Different types of laser

Contents
Contents..................................................................................................................... 2
Chemicals used.....................................................................................................17
Construction.......................................................................................................... 18
Working:................................................................................................................21
Narrow linewidth dye lasers..................................................................................23
Construction:......................................................................................................... 24
Applications........................................................................................................... 26
Technology............................................................................................................ 33
Applications........................................................................................................... 35
Medicine.............................................................................................................35
Manufacturing.................................................................................................... 36
Fluid dynamics...................................................................................................36
Dentistry............................................................................................................36
Military and defense...........................................................................................37
Cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS)..............................................................37
Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS)..................................................37
Laser pumping...................................................................................................38
Types of Femtosecond Lasers...............................................................................38
Bulk Lasers......................................................................................................... 38
Fiber Lasers........................................................................................................ 39
Dye Lasers..........................................................................................................39
Semiconductor Lasers........................................................................................39
Other Types........................................................................................................40
Important Parameters of Femtosecond Lasers......................................................40

2
LASER stands for LIGHT AMPLIFICATION BY STIMULATED
EMISSION OF RADIATION.
Laser is a device used to produce very intense, highly directional,
coherent and monochromatic beam of light.
Laser of different power and application can be produced by using
different materials.

BASIC CONDITIONS TO PRODUCE LASER

there must be a meta stable state in the system.
The system must achieve population inversion.
The photons emitted must be confined in the system for a time to
allow them further stimulated emission.
3
 PRINCIPLE OF LASER
The principle of laser production is based on the fact that atoms of a
material have a number of energy levels in which at least one is meta
stable state.
Consider a three level atomic system having energies E1, E2 and
E3 respectively.

Let the atoms are at ground state E1. If photons interact with an atom in
ground state, the atom absorbs the photon and reaches the excited state
E3 . We know that the excited state is an unstable state, therefore,
electron must return back to ground state E1 but such transitions are not
allowed and the electron first reach the state E2. Atoms in the state
E3 which has a life time of about 10-8 sec decay spontaneously from state
E3 to state E2 which is meta stable and has life time of 10-3sec . This
means that the atoms reach state E2 much faster than they leave state
E2. This results in an increase in number of atoms in state E2, and hence
population inversion is achieved.

Lasers are divided into three main classes depending upon their origin.
Solid Laser
Liquid Laser
Gas Laser

1. Solid-state laser :

A solid-state laser is a laser that uses a gain medium that is a solid,

rather than a liquid such as in dye lasers or a gas as in gas
lasers.Semiconductor-based lasers are also in the solid state, but are
generally considered as a separate class from solid-state lasers……

Solid-state lasers are lasers based on solid-state gain media such

as crystals or glassesdoped with rare earth or transition metal ions,
or semiconductor lasers. (Althoughsemiconductor lasers are of course
also solid-state devices, they are often not included in the term solid-

4
 state lasers.) Ion-doped solid-state lasers (also sometimes
called doped insulator lasers) can be made in the form ofbulk
lasers, fiber lasers, or other types ofwaveguide lasers. Solid-state
lasers may generate output powers between a few milliwatts and
(in high-power versions) many kilowatts.

Types of solid state laser(continous):

• Ruby laser

• Semiconductor laser

• Uranium laser

• And many more.

Ruby Laser:

The first laser (which is the abbreviation of the words Light Amplification by
Stimulated Emission of Radiation) was created in 1961 by Theodore
Maiman (b.1927) at the Hughes Research Laboratories. He used a rod of
synthetic ruby as the lasing medium. The crystalline structure of ruby is
similar to the one of corundum, i.e. a crystal of aluminum oxide (Al2O3), in
which the small part of atoms of aluminum (about 0,05 %) is replaced with
ions Cr +++. Ruby rod is illuminated by intense impulse of light, which is
generated by helical xenon discharge lamp as shown in animation. The
ends of ruby rod are highly polished and silvered to serve as laser mirrors.
The impulse of light creates the inverse population of electrons in ruby rod
and due to the presence of mirrors the laser generation is excited. The
duration of the laser impulse is a little bit shorter than the pump impulse of
the flash lamp.

5
Ruby is an aluminum oxide crystal in which some of the aluminum atoms
have been replaced with chromium atoms. Chromium gives ruby its
characteristic red color and is responsible for the lasing behavior of the
crystal. Chromium atoms Absorb green and blue Light and emit or reflect
only red light. For a ruby laser, a crystal of ruby is formed into a cylinder.
A fully reflecting mirror is placed on one end and a partially reflecting
mirror on the other. A high-intensity lamp is spiraled around the ruby
cylinder to provide a flash of white light that triggers the Laser action.
The green and blue wavelengths in the flash excite electrons in the
chromium atoms to a higherEnergy level. Upon returning to their normal
state, the electrons emit their characteristic ruby-red light. The mirrors
reflect some of this light back and forth inside the ruby crystal,
stimulating other excited chromium atoms to produce more red light, until
the light pulse builds up to high power and drains the energy stored in
the crystal. The optically pumped, solid-state laser uses sapphire as the
host lattice and chromium as the active ion. The Emission takes place in
the red portion of the spectrum.

