PHYS-801J

Report 2: Laser
Pritam Singh (E622U564)

Introduction
Laser stands for ‘Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation’. Basically, laser is a quantum
mechanical device that emits a narrow beam of monochromatic light. Laser has a high degree of
directionality, directing the light in nearly same direction, in turn focusing the beam at a very small spot,
increasing its intensity. The monochromaticity, directionality and phase consistency of laser light can
together be called coherence.[1]
The basic principle for emission of light in lasers is related to the process in which electrons come to a
lower energy level in atoms releasing a specific amount of energy in form of light, that corresponds to a
specific frequency or wavelength.[1]

Theory and Working

For a laser to work, two components are needed: active medium and cavity, often also known as laser
gain and resonator respectively. Laser gain is the main component of a laser that produces light energy
using the principle of stimulated emission and amplifies it, whereas cavity works as a feedback mechanism
using a set of mirrors (resonator) that traps the light inside.[1] [2]
According to quantum mechanics, energy stored in an atom or molecule is quantized and also, these can
absorb and lose only specific amounts of energy. An atom in excited state can lose energy in several ways.
It can be released in form of heat or light. In case of light emission, the frequency of light emitted can be
𝐸
described by 𝜈 = . [1]
ℎ

This light emission can occur in two ways: spontaneous or stimulated. In the first case, an electron in the
atom excited using a photon of specific energy can spontaneously come to lower energy level releasing
the same amount of energy in form of a photon. Lasers work on the principle of stimulated emission in
which an electron in excited state when interacts with a photon of appropriate energy comes to ground
state emitting two photons of same energy. The point to note here is that these two photons are emitted
in the same direction, have same polarization, and are in phase.[1] [3]

ℎ𝜈12

Figure 1 [3]

Here, ℎ𝜈12 = 𝐸2 − 𝐸1 . Now, understanding it for multiple number of atoms and molecules, Boltzmann’s
law gives the population of energy levels using the equation 𝑁𝑖 = 𝑁0 ⅇ −𝐸𝑖 ∕𝑘𝐵 𝑇 . [1]
In the above equation, 𝑁0 → Population of ground level
𝑁𝑖 → Population of 𝑖th energy level

𝐸𝑖 → Energy of 𝑖th level

Using Boltzmann’s law, the distribution of atoms in thermal equilibrium can be described as shown in figure
2. It describes that at any given temperature, the population of lower energy levels is always greater as
compared to the higher energy levels, the system being in thermal equilibrium.[1]

Figure 2 [1] Figure 3 [1]

Now, if the atoms are excited to higher energy levels by some way, they soon return to thermal equilibrium
following Boltzmann’s law. But if the speed of exciting these atoms is fast enough (say using fast
monoenergetic electron beam) to overcome the decay from that level, population inversion can be created
as shown in Figure 3. It shows the population inversion between 𝐸2 and 𝐸3 .[1]
For lasers to work, stimulated emission and population inversion both play as basic principles. Let’s say
in some material, population inversion exists between energy levels 𝐸2 and 𝐸0 . So, if this material interacts
with photons having energy 𝐸2 − 𝐸0 , it will result in stimulated emission. Larger the extent of inversion,
greater will be the amplification of light due to stimulated emission.[1]
Real lasers are either three-level or four-level system having ground state, pump level and upper laser
level in the first case and an additional lower laser level in the second case. In a three-level laser, atoms
are excited to pump level from ground state using external energy source and they spontaneously decay
to upper laser level releasing heat energy. This upper laser level generally has a longer lifetime, which
creates an accumulation of atoms at this energy level resulting in population inversion and these atoms
return to ground state during lasing, each emitting a photon. The only difference in four-level system is
that during lasing, the atoms fall to lower laser level and then decay to ground level spontaneously
releasing heat. Notably, most common lasers are four-level systems.[1]

Table 1 [3]

