UNIT-5

LASER AND ITS APPLICATIONS

 LASER
• LASER stands for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.
CONDITIONS FOR LASER ACTION:
• 1. Population Inversion
• 2. Stimulated Emission
• 3. Stimulating Photon

CHARACTERISTICS OF LASER

• Laser is basically a light source. Laser light has the following important characteristics
➢ High Directionality
➢ High Intensity
➢ Highly Monochromatic
• Highly Coherence
 S.No. Ordinary light Laser beams
1 In ordinary light the angular spread is more In laser beam the angular spread is less.
2 They are not directional. They are highly directional.
3 It is less intense It is highly intense
4 It is not a coherent beam and is not in phase. It is a coherent beam and is in phase
5 The radiation are polychromatic The radiations are monochromatic
6 Example: Sun light, Mercury vapor lamp He- Ne Laser, Co2 laser

Stimulated Emission Spontaneous emission

An atom in the excited state is induced to return to the The atom in the excited state returns to the ground state
ground state , thereby resulting in two photons of same thereby emitting a photon, without any external inducement
frequency and energy is called Stimulated emission is called Spontaneous emission
The emitted photons move in the same direction and is
The emitted photons move in all directions and are random
highly directional
The radiation is highly intense, monochromatic and coherent The radiation is less intense and is incoherent
The photons are in phase, there is a constant phase The photons are not in phase (i.e.) there is no phase
difference relationship between them.
The rate of transition is given by The rate of transition is given by
EINSTEIN’S “A & B” COEFFICIENTS - DERIVATION
We know that, when light is absorbed by the atoms or molecules, then it goes from the lower energy level (E1) to
the higher energy level (E2) and during the transition from higher energy level (E2) to lower energy level (E1) the light
is emitted from the atoms or molecules.

ABSORPTION
Population Inversion
• Population Inversion creates a situation in which the number of atoms in higher
energy state is more than that in the lower energy state. The Phenomenon of
making N2> N1 is known as Population Inversion.
Condition for Population inversion
1. There must be at least two energy levels E2> E1.
2. There must be a source to supply the energy to the medium.
3. The atoms must be continuously raised to the excited state.

META STABLE STATES

An atom excited to a higher level returns to the ground state through spontaneous emission 10-9 sec), through spontaneous
emission; thereby population inversion could not be established.
In order to do so, the excited atoms are required to ‘wait’ at the upper energy level till a large number of atoms
accumulate at that level. In other words, it is necessary that excited state have a longer lifetime. Such a state is a Meta stable
state.
S.No TYPES OF LASER EXAMPLES
1. Solid State laser Ruby Laser Nd:YAG laser
2. Gas laser He-Ne Laser, CO2 Laser, Argon – ion laser
3. Liquid Laser SeOCL2 Laser, Europium Chelate Laser

4. Dye laser Rhodamine 6G laser, Coumarin dye laser

5 Semiconductor Laser GaAs laser, GaAsP laser
PUMPING ACTION
The process to achieve the population inversion in the medium is called Pumping action. It is essential
requirement for producing a laser beam.
Methods of pumping action
The methods commonly used for pumping action are:
1. Optical pumping (Excitation by Photons)
2. Electrical discharge method (Excitation by electrons)
3. Direct conversion
4. In elastic atom – atom collision between atoms
1. Optical pumping
When the atoms are exposed to light radiations energy, atoms in the lower energy state absorb these radiations and
they go to the excited state. This method is called Optical pumping. It is used in solid state lasers like ruby laser and Nd-
YAG laser. In ruby laser, xenon flash lamp is used as pumping source.
2. Electrical discharge method (Excitation by electrons)
In this method, the electrons are produced in an electrical discharge tube. These electrons are accelerated to high
velocities by a strong electrical field. These accelerated electrons collide with the gas atoms.
By the process, energy from the electrons is transferred to gas atoms. Some atoms gain energy and they go to the
excited state. This results in population inversion. This method is called Electrical discharge method. It is represented by
the equation
A + e* = A* + e
Where A – gas atom in the ground state A* = same gas atom in the excited state
e* = Electrons with higher Kinetic energy e – Same electron with lesser energy.
This method of pumping is used in gas lasers like argon and CO2 Laser.
3. Direct Conversion
In this method, due to electrical energy applied in direct band gap semiconductor like Ga As, recombination of
electrons and holes takes place. During the recombination process, the electrical energy is directly is converted into
light energy.

4. In elastic atom – atom collision

In this method, a combination of two gases (Say A and B are used). The excited states of A and B nearly
coincides in energy.
In the first step during the electrical discharge atoms of gas A are excited to their higher energy state A*
(metastable state) due to collision with the electrons . A + e* = A* + e
Now A* atoms at higher energy state collide with b atoms in the lower state. Due to inelastic atom - atom
collision B atoms gain energy and they are excited to a higher state B*. Hence, A atoms lose energy and return to
lower state. A* + B = A + B*
OPTICAL RESONATOR
An optical resonator consists of a pair of reflecting surfaces in which one is
fully reflecting (R1) and the other is partially reflecting (R2). The active material
is placed in between these two reflecting surfaces.
The photons generated due to transitions between the energy states of active
material are bounced back and forth between two reflecting surfaces. This will
induce more and more stimulated transition leading to laser action.