Pumping Levels for Ruby Laser

6
The ruby laser is a three level solid state laser. The active laser
medium (laser gain/amplification medium) is a synthetic ruby rod that is
energized through optical pumping, typically by a xenon flashtube. Ruby
has very broad and powerful absorption bands in the visual spectrum, at
400 and 550 nm, and a very long fluorescence lifetime of 3 milliseconds.
This allows for very high energy pumping, since the pulse duration can be
much longer than with other materials. While ruby has a very wide
absorption profile, its conversion efficiency is much lower than other
mediums.

7
In early examples, the rod's ends had to be polished with great precision,
such that the ends of the rod were flat to within a quarter of a wavelength of
the output light, and parallel to each other within a few seconds of arc. The
finely polished ends of the rod were silvered; one end completely, the other
only partially. The rod, with its reflective ends, then acts as a Fabry–Pérot
etalon (or a Gires-Tournois etalon). Modern lasers often use rods
with antireflection coatings, or with the ends cut and polished at Brewster's
angle instead. This eliminates the reflections from the ends of the rod.
External dielectric mirrors then are used to form the optical cavity.Curved
mirrors are typically used to relax the alignment tolerances and to form a
stable resonator, often compensating for thermal lensing of the rod.

8
Transmittance of ruby in optical and near-IR spectra. Note the two broad
blue and green absorption bands and the narrow absorption band at 694
nm, which is the wavelength of the ruby laser.

Ruby also absorbs some of the light at its lasing wavelength. To overcome
this absorption, the entire length of the rod needs to be pumped, leaving no
shaded areas near the mountings. The active part of the ruby is the dopant,
which consists of chromium ions suspended in a sapphirecrystal. The
dopant often comprises around 0.05% of the crystal, and is responsible for
all of the absorption and emission of radiation. Depending on the
concentration of the dopant, synthetic ruby usually comes in either pink or
red.

Material:

Ruby is an aluminum oxide crystal in which some of the aluminum atoms

have been replaced with chromium atoms.The crystalline structure of ruby
is similar to the one of corundum, i.e. a crystal of aluminum oxide (Al2O3), in
which the small part of atoms of aluminum (about 0,05 %) is replaced with
ions Cr +++. Ruby rod is illuminated by intense impulse of light, which is
generated by helical xenon discharge lamp

CONSTRUCTION:
a ruby laser consist of the ruby rod.ruby is the combination of the al2o3 and
cr2o3.when the al rod is doped .5% with the cr3+ the color of the ruby rod
become pink.the length of ruby rod is 4cm and width is .5cm.The apparatus
is fitted in the glass .rod .Two electrodes are also fitted in the glass rod and
9
connected to the high voltage.the ends of the ruby rod is ground and then
polished in such a way that one end become partially and other end
become fully reflecting. The partially is placed at the right and the fully
reflecting mirror is placed at left side of the rod. The partially reflecting
mirror is used to eject the laser beam. The spiral binding is placed all
around the ruby.

Ruby Laser and Flash Tube

Cavity:

External dielectric mirrors then are used to form the optical cavity

WORKING
Let the electrons are raised from ground state E1 to Excited
state E3 which has a life time 10-8 sec. The atoms from the state
E3 make transition to state E2. Since E2 is meta-stable state
having life time equal to 10-3 sec. This means that the atoms
reach state E2 much faster than they leave state E2. This results

10
in an increase in the number of atoms in state E2 and hence
population inversion is achieved.
In this process few Cr atoms make spontaneous transition from
E2 to E1 and emitted photons stimulate further transition. In this
way we obtain an intense, coherent, monochromatic beam of
red laser.

1. High-voltage electricity causes the

quartz flash tube to emit an intense burst of
light, exciting some of the atoms in the ruby
crystal to higher energy levels.

2. At a specific energy level, some atoms

emit particles of light called photons. At first
the photons are emitted in all directions.
Photons from one atom stimulate emission
of photons from other atoms and the light
intensity is rapidly amplified.

3. Mirrors at each end reflect the photons

back and forth, continuing this process of
stimulated emission and amplification.

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 4. The photons leave through the partially
silvered mirror at one end. This is laser
light.

Application:

• Ruby lasers have declined in use with the discovery of better lasing
media. They are still used in a number of applications where short
pulses of red light are required. Holographers around the world
produce holographic portraits with ruby lasers, in sizes up to a metre
squared.
• Many non-destructive testing labs use ruby lasers to create
holograms of large objects such as aircraft tires to look for
weaknesses in the lining.
• Ruby lasers were used extensively in tattoo and hair removal.
• the ruby laser is still used, mainly as a light source for medical and
cosmetic procedures.
• in high speed photography and pulsed holography.

Semiconductor Lasers

Semiconductor lasers are said to be "the laser of the future". The reasons
are: they are compact, they have the potential of mass production, they can
be easily integrated, their properties are in rapid improvement, they are

12
becoming more and more powerful and efficient and they have found a
widespread use as pumps for solid–state lasers.

Material:

The majority of semiconductor materials are based on a combination of

elements in the third group of the Periodic Table (such as Al, Ga, In) and
the fifth group (such as N, P, As, Sb) hence referred to as the III-V
compounds. Examples include GaAs, AlGaAs, InGaAs and InGaAsP
alloys. The cw laser emission wavelengths are normally within 630~1600
nm, but recently InGaN semiconductor lasers were found to generate cw
410 nm blue light at room temperature. The semiconductor lasers that can
generate blue-green light uses materials which are the combination of
elements of the second group (such as Cd and Zn) and the sixth group (S,
Se).

