Laser: By: Rajeev Paudel Roll - No: 076BCT054

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LASER

By: Rajeev Paudel


Roll.no: 076BCT054

K.P SIR
------------------------
PULCHOWK
COLLEGE

2076
Mangsir
1: Introduction
LASER stands for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Laser light are like
light emitted from normal lightbulb but is emitted when atom make a transition from one energy
level to another. The output of a laser is a coherent electromagnetic field. In a coherent beam of
electromagnetic energy, all the waves have the same frequency and phase. Its theoretical basis was
postulated by Albert Einstein. First laser was built in 1960 by Theodore H. Maiman at Hughes
Research Laboratories, based on theoretical work by Charles Hard Townes and Arthur Leonard
Schawlow.

The Laser is perhaps the most important optical device to be developed 50 years ago. The
development of Laser has been proved to be in the history of science and engineering. It has
produced completely new type of system in potential applications in wide variety of fields. Laser
light is different from normal light in other ways as well. First, its light contains only one
wavelength (one specific color). The particular wavelength of light is determined by the amount
of energy released when the excited electron drops to a lower orbit. Second, laser light is
directional. Whereas a laser generates a very tight beam, a flashlight produces light that is diffuse.
Because laser light is coherent, it stays focused for vast distances, even to the moon and back.
2. Types of LASER
According to medium used lasers are of 4 types and they are:

1: Gas Lasers

2: Solid-state Lasers

3: Metal-Vapor Laser

4: Other Types

Gas Lasers
S.N Name Energy Source
1 He-Ne Laser Electrical Discharge
2 Argon-Laser Electrical Discharge
3 Carbon dioxide laser Electrical Discharge
4 Excimer Laser Excimer recombination via electric discharge

Solid State Lasers


S.N Name Energy source
1 Ruby laser Flash lamp
2 Nd:YAG Laser Flash lamo, Laser Diode
3 Erbium doped glass Laser Laser Diode
4 F-Center Laser Electrical current

Metal-Vapor Lasers
S.N Name Energy source
1 He-Cd metal vapor Laser Electrical discharge in metal vapor mixed
with Helium buffer gas
2 Copper vapor Laser Electrical discharge

Other Types
S.N Name Energy source
1 Dye Lasers Other laser, Flash lamp
2 Free Electron Lasers Relativistic electron beam
3: Properties of LASER
There are three main properties of laser and they are:

 Monochromatic: All lasers are monochromatic meaning they have only one color. The
photons emitted from ordinary light sources have different energies, frequencies,
wavelengths, or colors. On the other hand, in laser, all the emitted photons have the same
energy, frequency, or wavelength. Hence, the light waves of laser have single wavelength
or color. Therefore, laser light covers a very narrow range of frequencies or wavelengths.

 Divergent: Lasers emit light that is highly directional. Laser light is emitted as a relatively
narrow beam in a specific direction. Ordinary light, such as coming from the sun, a light
bulb, or a candle, is emitted in many directions away from the source. Usually laser
generates a beam less than one mille radian (0.001) radian. This means that the laser beam
spreads less than one-foot diameter circle at a distance from one thousand feet from laser.
Due to its diverging character it is used to measure long distances such as distance between
earth and moon is measured by laser.

 Coherent: Coherence makes the laser unique. Coherence means that the light waves are in
phase. Laser light are much more coherent than normal light but our eye cannot detect it.

 High-Intensity: In laser, the light spreads in small region of space and in a small wavelength
range. Hence, laser light has greater intensity when compared to the ordinary light. If we
look directly along the beam from a laser then all the power in the laser would enter your
eye. Thus, even a 1 Watt laser would appear many thousand times more intense than 100
Watt ordinary lamp. Thus, these four properties of laser beam enable us to cut a huge block
of steel by melting. They are also used for recording and reproducing large information on
a compact disc (CD).
4: Production of Laser
A laser is created when electron in atoms in special glasses, crystal or gases absorb energy from
an electrical current or another laser and become “excited.” The excited electrons move from a
lower-energy orbit to a higher-energy orbit around the atom's nucleus.

Some basic terms used while explaining the production of laser are: enrgy level, spontaneous
emission, spontaneous absorption, stimulated emission.

The production of laser can be described in brief as:

When an atom is energized then the energy is absorbed by the electrons of the atom and they get
energized and they tend to move to their higher energy level. As we know from quantum
mechanics that low energy level is more stable than higher energy level so the electrons tend to
occupy lower level and while coming back to lower level they emit energy in form of
electromagnetic waves.

E2 – E1 = h0
where E2 = Upper energy level

E1= Lower energy level

h = Plank’s constant

n0 = frequency of emitted em wave


5: He-Ne And Ruby Laser
A. He-Ne Laser
He-Ne stands for Helium-Neon. They are two gases which don’t combine to form molecule.
Therefore He-Ne laser is a type of gaseous laser.

In He-Ne laser the light is produced by the atomic transition of neon light. Where helium acts as
buffer gas. When energy is pumped from external souce helium also absorbs the energy and
achieve excited state. Now they move along the tube and they collide with neon atom and while
colliding some energy of the helium atom gets transferred to neon atom and raises it to meta-stable
state. Neon atom reach to this state and population inversion takes place and lasing occurs.

If transition occurs at relatively small energy step from E5 to E4 then lower energy infrared photon are
emitted. If transition occurs between E5 to E2 which is much larger energy gap then it emits short
wavelength more energetic photon of wavelength 632nm which is red in color.
I. Its uses are:

 They are produced in large quantity for many years.