Table 1 shows the lifetime of upper and lower levels for different laser materials along with wavelength
1
and stimulated emission cross-sections. Reciprocal of the lifetime 𝐴 = gives the Einstein coefficient for
𝜏
spontaneous emission, assuming the decay being entirely radiative. [3]
Pumping in lasers can be done in several ways. An electron beam is used to create population inversion
in many high-power gas lasers. The direct discharge technique is also very common in lasers having
gaseous medium. Some gas lasers like the ones using carbon dioxide as a medium also use radio-
frequency energy to create population inversion. Several other ways can also be used for this purpose
depending upon the laser medium.[1]
Now, resonator is required to provide feedback using two curved mirrors at the two ends of the laser. This
is because a laser without resonator is usually not practical as it creates very less number of photons. The
input photon doesn’t allow enough atoms to undergo stimulated emission by passing one time. So the
process needs to continue back and forth multiple times to make it practical and emit enough light. In
actual lasers, one of the mirrors is completely reflective and the other is half reflective (transparent to some
extent) to allow laser light to come out of the device.[1]

Structure and Materials

There are many different types of lasers available currently having different uses, but the most popular
and useful one has been semiconductor laser. Semiconductor lasers are compact in size, can work at
small injection current and voltage, have high power output and high efficiency. These lasers use
semiconductor materials as gain medium. It is PN-type junction which produces light by electron-hole
recombination. Here, population inversion is created by injecting large number of charge carriers in the
active region.[3]

Figure 4 [3]

Figure 4 shows the basic structure of a semiconductor laser. The active zone of modern semiconductor
lasers may also contain quantum wells for high performance. GaAlAs, InGaAsP and GaInP are the most
common materials used in semiconductor lasers depending upon the emission wavelength and
application. The structure of lasers may also vary slightly depending upon the specific use.[3]

Current Use
Lasers have wide range of applications including optical communication, printers, high-resolution
spectroscopy, material processing, 3D sensing, 3D printing and medicine. Laser cooling is also one of the
notable applications of diode lasers in condensed matter and quantum physics research.[3] Recently, high-
energy lasers have been used at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory to obtain fusion ignition with target energy gain > 1. [4]

Types of Lasers [3]

Lasers can be classified by the type of material used in it as gain medium.
1. Gas and liquid lasers:
a. Neutral atom lasers
b. Ion lasers
c. Molecular gas lasers
d. Dye lasers
 e.g. He-Ne Laser: It has high spectral stability and narrow bandwidth. These are used in optical
metrology and as alignment lasers.
2. Solid-state lasers:
a. Ruby laser: It is a three-level system and the first laser invented in 1960.
b. Neodymium laser: It is one of the most important solid-state lasers. Nd:YAG laser is used
in wide applications including spectroscopy, medicine and for pumping other lasers.
Nd:glass lasers are significant in high-energy amplifiers.
c. Tunable solid-state lasers: Titanium, vanadium, chromium, cobalt, nickel and thulium ions
can be doped into various host crystals to accomplish broad wavelength tunability.
d. Fiber lasers: Laser glasses can be made into thin glass fibers.
3. Semiconductor lasers:
These are the most widely used lasers having applications all around. Semiconductor lasers are
generally compact and more efficient. These are used in laser printers, communication, medicine
as well as different fields of research.

References
[1] Ewing, J. J., C Breck Hitz, & Hecht, J. (2012). Introduction to Laser Technology, Fourth Edition. John
Wiley & Sons Incorporated.
[2] Institute of Physics and Astronomy. Chapter 2: Quantum theory of laser. University of Potsdam.
Retrieved October 19, 2024,
http://www.quantum.physik.uni-potsdam.de/teaching/ss2016/qo2/qo2_ss2016_script_ch2.pdf
[3] Eichler, H. J., Eichler, J., & Lux, O. (2018). Lasers: Basics, advances and applications. Springer.
[4] Kritcher, A. L., Schlossberg, D. J., Weber, C. R., Young, C. V., Hurricane, O. A., Dewald, E., Zylstra,
A. B., Allen, A., Bachmann, B., Baker, K. L., Baxamusa, S., Braun, T., Brunton, G., Callahan, D. A.,
Casey, D. T., Chapman, T., Choate, C., Clark, D. S., Nicola, J.-M. G. D., … Wild, C. (2024). Design of
first experiment to achieve fusion target gain > 1. Physics of Plasmas, 31(7).
https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0210904