Working:

The principle of semiconductor laser is very different from CO2 and Nd:YAG
lasers. It is based on "Recombination Radiation". We can explain this
principle by referring to the following figure.

Principles of semiconductor lasers

13
The semiconductor materials have valence band V and conduction band C,
the energy level of conduction band is Eg (Eg>0) higher than that of
valence band. To make things simple, we start our analysis supposing the
temperature to be 0 K. It can be proved that the conclusions we draw under
0 K applies to normal temperatures.

Under this assumption for nondegenerate semiconductor, initially the

conduction band is completely empty and the valence band is completely
filled. Now we excite some electrons from valence band to conduction
band, after about 1 ps, electrons in the conduction band drop to the lowest
unoccupied levels of this band, we name the upper boundary of the
electron energy levels in the conduction band the quasi-Fermi level Efc.
Meanwhile holes appear in the valence band and electrons near the top of
the valence band drop to the lowest energy levels of the unoccupied
valence energy levels, leave on the top of the valence band an empty part.
We call the new upper boundary energy level of the valence band quasi-
Fermi level Efv. When electrons in the conduction band run into the valence
band, they will combine with the holes, in the same time they emit photons.
This is the recombination radiation. Our task is to make this recombination
radiation to lase. Then several conditions must be met.

First for the radiation to be amplified, the light energy hn must satisfy:

Efc - Efv ³ hn ³ Eg

From this relation we have Efc - Efv ³ Eg. This decides the critical condition.
The value of Efc and Efv is influenced by the pumping process, i.e., by the
intensity (N) of the electrons being raised to the conduction band. When N

14
is increased, Efc increases and Efv decreases. The N satisfies Efc - Efv = Eg is
named Ntr. We inject carriers into the semiconductor material to make the
free electron intensity to be larger than Nth, then the semiconductor exhibits
a net gain. We put this active medium in a suitable cavity, laser action
occurs when this net gain overcome losses. The pumping of semiconductor
lasers can be realized by the beam of another laser, or by an electron
beam, but the most convenient way is by using electrical current that flows
through the semiconductor junctions. This uses the semiconductor laser in
the form of diode.

The early semiconductor lasers are Homojunction Lasers, which can

operate cw only at cryogenic temperatures (like T=77K). Homojunction
means the laser devices use the same material for both the p and n sides
of the junction. The homojunction lasers were replaced by double-
heterostructure (DH) lasers which can operate at room temperatures.
The active medium of DH laser is sandwiched between p and n materials,
the p and n materials differ from the active material.

The dimension of semiconductor laser is very small, a typical value is

100m m *200m m *50 m m. The power conversion efficiency is a few
percent for the low power units and can reach 30% for laser arrays. The
output power increases with the volume of the active layers, linear or
stacked diode laser arrays can generate up to 20W cw and peak power up
to 100W in quasi-CW operation. A problem with the semiconductor laser is
its relatively large divergence angle (typical value 1~30 degrees), but its
defects are being improved quickly. Lower power diode laser systems, of a
few mW, are used in CD players, optical storage systems, laser printers
and communications. Diode lasers with Power 0.5W/diode are available,
15
when they are packed into arrays, they can generate power of several kW.
As we mentioned before, semiconductor lasers are developing quickly, the
cost will be greatly reduced when they can be mass produced. A very
important application of diode lasers is for pumping other high energy laser
systems such as Nd:YAG lasers. We will discuss this technique in
advanced level.

Typical Characteristics and Applications

Some typical aspects of semiconductor lasers are:

• Electrical pumping with moderate voltages and high efficiency is

possible particularly for high-power diode lasers, and allows their use
e.g. as pump sources for highly efficient solid-state lasers (→ diode-
pumped lasers).

• A wide range of wavelengths are accessible with different devices,

covering much of the visible, near-infrared and mid-infrared spectral
region. Some devices also allow for wavelength tuning.

• Small laser diodes allow fast switching and modulation of the optical
power, allowing their use e.g. in transmitters of fiber-optic links.

Such characteristics have made semiconductor lasers the technologically

most important type of lasers. Their applications are extremely widespread,
including areas as diverse as optical data transmission, optical data
storage, metrology, spectroscopy, material processing, pumping solid-
state lasers (→ diode-pumped lasers), and various kinds of medical
treatments.

16
 2. CHEMICAL LASER:

A dye 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.
Dye lasers were independently discovered by P. P. Sorokin and F. P.
Schäfer (and colleagues) in 1966.
In addition to the usual liquid state, dye lasers are also available as solid
state dye lasers (SSDL). SSDL use dye-doped organic matrices as gain
medium.
Chemicals used

Rhodamine 6G Chloride powder; mixed with methanol; emitting yellow light

under the influence of a green laser

Some of the laser

dyes are rhodamine, fluorescein, coumarin, stilbene, umbelliferone, tetrace

17
ne,malachite green, and others. While some dyes are actually used in food
coloring, most dyes are very toxic, and often carcinogenic. Many dyes,
such as rhodamine 6G, (in its chloride form), can be very corrosive to all
metals except stainless steel.

