the population of the upper level is depleted very
rapidly and lasing action stops till the action of next flash.

Figure 5 shows a typical set up of a flush lamp pumped pulsed ruby laser. The
helical flash lamp is surrounded by a cylinderical reflector to direct the pump light into
the ruby rod efficiently. The ruby rod is placed along the axis of helical flash lamp. The
ruby rod is length is typically 2-20 cm with diameters of 0.1 2 cm. In an alternate
arrangement elliptical pump cavity can also be used in which straight lamp and the ruby
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rods are placed along the foci of an elliptical cyllinderical reflector. The elliptical
reflector focuses the light emerging from one focus into the other focus thus leading to an
efficient focusing of the pump light on the ruby rod.
Cylinderical reflector
Helical flash lamp

Output laser beam

6943

Ruby rod

Power supply

Figure 5: Schematic set up of ruby laser

In spite of the fact it is three level laser, ruby laser still is one of the important
practical lasers. The absorption bands of ruby lies is visible spectrum so efficient use of
practically available white light amps can be made for pumping. Ruby laser is also
attractive from an application point of view, since its output lies in the visible region
where photographic films and photodetectors are much more sensitive than they are in
the infrared. It also find applications in pulsed holography and interferometery.

Helium Neon Laser:

The solid state lasers requires usually a flash lamp or a continuous high power
lamp as pumping system for its operation. Such a technique is efficient if the lasing
system has broad absorption bands. As in gases the atoms have sharp energy levels as
compared to those in solids, use of an electric discharge can be made to pump the atoms
in gaseous form.

Helium neon laser consist a long and narrow discharge tube (diameter ~ 2-8 mm
and length 10-100 cm), which is filled with helium and neon gases with typical pressures
of 1 torr. And 0.1 torr (1 torr =1mm of Hg), i.e., amount of helium is ten times that of the
neon. Figure 6 below shows schematic set up of helium neon laser.
(Helium + neon gases)
Glass tube Partially transparent face
Reflecting end face
Output lasrer beam
(o= 6328 )

Power source

Figure 6: Schematic set up of helium neon laser.

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 The neon energy levels actually take part in the laser emission and helium is used
for selective pumping of the upper laser levels of the neon. The energy levels diagram of
helium and neon is shown in the figure 7 below. Excitation of the gas atoms in helium
neon laser is accomplished through electric discharge. When electric discharge is passed
through the gas the electrons, which are accelerated by electric field collide with helium
and neon atoms and excite them to higher energy levels. The helium atoms tend to
accumulate at levels F2 and F3 due to their longer lifetime of ~10-4 and ~ 10-6 sec,
respectively. Since the levels E4 and E6 of neon atoms have almost the same energy as
levels F2 and F3 of the helium, the excited helium atoms colliding with neon atoms in the
ground state can excite them to the states E4 and E6. Since, the pressure of helium is 10
times that of neon, the levels E4 and E6 of neon are selectively more populated as
compared to other level of neon. Thus, the population inversion is established between
levels E6 and E3, E4 and E3 and E6 and E5 of neon atoms

Helium Neon
F3 (21s) E6(5s) 3.39m
E5 (4p)
F2(23s) E4(4s)
Energy transfer by o= 6328
Atomic collisions 1.15m
E3(3p)

Excitation
by electric Spontaneous emission
discharge (6000)
E2(3s)

De-excitation by collision
with tube walls
F1(1s) E1(2p)

Figure 7: Energy level diagram of helium - neon laser.

Transition between E6 and E3 levels produces the very popular 6328 line of the
helium neon laser. Neon atoms at level E3 de-excite through spontaneous emission to
level E2 (lifetime ~10-8 s). Since this time is shorter than the lifetime of level E6 (~ 10-7 s)
one can achieve steady state population inversion between E6 and E3.The level E2 is
metastable and thus tend to collect atoms. The atoms from this level relax back to ground
level mainly through collision with the wall of the glass tube. Since E2 is metastable level
it is possible for atoms in this level to absorb the spontaneously emitted radiation in the
E3 E2 transition to be re-excited to E3 and. This will have the effect of reducing the
inversion between E6 and E3. It is for this reason that the gain in this laser transition
found to increase with decreasing the tube diameter.