 They are used to read qr-codes and bar-codes.

 It is used for reproducing photograph.

 It is used in gun for targeting.

II. Its Advantages are:

 They have very good coherence property.

 They have very small length and last for longer time.

 It is safe due to low power output.

III. Its Disadvantages are:

 High voltage is required to produce.

 Gas leaks from the laser plasma tube.

 Its output power is low.

B. Ruby Laser
The ruby laser is the first type of laser actually constructed, first demonstrated in 1960 by T. H.
Maiman. A ruby laser is a solid-state laser that uses a synthetic ruby crystal as its gain medium.
The ruby mineral (corundum) is aluminum oxide with a small amount (about 0.05%) of chromium
which gives it its characteristic pink or red color by absorbing green and blue light.

The ruby laser is used as a pulsed laser, producing red light at 694.3 nm. After receiving a pumping
flash from the flash tube, the laser light emerges for as long as the excited atoms persist in the ruby
rod, which is typically about a millisecond. A ruby laser consists of a ruby rod which is made of
chromium doped from ruby material. At the opposite end of these rods there are two silver polished
mirror where one is fully polished while other is partially polished. A spring is attached to rod with
fully polished end for adjustable wavelength of laser light. Around the ruby rod a flash light is kept
for pump input. The whole assembly is kept in a glass tube.

Energy level diagram of working of ruby laser have 3


energy states excited state (E3), meta-stable state (E2)
and ground state (E1). We assume that the energy
levels will be E1 < E2 < E3. Let us assume that initially
most of the electrons are in the lower energy state (E 1)
and only a tiny number of electrons are in the excited
states (E2 and E3). When light energy is supplied to
the laser medium (ruby), the electrons in the lower
energy state or ground state (E1) gains enough energy
and jumps into the pump state (E3).

I. Its Uses are:

 It is used in decoration piece and artistic display.

 It is used in school, college, university in projects for students.

 It has low output so it is used in toys

II. Its Advantages are:

 Its production is economical.

 It’s output is not as less as He-Ne Laser.

III. Its disadvantages are:

 Its efficiency is comparatively low.

 Optical cavity of Ruby laser is short as compared to other lasers.


6: Uses of Laser
Laser have a lot of application in every section of modern society including consumer electronics,
information technology, science, medicine, industry, law enforcement, entertainment, and
the military. Fiber-optic communication using lasers is a key technology in modern
communications, allowing services such as the Internet. Its first wide use was during making
barcode reader. Some other major uses of laser are:

 It is used in laser printer and laserdisks.

 Used for communication in space, and optical fiber communication.

 Used in industry for cutting, welding metals, 3D printing, measurement and laser clearing.

 Lasers are used to detect fingerprint.

 Laser are used in guns for targeting and tracking the target in missiles.

 It is used in optical disc, holograms, lighting, laser lighting displays, etc.

 It is used for detecting earthquakes and underwater nuclear blast,

 Used for commercial process like barcode scanner,3D scanner, QR code scanner, laser
printer, holograms, thermometer, pointing devices, etc.

 It is used in LIDAR to measure distance accurately.

 It is used for cutting glass and quartz.

 It is used to destroy kidney stones and used in cancer diagnostics and therapy.

 It is used to remove tumors from body.

 It is used to remove hair, decayed teeth and in acne treatment.

 It is used for eye lens curvature correction and in fiber-optics endoscopy.


7: Safety and Defects
Since the development of laser it has always been considered as hazardous for human being. Even
low power lasers emitting few milliwatts of power are considered as dangerous for human eye.
The safety measures to be followed during the use of laser are:

 Laser should not be directly pointed to any body parts especially at eye.

 All shiny and reflective materials should be removed from work area.

 High-powered lasers should only be used under professional’s guidance.

 We should always wear safety glass.

 Laser should be stored properly.

Despite being useful in various ways it also have a lot of defects and some of them are mentioned
below:

 It is harmful to human beings and often burns during contact.

 It is expensive and complex.

 It should be handled very delicately.

 It increases complexity of treatment and procedure in hospital.

 A slight mistake can have a huge damage.


8: Conclusion
There is still a lot of research to do in laser since we haven’t utilized its full potential and its
development is still in an amazing pace. A lot of things are developed due to lasers and it has
helped engineering a lot in many sectors like machinery, nanotechnology, medical sector and a lot
more. There are still a lot of things yet to be mastered using laser light hologram, laser
communication in space, energy transfer through laser and a lot more. Laser light can be controlled
very precisely, so scientists can use it to perform extremely fine operations. For example, lasers
could be used to cut out parts to make molecule-size motors. Laser scan also be used as “optical
tweezers” to handle extremely small objects such as molecules. Nowadays, scientists are using
laser in nanotechnology to change shape of molecules. One possible future use of lasers is to supply
energy to spacecraft. Scientists imagine a day when orbiting space stations will make rockets
unnecessary. A cable between the ground and the station will make it possible for a “space
elevator” to escape Earth’s gravity by climbing up the cable. The elevator will be powered by an
Earth-based laser. A device on board the elevator will convert the laser’s energy into electrical
power.

9: Bibliography
References:

1. Wikipidea.org

2. www.daenotes.com

3. www.google.com

4. Haliday and Resnik, Fundamental of Physics 9th Edition

5. www.classzone.com

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