A wide variety of solvents can be used, although some dyes will dissolve
better in some solvents than in others. Some of the solvents used
are water, glycol, ethanol, methanol, hexane, cyclohexane,cyclodextrin,
and many others. Solvents are often highly toxic, and can sometimes be
absorbed directly through the skin, or through inhaled vapors. Many
solvents are also extremely flammable.

Adamantane is added to some dyes to prolong their life.

Cycloheptatriene and cyclooctatetraene (COT) can be added

as triplet quenchers for rhodamine G, increasing the laser output power.
Output power of 1.4 kilowatt at 585 nm was achieved using Rhodamine 6G
with COT in methanol-water solution.

Construction

18
A dielectric mirror used in a dye laser.

A dye laser consists of an organic dye mixed with a solvent, which may be
circulated through a dye cell, or streamed through open air using a dye jet.
A high energy source of light is needed to "pump"the liquid beyond
its lasing threshold. A fast discharge flashlamp or an external laser is
usually used for this purpose. Mirrors are also needed to oscillate the light
produced by the dye’s fluorescence, which is amplified with each pass
through the liquid. The output mirror is normally around 80% reflective,
while all other mirrors are usually more than 99% reflective. The dye
solution is usually circulated at high speeds, to help avoid triplet absorption
and to decrease degradation of the dye. Aprism or diffraction grating is
usually mounted in the beam path, to allow tuning of the beam.

Because the liquid medium of a dye laser can fit any shape, there are a
multitude of different configurations that can be used. A Fabry–Pérot laser
cavity is usually used for flashlamp pumped lasers, which consists of two
mirrors, which may be flat or curved, mounted parallel to each other with
the laser medium in between. The dye cell is usually side-pumped, with
one or more flashlamps running parallel to the dye cell in a reflector cavity.
The reflector cavity is often water cooled, to prevent thermal shock in the
dye caused by the large amounts of near-infrared radiation which the
flashlamp produces. Axial pumped lasers have a hollow, annular-shaped
flashlamp that surrounds the dye cell, which has lower inductance for a
shorter flash, and improved transfer efficiency. Coaxial pumped lasers have
an annular dye cell that surrounds the flash lamp, for even better transfer
efficiency, but have a lower gain due to diffraction losses. Flash pumped
lasers can only be used for pulsed output.

19
A ring dye laser. P-pump laser beam; G-gain dye jet; A-saturable absorber
dye jet; M0, M1, M2-planar mirrors; OC–output coupler; CM1 to CM4-
curved mirrors.

A ring laser design is often chosen for continuous operation, although a

Fabry–Pérot design is sometimes used. In a ring laser, the mirrors of the
laser are positioned to allow the beam to travel in a circular path. The dye
cell, or cuvette, is usually very small. Sometimes a dye jet is used to help
avoid reflection losses. The dye is usually pumped with an external laser,
such as a nitrogen,excimer, or frequency doubled Nd:YAG laser. The liquid
is circulated at very high speeds, to prevent triplet absorption from cutting
off the beam. Unlike Fabry–Pérot cavities, a ring laser does not
generate standing waves which cause spatial hole burning, a phenomenon
where energy becomes trapped in unused portions of the medium between
the crests of the wave. This leads to a better gain from the lasing medium.

20
Cavity:

A dielectric mirror used in a dye laser as a cavity. There are many other
types of cavities and resonators which include gratings, prisms, multiple-
prism grating arrangements, andetalons.

Working:

The dyes used in these lasers contain rather large organic molecules which
fluoresce when exposed to the proper frequency of light. The incoming light
excite the dye molecules, which will emit stimulated radiation as long as the
molecules remain in their initially-formed singlet state. In this state, the
molecules emit light viafluorescence, and the dye is quite clear to the lasing
wavelength. Within a microsecond, or less, the molecules will change to
their triplet state. In the triplet state, light is emitted via phosphorescence,
and the molecules begin to absorb the lasing wavelength, making the dye
opaque. Liquid dyes also have an extremely high lasing threshold.
Flashlamp pumped lasers need a flash with an extremely short duration, to
deliver the large amounts of energy necessary to bring the dye past
threshold before triplet absorption overcomes singlet emission. Dye lasers
with an external pump laser can direct enough energy of the proper
wavelength into the dye with a relatively small amount of input energy, but
the dye must be circulated at high speeds to keep the triplet molecules out
of the beam path.

21
A cuvette used in a dye laser

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-shapednozzle. With a
dye jet, one avoids reflection losses from the glass surfaces and
contamination of the walls of the cuvette. These advantages come at the
cost of a more-complicated alignment.

Liquid dyes are very high gain laser mediums. The beam only needs to
make a few passes through the liquid for high gains in power, and hence,
the high transmittance of the output coupler. This high gain nature also
leads to very high losses, as any reflections generated by the dye cell
walls, or flashlamp reflector, will dramatically reduce the amount of energy
available to the beam. Pumping cavities are often coated, anodized, or
otherwise made of a material that will absorb the lasing wavelength while
effectively reflecting the pumping energy.

22
Narrow linewidth dye lasers

Multiple prisms are often used to tune the output of a dye laser

Application:

Dye lasers emission is inherently broad. However, tunable narrow linewidth

emission has been central to the success of the dye laser. In order to
produce narrow bandwidth tuning these lasers use many types of cavities
and resonators which include gratings, prisms, multiple-prism grating
arrangements, andetalons.