The two basic types of optical cavities (Resonators) are:

•standing-wave (or linear) cavities, where light bounces back and forth between two end mirrors
•ring cavities (ring resonators), where the light can do round trips in two different directions
STEPS FOR LASER ACTION
• .INJECTION LASER DIODE (ILD)

• Injection Laser Diode is basically laser source that makes use of double hetero junction direct band gap
semi conductors as the active medium in order to achieve laser light of high quantum efficiency and high power
output.

• Hetero junction means a direct band gap p-n junction formed by two different semiconducting materials
with different band gap energies. The material on one side of the junction differs from that on the other side of
the junction.

• Double hetero junction has two such hetero junctions.

• Efficient wave guide structure, small beam divergence, high coherence, monochromaticity, carrier and
optical confinement, high power output with low threshold current is possible with such hetero junction
semiconductors.
• Structure of ILD

• It uses double hetero junction semi conductors. There are three layers, one is the central active layer and the other two are
the two adjacent layers.
• Active layer is of p-type material, usually Ga(1-y)AlyAs of thickness 0.1 to 0.3 μm and of low energy band gap.
• The adjacent layers are made up of n-type Ga(1-x)AlxAs of high energy band gap. Here x is not equal to y and they determine
the band gap of alloys.
• The adjacent layers are also known as injection layers/confinement layers,
• Working of ILD

• When drive current (I) is given to ILD, the excess electrons are moved from Ec of adjacent layer to Ec of active layer in
order to achieve population inversion, a necessary condition to be satisfied for laser action to start.
• Electron transition occurs in the active layer from Ec to Ev, since only less energy has to be crossed in the active layer.
• Due this transition, electron-hole recombination takes place in the active layer; thereby photon is released from the active
layer.
• This photon can then stimulate the release of coherent photons. Optical confinement that is necessary for amplification is
obtained by choosing n1>n2, where n1 is the refractive index of the active layer and n2 is that of the adjacent layer.
• The photon released in the active layer moves and gets totally internally reflected on hitting the n-p and p-n junction, since
n1 > n2. Number of times it gets amplified and finally it results in the emission of light in 800 - 900 nm wavelength range
• Merits of ILD

i. High directivity, coherent radiation, monochromatic, high output power.

ii. Acts as narrow spectral width source.
iii. Coupling efficiency is high hence used to couple laser light into the optical fiber.
iv. Used for long distance optical communication at higher bit rate > 200 Mb / sec.
v. Reduces chromatic dispersion.
• Demerits of ILD
i. Shorter life time; 10 times expensive than LEDS.
ii. Wavelength of the output laser light is governed by the semiconductor band gap.
iii. More temperature dependent.
iv. Due to increase in temperature, (i) Efficiency of the laser decreases rapidly as the electron populations are
smeared out through the wide band structure of available states. (ii) As thethreshold (Jth) current density
depends on temperature, Jth also increases consequently.
QUANTUM CASCADE LASER (QCL)

• It is basically an Injection Laser Diode (ILD), where the bulk semiconductor is replaced by the nanostructured
Multiple Quantum Wells(MQW) that act as the active medium and emit laser light in the Infra red (IR) and in
far IR region of the electromagnetic spectrum.
• The structure of QCL is the similar to that of ILD, with the change that n-p-n semiconductors are
nanostructured .
• Initially QWs of slightly different band width and hence different energy states are chosen similar to that as in
ILD.
• In QCL, when drive current is applied, the electrons cascade down a series of steps emitting a sequence of
phonons - quantum of lattice vibrations, hence the name Quantum Cascade Laser
• Here, the energies of QWs are tuned by adjusting the thickness of each QW so that they match with the bias
voltage. Hence, the applied bias voltage brings the energy states of these QWs in to resonance creating super-
lattice with the required mini-bands.

• The figure explains the case when electrons fall from n = 3 to n = 2 and they fall to n=1 state. They excite the
miniband of 1st QW and move to the next QW through the active region and photons are released. Recently
developed QCL, has laser output at 3.1μm wavelength at 20k and 3.6μm wavelength at room temperature.
Energy levels of QCL, before the application of bias voltage

Energy levels of QCL, after the application of bias voltage

 ILD QWL / QCL

1. Active medium - bulk semiconductors. 1. Active medium - nano structured semiconductors.

2. Size of the active medium -0.1 to 0.3μm 2. 50Å - 100Å

3. Active region behaves as a 3D box 3. Active region behaves as a 2D thin film.

4. Electrons / holes spread over wide energy range with small DOS 4. Electron’s energy is spread over as mall range with increased
at the bandgap edge. DOS at the band gap edge.

5. DOS depend on the energy of the electron. 5. DOS is independent on energy of electron.

6. Threshold current density is 800A/cm2 6. Here is is 60 A/cm2 -which is easy to obtain at room
temperature itself.

7. Output wavelength depends on thickness of nano structured

7. Output wavelength is governed by semiconductor band gap ;
semiconductor hence precise required wavelength of light can
hence control of output wavelength is not possible.
be made to be emitted.

8. Reduced operating current and are less temperature sensitive.

8. High power consumption; more temperature dependent.
9. 10.They are intra band unipolar device
9. 10.They are inter band bipolar device.