Other two wavelength of He-Ne laser are 3.39m and 1.15m corresponding to
E4 E3 and E6 E5 transitions. Transitions at 3.39m and 6328 share the same upper

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laser levels. Any of the three wavelengths can be selected using an appropriate window at
the output end face of the discharge tube. If the resonator mirrors are placed outside the
discharge tube then reflections from the ends of the discharge tube can be avoided by
placing the windows at the Brewesters angle. In such a case the beam polarized in the
plane of incidence suffers no reflection at the windows while the perpendicular
polarization suffers reflection losses. This leads to a polarized out of the laser.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) Laser:

The carbon dioxide laser is a molecular laser and is most important of all the
lasers from the point of technological applications point of view. In molecular lasers, the
energy levels are provided by the quantization of the energy of vibrational and rotational
motions of the constituent gas molecules. The radiations associated with the electronic
transitions is usually in the ultra-violet or visible regions, whereas, vibrational roatational
transitions are in the far infrared regions. For this reason, the molecular lasers have
infrared outputs. The CO2 molecule is basically a linear arrangement of the two oxygen
atoms and a central carbon atom, which can undergo three modes of vibration as shown
in the figure below.

Symmetric stretch mode (1 )

Bending mode (2 )

Asymmetric stretch mode (3 )

Figure 8: Vibrational modes of CO2 molecule

At any time, the molecule can be vibrating in any linear combination of the these
fundamental modes. The modes of vibration are denoted by three quantum numbers
(mnq) which represents the amount of energy or energy quanta associated with each
mode of vibration. The set (100) for example means that a molecule in this state is
vibrating in a pure symmetric mode with one quanta of energy, it has no energy
associated with asymmetric or bending modes. In addition to these vibrational modes,
the molecule can also rotate and thus it has closely spaced rotational energy levels
associated with each vibrational energy level. The energy separation between these
molecular levels is small and the laser output is therefore in the infrared. The energy level
diagram of the CO2 laser is shown in the figure below alongwith the ground state and first
excited state of vibrational modes of the nitrogen molecule.

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 Nitrogen Carbon dioxide
(001)
Energy transfer by
Atomic collisions o= 10.6m
(100)
9.6m
(020)

Energy
Excitation
by electric (010)
discharge

(000)

Figure 9: Energy level diagram of carbon dioxide laser.

The schematic arrangement of CO2 laser is same as that for He-Ne laser. The CO2
laser contains a mixture of carbon dioxide, nitrogen and helium gases (as active medium)
in the ratio 1:4:5 in a glass tube. The gas molecules are excited to the higher energy states
by putting an electric discharge in a glass tube. Nitrogen plays a similar role to that of
helium in He-Ne laser. The excitation of the carbon dioxide molecules to long lived level
(001) occurs both through collisional transfer of energy from excited nitrogen molecules
and also from the cascading down of CO2 molecules from higher energy levels. The
(100) and (020) levels of CO2 have low energy and can not be populated this way so that
population inversion is created between the (001) and (100) & ((020) levels resulting in
stimulated emission at about 10.6 m and 9.6 m. The helium has dual role to play here.
Firstly, it increases the thermal conductivity to the walls of the tube, thereby decreasing
the temperature of the gas mixture and a consequent broadening of laser beam and in turn
increases the gain. Secondly, it increases the laser efficiency by speeding up transition
from (100) level to ground state via collisions with the helium atoms.