The first narrow linewidth dye laser used a Galilean telescope as beam
expander to illuminate the diffraction grating. Next were the grazing-
incidence grating designs and the multiple-prism grating configurations.
The various resonators and oscillator designs developed for dye lasers
have been successfully adapted to other laser types such as the diode
laser.

3. GAS LASER:

CARBON DIOXIDE LASER:

The carbon dioxide laser (CO2 laser) was one of the earliest gas lasers to
be developed (invented by Kumar Patel of Bell Labs in 1964), and is still

23
one of the most useful. Carbon dioxide lasers are the highest-power
continuous wave lasers that are currently available. They are also quite
efficient: the ratio of output power topump power can be as large as 20%.

The CO2 laser produces a beam of infrared light with the

principalwavelength bands centering around 9.4 and 10.6 micrometers.

Material:

The active laser medium (laser gain/amplification medium) is a gas

discharge which is air cooled (water cooled in higher power applications).
The filling gas within the discharge tube consists primarily of:

 Carbon dioxide (CO2) (around 10–20%)

 Nitrogen (N2) (around 10–20%)
 Hydrogen (H2) and/or xenon (Xe) (a few percent; usually only used in
a sealed tube.)
 Helium (He) (The remainder of the gas mixture)

The specific proportions vary according to the particular laser.

Construction:
Because CO2 lasers operate in the infrared, special materials are
necessary for their construction. Typically, the mirrors are silvered, while
windows and lenses are made of either germanium or zinc selenide. For
high power applications, gold mirrors and zinc selenide windows and
lenses are preferred. There are also diamond windows and even lenses
in use. Diamond windows are extremely expensive, but their high thermal
conductivity and hardness make them useful in high-power applications
and in dirty environments. Optical elements made of diamond can even

24
 be sand blasted without losing their optical properties. Historically, lenses
and windows were made out of salt (either sodium chloride or potassium
chloride). While the material was inexpensive, the lenses and windows
degraded slowly with exposure to atmospheric moisture.

The most basic form of a CO2 laser consists of a gas discharge (with a mix
close to that specified above) with a total reflector at one end, and an
output coupler (usually a semi-reflective coated zinc selenide mirror) at the
output end. The reflectivity of the output coupler is typically around 5-15%.
The laser output may also be edge-coupled in higher power systems to
reduce optical heating problems.

The CO2 laser can be constructed to have CW powers

between milliwatts (mW) and hundreds of kilowatts (kW).It is also very easy
to actively Q-switch a CO2 laser by means of a rotating mirror or an electro-
optic switch, giving rise to Q-switched peak powers up to gigawatts(GW) of
peak power.

Because the laser transitions are actually on vibration-rotation bands of a

linear triatomic molecule, the rotational structure of the P and R bands can
be selected by a tuning element in the laser cavity. Because transmissive
materials in the infrared are rather lossy, the frequency tuning element is
almost always a diffraction grating. By rotating the diffraction grating, a
particular rotational line of the vibrational transition can be selected. The
finest frequency selection may also be obtained through the use of
an etalon. In practice, together with isotopic substitution, this means that a
continuous comb of frequencies separated by around 1 cm−1 (30 GHz) can
be used that extend from 880 to 1090 cm−1. Such "line-tuneable" carbon
dioxide lasers are principally of interest in research applications.

25
Working:

The population inversion in the laser is achieved by the following sequence:

1. Electron impact excites vibrational motion of the nitrogen.

Because nitrogen is a homonuclear molecule, it cannot lose this
energy byphoton emission, and its excited vibrational levels are
therefore metastable and live for a long time.
2. Collisional energy transfer between the nitrogen and the carbon
dioxide molecule causes vibrational excitation of the carbon dioxide,
with sufficient efficiency to lead to the desired population inversion
necessary for laser operation.
3. The nitrogen molecules are left in a lower excited state. Their
transition to ground state takes place by collision with cold helium
atoms. The resulting hot helium atoms must be cooled in order to
sustain the ability to produce a population inversion in the carbon
dioxide molecules. In sealed lasers, this takes place as the helium
atoms strike the walls of the container. In flow-through lasers, a
continuous stream of CO2 and nitrogen is excited by the plasma
discharge and the hot gas mixture is exhausted from the resonator
by pumps.

Applications
Because of the high power levels available (combined with reasonable cost
for the laser), CO2 lasers are frequently used in industrial applications

26
for cutting and welding, while lower power level lasers are used for
engraving.They are also very useful in surgical procedures because water
(which makes up most biological tissue) absorbs this frequency of light very
well. Some examples of medical uses are laser surgery, skin
resurfacing ("laser facelifts") (which essentially consist of burning the skin
to promote collagen formation), and dermabrasion. Also, it could be used to
treat certain skin conditions such as hirsuties papillaris genitalis by
removing embarrassing or annoying bumps, podules, etc. Researchers in
Israel are experimenting with using CO2 lasers to weld human tissue, as an
alternative to traditional sutures.

The common plastic Poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) absorbs IR light in

the 2.8–25 µm wavelength band, so CO2 lasers have been used in recent
years for fabricating microfluidic devices from it, with channel widths of a
few hundred micrometers.

Because the atmosphere is quite transparent to infrared light, CO2 lasers

are also used for military rangefinding using LIDAR techniques.

Helium-Neon Laser

How the Helium-Neon Laser Works?

27
28
There are three principal elements of a laser, which are (1) an energy
pump, (2) an optical gain medium, and (3) an optical resonator. These
three elements are described in detail below for the case of the HeNe laser.

(1) Energy pump.

A 1400 V high voltage, DC power supply maintains a glow discharge or

plasma in a glass tube containing an optimal mixture (typically 5:1 to 7:1) of
helium and neon gas, as shown in Fig. 1 and indicated in the diagram
of Fig. 2. The discharge current is limited to about 5 mA by a 91 k ballast
resistor. Energetic electrons accelerating from the cathode to the anode
collide with He and Ne atoms in the laser tube, producing a large number of
neutral He and Ne atoms in excited states. He and Ne atoms in excited
states can deexcite and return to their ground states by spontaneously
emitting light. This light makes up the bright pink-red glow of the plasma
that is seen even in the absence of laser action.

The process of producing He and Ne in specific excited states is known as

pumping and in the HeNe laser this pumping process occurs through
electron-atom collisions in a discharge. In other types of lasers, pumping is

29
achieved by light from a bright flashlamp or by chemical reactions.
Common to all lasers is the need for some process to prepare an ensemble
of atoms, ions or molecules in appropriate excited states so that a desired
type of light emission can occur.

(2) Optical gain medium.

To achieve laser action it is necessary to have a large number of atoms in

excited states and to establish what is termed a population inversion. To
understand the significance of a population inversion to HeNe laser action,
it is useful to consider the processes leading to excitation of He and Ne
atoms in the discharge, using the simplified diagram of atomic He and Ne
energy levels given in Fig. 3. A description of the rather complex HeNe
excitation process can be given in terms of the following four steps.

(a) An energetic electron collisionally excites a He atom to the state labeled

21S0 in Fig. 3. A He atom in this excited state is often written He*(21S0),
where the asterisk means that the He atom is in an excited state.

(b) The excited He*(21S0) atom collides with an unexcited Ne atom and the
atoms exchange internal energy, with an unexcited He atom and excited
Ne atom, written Ne*(3S2), resulting. This energy exchange process occurs
with high probability only because of the accidental near equality of the two
excitation energies of the two levels in these atoms.

(c) The 3S2 level of Ne is an example of a metastable atomic state,

meaning that it is only after a relatively long period of time - on atomic time
scales - that the Ne*(3S2) atom deexcites to the 2P4 level by emitting a
photon of wavelength 6328 Å. It is this emission of 6328 Å light by Ne

30
atoms that, in the presence of a suitable optical configuration, leads to
lasing action.

(d) The excited Ne*(2P4) atom rapidly deexcites to its ground state by
emitting additional photons or by collisions with the plasma tube walls.
Because of the extreme quickness of the deexcitation process, at any
moment in the HeNe plasma, there are more Ne atoms in the 3S2 state
than there are in the 2P4 state, and a population inversion is said to be
established between these two levels.

When a population inversion is established between the 3S2 and 2P4 levels
of the Ne atoms in the discharge, the discharge can act as an optical gain
or amplification medium for light of wavelength 6328 Å. This is because a
photon incident on the gas discharge will have a greater probability of being
replicated in a 3S2-->2P4stimulated emission process (discussed below)
than of being destroyed in the complementary 2P4-->3S2 absorption
process.

(3) Optical resonator or cavity.

As mentioned in 2(c) above, Ne atoms in the 3S2 metastable state decay

spontaneously to the 2P4 level after a relatively long period of time under
normal circumstances; however, a novel circumstance arises if, as shown
in Fig. 2, a HeNe discharge is placed between two highly reflecting mirrors
that form an optical cavity or resonator along the axis of the discharge.
When a resonator structure is in place, photons from the Ne* 3S2--
>2P4 transition that are emitted along the axis of the cavity can be reflected
hundreds of times between the two highly reflecting end mirrors of the

31
cavity. These reflecting photons can interact with other excited Ne*(3S2)
atoms and cause them to emit 6328 Å light in a process known as
stimulated emission. The new photon produced in stimulated emission has
the same wavelength and polarization, and is emitted in the same direction,
as the stimulating photon. It is sometimes useful for purposes of analogy to
think of the stimulated emission process as a "cloning" process for photons,
as depicted in Fig. 4. The stimulated emission process should be
contrasted with spontaneous emission processes that, because they are
not caused by any preceding event, produce photons that are emitted
isotropically, with random polarization, and over a broader range of
wavelengths.

As stimulated emission processes occur along the axis of the resonator a

situation develops in which essentially all 3S2-->2P4 Ne* decays contribute
deexcitation photons to the photon stream reflecting between the two
mirrors. This photon multiplication (light amplification) process produces a
very large number of photons of the same wavelength and polarization that
travel back and forth between the two cavity mirrors. To extract a light
beam from the resonator, it is only necessary to have one of the two
resonator mirrors, usually called the output coupler, have a reflectivity of
only 99% so that 1% of the photons incident on it travel out of the resonator
to produce an external laser beam. The other mirror, called the high
reflector, should be as reflective as possible. The small diameter, narrow
bandwidth, and strong polarization of the HeNe laser beam are determined
by the properties of the resonator mirrors and other optical components
that lie along the axis of the optical resonator.