While other gas lasers have efficiencies of 0.1% or less, the CO2 laser may have
an efficiency upto 30%. Because of this high efficiency it is easy to obtain continuous
wave output of 100watt from a metre long tube. The output power of the CO2 laser is
approximately proportional to the tube length. To obtain output of several kilowatts tens
of meters long tubes are used. Such high power CO2 lasers find applications in materials
processing, like welding, hole drilling, cutting, melting, alloying etc. In addition
atmospheric attenuation is low at 10.6m, which leads to some applications of CO2 lasers
as ranging ang tracking in laser range finders and in guided missiles. Material ablation is
another important area of its applications for forming thin films of alloys of various
elements to make superconductors. Operation in infrared region requires special materials
(like GaAs, Ge, ZnSe, alkali halides) for windows, mirror and other laser components.

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Semiconductor Laser:
It is also known as the diode laser or junction laser as it consists of p-n junction
diode. These lasers uses semiconductors as an active medium and are characterizad by
specific advantages such as small size, low cost, the capability of monolithic integration
with integrated circuits, direct pumping by conventional biasing and compatibility with
optical fibres.
Unlike the common gaseous and soild state lasers the transition in a
semiconductor laser occur between energu bands rather than between discrete energy
levels because of the closeness of the atoms constituting the semiconductor. The
semiconductor basically consists of a p-n junction formed between degenerate (heavily
doped), semiconducting materials. In n-type degenerate semiconductor there are enough
electrons donated by impurities to fill the conduction band upto the Fermi level Efn,
which falls within the conduction band (CB). Similarly in p-type degenerate
semiconductors holes are added by acceptors down upto the Fermi level Efp in the
valence band (VB). When a junction is made of such materials electrons from n-side flow
to p-side till an electrical potential barrier is built up which prevents further flow of
charge carriers across the junction. Fermi level under such condition lie in same
horizontal line throughout the material and energy band diagram appears as shown below
in figure 10. Energy difference between the p- and n- type regions is the built-in voltage
or the contact potential of the p-n junction.
EC

built-in
potential
EV

EFp EFn
EC

EV

Figure 10: Energy band diagram of junction diode of degenerate material with no
forward bias

When the junction is forward biased electrons flow to p-side and holes to n-side
and overlap in some part of the junction region called depletion region. This region
contains a large concentration of electrons within the conduction band and a large
concentration of holes in the valence band. As the semiconductor is heavily doped, these
population densities are high enough, a condition of population inversion is thus created
at the junction. The recombination of electrons and holes in this region occurs by
stimulated emission, which gives rise to coherent light radiation. This laser emission is
confined in a very thin planner junction region. At loe currents spontaneous emission
begins as is the case in LEDs whereas at very high currents stimulated emission
dominates giving rise to laser light.

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 EC
EF
electron-hole ...
recombination
Light emission
EV
EF

Figure 11: Energy band diagram of the junction diode under large forward bias

In choosing a semiconductor material for junction laser fabrication it is necessary

that electron-hole recombination occur directly by giving light emission rather than
through non-radiative process or lattice heating such as, are dominant in semiconductors
like Si and Ge. The light emitting properties of semiconductors depend on the nature of
energy band gap. The band gap in a semiconductor can be direct or indirect type. If the
minimum in the CB is directly above the maximum in the VB in the E-k diagram then it
is called direct band gap semiconductor. On the other hand if the minimum of the CB is
at some other k value than that of the maximum of VB then it called indirect band gap
semiconductor. In direct band gap semiconductor the energy is emitted in form of light
photons when an electron-hole recombination takes place at the junction, whereas in the
case of indirect band gap semiconductor most of energy is lost as heat. So direct band gap
semiconductors are good light emitters and preferred for laser diode and light emitting
diode (LED) fabrication.

EV

EC
E
Indirect Direct
Band gap Band gap
EV
EV

k k

Figure 12: Energy-wave vector (E-k) diagram (a) indirect band gap as in silicon
and germanium (b) direct band gap as in GaAs and AlxGa1-xAs semiconductors.

The semiconductors which, are used in LED and laser diode fabrication are III-V
compounds. Some of the examples include GaAs, InP, GaP, InAs, and their ternary
(AlxGa1-xAs) and quaternary (AlxGa1-xAsyP1-y) alloys. The advantage with ternary and
quaternary alloys is that their band gap varies with the stochiometry of the alloys.

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