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PULSE LASER:

Nd:YAG laser

(neodymium-doped yttrium aluminium garnet; Nd:Y3Al5O12) is

acrystal that is used as a lasing medium for solid-state lasers. The dopant,
triply ionized neodymium, typically replaces yttrium in the crystal structure
of the yttrium aluminium garnet (YAG), since they are of similar size.
Generally the crystalline host is doped with around 1% neodymium by
atomic percent.

Laser operation of Nd:YAG was first demonstrated by Geusic et al. at Bell

Laboratories in 1964.

Technology

Neodymium ions in various types of ionic crystals, and also in glasses, act
as a laser gain medium, typically emitting 1064 nm light from a particular
atomic transition in the neodymium ion, after being "pumped" into excitation
from an external source

Working:

Nd:YAG lasers are optically pumped using a flashtube or laser diodes.

These are one of the most common types of laser, and are used for many
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different applications. Nd:YAG lasers typically emit light with
awavelength of 1064 nm, in the infrared. However, there are also
transitions near 940, 1120, 1320, and 1440 nm. Nd:YAG lasers operate in
both pulsed and continuous mode. Pulsed Nd:YAG lasers are typically
operated in the so called Q-switching mode: An optical switch is inserted in
the laser cavity waiting for a maximum population inversion in the
neodymium ions before it opens. Then the light wave can run through the
cavity, depopulating the excited laser medium at maximum population
inversion. In this Q-switched mode, output powers of 250 megawatts and
pulse durations of 10 to 25 nanoseconds have been achieved. The high-
intensity pulses may be efficiently frequency doubled to generate laser light
at 532 nm, or higher harmonics at 355 and 266 nm.

Nd:YAG absorbs mostly in the bands between 730–760 nm and 790–

820 nm. At low current densities krypton flashlamps have higher output in
those bands than do the more common xenon lamps, which produce more
light at around 900 nm. The former are therefore more efficient for pumping
Nd:YAG lasers.

The amount of the neodymium dopant in the material varies according to its
use. Forcontinuous wave output, the doping is significantly lower than for
pulsed lasers. The lightly doped CW rods can be optically distinguished by
being less colored, almost white, while higher-doped rods are pink-purplish.

Other common host materials for neodymium are: YLF (yttrium lithium
fluoride, 1047 and 1053 nm), YVO4 (yttrium orthovanadate, 1064 nm),
and glass. A particular host material is chosen in order to obtain a desired
combination of optical, mechanical, and thermal properties. Nd:YAG lasers
and variants arepumped either by flashtubes, continuous gas discharge

34
lamps, or near-infrared laser diodes (DPSS lasers). Prestabilized
laser (PSL) types of Nd:YAG lasers have proved to be particularly useful in
providing the main beams for gravitational wave interferometers such
as LIGO, VIRGO,GEO600 and TAMA.

Applications

Medicine

Slit lamp photo of Posterior capsular opacification visible few months after
implantation of intraocular lens in eye, seen on retroillumination

Nd:YAG lasers are used in ophthalmology to correct posterior capsular

opacification, a condition that may occur after cataract surgery, and for
peripheral iridotomy in patients withacute angle-closure glaucoma, where it
has superseded surgical iridectomy. Frequency-doubled Nd:YAG lasers
(wavelength 532 nm) are used for pan-retinal photocoagulation in patients
with diabetic retinopathy.

In oncology, Nd:YAG lasers can be used to remove skin cancers.

These lasers are also used extensively in the field of cosmetic medicine
for laser hair removaland the treatment of minor vascular defects such

35
as spider veins on the face and legs. Recently used for dissecting cellulitis,
a rare skin disease usually occurring on the scalp.

Using hysteroscopy the Nd:YAG laser has been used for removal of uterine
septa within the inside of the uterus.

In podiatry, the Nd:YAG laser is being used to treat onychomycosis, which

is fungus infection of the toenail. The merits of laser treatment of these
infections are not yet clear, and research is being done to establish
effectiveness.

Manufacturing

Nd:YAG lasers are also used in manufacturing for engraving, etching, or

marking a variety of metals and plastics. They are extensively used in
manufacturing for cutting and welding steel, semiconductors and various
alloys. For automotive applications (cutting and welding steel) the power
levels are typically 1-5 kW. Super alloy drilling (for gas turbine parts)
typically uses pulsed Nd:YAG lasers (millisecond pulses, not Q-switched).
Nd:YAG lasers are also employed to make subsurface markings in
transparent materials such as glass or acrylic glass. Lasers of up to 400 W
are used for selective laser melting of metals in additive layered
manufacturing.

Fluid dynamics

Nd:YAG lasers can also be used for flow visualization techniques in fluid
dynamics (for example particle image velocimetry or induced fluorescence).

Dentistry

Nd:YAG lasers are used for soft tissue surgeries in the oral cavity, such
as gingivectomy, periodontal sulcular

36
debridement, LANAP,frenectomy, biopsy, and coagulation of graft donor
sites.

Military and defense

Military surplus Nd:YAG laser rangefinder firing. The laser fires through a
collimator, focusing the beam, which blasts a hole through a rubber block,
releasing a burst of plasma.

The Nd:YAG laser is the most common laser used in laser

designators and laser rangefinders.

Cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS)

The Nd:YAG may be used in the application of cavity ring-down

spectroscopy, which is used to measure the concentration of some light-
absorbing substance.

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS)

A range of Nd:YAG lasers are used in analysis of elements in the periodic

table. Though the application by itself is fairly new with respect to
conventional methods such as XRF or ICP, it has proven to be less time
consuming and a cheaper option to test element concentrations. A high-
power Nd:YAG laser is focused onto the sample surface to
produce plasma. Light from the plasma is captured by spectrometers and

37
the characteristic spectra of each element can be identified, allowing
concentrations of elements in the sample to be measured.

Laser pumping

Nd:YAG lasers, mainly via their second and third harmonics, are widely
used to excite dye lasers either in the liquid or solid state. They are also
used as pump sources for vibronically broadened solid-state lasers such
as Cr4+:YAG or via the second harmonic for pumpingTi:sapphire lasers.

Femtosecond Lasers

A femtosecond laser is a laser which emits optical pulses with

a duration well below 1 ps (→ ultrashort pulses), i.e., in the domain of
femtoseconds (1 fs = 10−15 s). It thus also belongs to the category
of ultrafast lasers orultrashort pulse lasers. The generation of such short
pulses is nearly always achieved with the technique of passive mode
locking.

Types of Femtosecond Lasers

Bulk Lasers

Passively mode-locked solid-state bulk laserscan emit high-quality

ultrashort pulses with typical durations between 30 fs and 30 ps.
Various diode-pumped lasers, e.g. based on neodymium-
doped or ytterbium-doped gain media, operate in this regime, with typical
average output powers between ∼ 100 mW and 1 W. Titanium–sapphire
lasers with advanced dispersion compensation are even suitable for pulse
durations below 10 fs, in extreme cases down to approximately 5 fs.
The pulse repetition rate is in most cases between 50 MHz and 500 MHz,
38
even though there are low repetition rate versions with a few megahertz for
higher pulse energies, and also miniature lasers with tens of gigahertz.

Fiber Lasers

Various types of ultrafast fiber lasers, which are also in most cases
passively mode-locked, typically offer pulse durations between 50 and
500 fs, repetition rates between 10 and 100 MHz, and average powers of a
few milliwatts. Substantially higher average powers andpulse energies are
possible, e.g. with stretched-pulse fiber lasers or with similariton lasers, or
in combination with a fiber amplifier. All-fiber solutions can be fairly cost-
effective in mass production, although the effort required for development
of a product with high performance and reliable operation can be
substantial due to various technical challenges.

Dye Lasers

Dye lasers dominated the field of ultrashort pulse generation before the
advent of titanium–sapphire lasers. Their gain bandwidth allows for pulse
durations of the order of 10 fs, and different laser dyes are suitable for
emission at various wavelengths, often in the visible spectral range. Mainly
due to the disadvantages associated with handling a laser dye,
femtosecond dye lasers are no longer frequently used.

Semiconductor Lasers

Some mode-locked diode lasers can generate pulses with femtosecond

durations. Directly at the laser output, the pulses durations are usually at
least several hundred femtoseconds, but with external pulse compression,
much shorter pulse durations can be achieved.

39
It is also possible to passively mode-lock vertical external-cavity surface-
emitting lasers(VECSELs); these are interesting particularly because they
can deliver a combination of short pulse durations, high pulse repetition
rates, and sometimes high average output power, whereas they are not
suitable for high pulse energies.

Other Types

More exotic types of femtosecond lasers are color center lasers and free
electron lasers. The latter can be made to emit femtosecond pulses even in
the form of X-rays.

Important Parameters of Femtosecond Lasers

The key performance figures of femtosecond lasers are the following:

• the pulse duration (which is in some cases tunable in a certain range)

• the pulse repetition rate (which is in most cases fixed, or tunable only
within a small range)

• the average output power and pulse energy

There are, however, various additional aspects which can be important:

• The time–bandwidth product (TBP) shows whether the spectral width

is larger than necessary for the given pulse duration. The pulse
quality includes additional aspects such as details of the temporal
and spectral pulse shape, such as the presence of temporal or
spectral side lobes.

• Some femtosecond lasers offer a stable linear polarization of the

output, whereas others emit with an undefined polarization state.

40
 • The noise properties can differ strongly between different types and
models of femtosecond lasers. This includes noise of the pulse timing
(→ timing jitter), the pulse energy (→ intensity noise), and various
types of phase noise. It may also be important to check the stability of
pulse parameters, including the sensitivity of external influences such
as mechanical vibrations or optical feedback.

• Some lasers have built-in means for stabilizing the pulse repetition
rate to an external reference, or for tuning the output wavelength.

• The laser output can be delivered into free space e.g. through some
glass window in the housing, or via a fiber connector.

• Built-in features for monitoring the output power, wavelength, or pulse

duration, can be convenient.

• Other aspects of potential interest are the size of the housing, the
electrical power consumption, the cooling requirements, and
interfaces for synchronization or computer control.

Apart from these aspects of the laser itself, the quality of the documentation
material, such as product specifications, user manual, etc., can be of
interest.

Reference:

• Internet

• Course book

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