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Lecture 9 - Optical Transitions

This document discusses optical transitions in two-level systems. It describes spontaneous emission, natural lifetime, stimulated emission, absorption, and population inversion. It explains that population inversion, where the upper energy level contains more particles than the lower level, is required for optical amplification through stimulated emission. However, true two-level systems cannot achieve population inversion with pumping. Three-level and four-level systems allow population inversion through pumping to higher intermediate levels.

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25 views

Lecture 9 - Optical Transitions

This document discusses optical transitions in two-level systems. It describes spontaneous emission, natural lifetime, stimulated emission, absorption, and population inversion. It explains that population inversion, where the upper energy level contains more particles than the lower level, is required for optical amplification through stimulated emission. However, true two-level systems cannot achieve population inversion with pumping. Three-level and four-level systems allow population inversion through pumping to higher intermediate levels.

Uploaded by

arashmokhtari
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Lecture 9: Optical transitions

• Two-level systems
• Spontaneous emission
• Natural lifetime and lineshape function
• Stimulated emission and absorption
• Boltzmann distribution
• Planck’s law of black-body radiation
• The Einstein relations
• Population inversion
• Appendix: Photon density of states

Reading: Senior 6.2.1-6.2.3, 6.3.2-6.3.4


Keiser 4.1.4

Ref: Lasers and Electro-Optics, Christopher Davis, Cambridge, 1996


Fundamentals of Photonics, Saleh and Teich, Wiley, 2007 1
Photon-matter interaction processes in
two-level systems

•A two-level system is a model system that only contains


two energy levels with which the photon interacts.

2
Spontaneous emission
• An electron spontaneously falls from a higher energy
level E2 to a lower one E1, the emitted photon has
frequency
2

 = (E2 – E1) / h
1

• This photon is emitted in a random direction with


arbitrary polarization.
• The probability of such a spontaneous jump is given
quantitatively by the Einstein coefficient for
spontaneous emission (known as the “Einstein A
coefficient”) defined as

A21 = “probability” per second of a spontaneous jump


from level 2 to level 1. 3
Probability per second of a spontaneous emission

• For example, if there are N2 population per unit volume


in level 2 then N2A21 per second make jumps to level 1.

• The total rate at which jumps are made between the two
levels is

dN2/dt = -N2A21

A negative sign because the population


of level 2 is decreasing

• Generally an electron can make jumps to more than one


lower level, unless it is in the first (lowest) excited level.
4
Natural lifetime
• The population of level 2 falls exponentially with time as
electrons leave by spontaneous emission.

N2 = N20 exp(-A21t)

• The time in which the population falls to 1/e of its initial


value is called the natural lifetime of level 2,

2 = 1/A21

• The magnitude of this lifetime is determined by the


actual probabilities of jumps from level 2 by spontaneous
emission.

5
Lineshape function
• The frequency spectrum of the spontaneously emitted
radiation is described by the lineshape function, g().
• The lineshape function g() is usually sharply peaked
near some frequency 0.
 

• g()d represents the probability that a photon will be


emitted spontaneously in the frequency range +d
g(0, )

FWHM Linewidth 
Area ≈ 1

 6

Radiative processes connecting two energy levels
in thermal equilibrium
Population N2 E2

Spontaneous Stimulated absorption


emission emission
h

Population N1 E1

• Einstein (1917) demonstrated that the rates of the three


transition processes of absorption (B12), spontaneous
emission (A21) and stimulated emission (B21) are related.11
Boltzmann distribution
• Considering a two-level system to be in thermal
equilibrium at temperature T s.t. the rate of the upward
transitions must equal the rate of the downward
transitions.

=> Absorption rate = spontaneous emission +


stimulated emission

• The probability P(Em) that an arbitrary atom is in energy


level Em is given by the Boltzmann distribution

P(Em)  exp(-Em/kBT), m = 1,2

• If N1 atoms occupy level 1 and N2 atoms occupy level 2

N1/N2 = exp [(E2-E1)/kBT] = exp (h/kBT) 12


Boltzmann distribution
Energy E

E2
N2 << N1 in thermal equilibrium

exp (-Em/kBT)
1 eV

E1
N2 N1 Population N
(=1) (=5 x 1016)
@ kBT = 26 meV
N2 << N1 in thermal equilibrium 13
Spontaneous emission dominates in thermal equilibrium
Stimulated emission rate / spontaneous emission rate

= B21u/A21 = 1 / [exp(h/kBT) – 1] (u is the thermal


radiation)

• For systems in thermal equilibrium spontaneous


emission is by far the dominant mechanism
compared with stimulated emission.
• e.g. For an incandescent lamp operating at a
temperature of 1000 K. Assume that the
average emission frequency is 600 THz (500
nm).

stimulated emission rate / spontaneous emission


=>
rate the radiation emitted from ordinary optical sources in
=the
1 /visible spectrum
[exp(6.626 occurs
x 10-34 in a
x 6 x 10 14 /random
1.381 xmanner
10-23 x --- 21
these sources are incoherent!
1000)]
Population inversion
• Under the conditions of thermal equilibrium given by the
Boltzmann distribution the lower energy level E1 of the
two-level system contains more population than the
upper energy level E2.

• In order to attain optical amplification by stimulated


emission it is necessary to create a nonequilibrium
distribution such that the population of the upper energy
level is greater than that of the lower energy level:

N2 > N1

This condition is known as population inversion.


22
Population inversion
• A nonequilibrium distribution showing population inversion

Energy E

E2

E1
N1 N2 Population N
23
Pumping
• In order to attain population inversion it is necessary
to excite atoms into the upper energy level E2 and hence
obtain a nonequilibrium distribution.

• This process requires an external energy source and is


referred to as “pumping.”

• A common method used for pumping involves the


application of intense radiation (e.g. optical pumping by
a laser). Atoms are excited into the higher energy
state through absorption.

• For semiconductor diodes, the preferred pumping


method is by electrical injection (i.e. populating the
normally empty conduction band of the p-type side of the
junction by free electrons) 24
No population inversion in two-level systems
• No matter how a true two-level system is pumped, it is
not possible to achieve population inversion for an
optical gain in the steady state.
• The optical pump for a two-level system has to be in
resonance with the transition between the two levels –
inducing both downward and upward transitions.
2
hp hp
pump

• While a pumping mechanism excites atoms from the


lower energy level to the upper energy level, the same
pump also stimulates atoms in the upper energy
level to relax to the lower energy level. 25
Three-level systems
3
fast nonradiative
relaxation (releasing heat)
hp 2
pump
h

• The lower level 1 is the ground state. The atoms


are pumped
1 to an energy level 3 above the upper
level 2.
• Pump frequency p = 31 > emission frequency 21
• e.g. erbium ions in erbium-doped fiber amplifiers 26
Four-level systems
fast nonradiative 3
relaxation
2
hp h
pump

1
fast nonradiative
relaxation
0

• The lower level 1 lies sufficiently high above the ground level
0, with E10 >> kBT. In thermal equilibrium, the population
in 1 is negligibly small compared with that in 0. Pumping
takes place from level 0 to level 3. (p = 31 > 21)
• No minimum pumping requirement for an ideal four-level
system because level 1 is initially empty.
• A practical four-level system is much more efficient than a
three-level system. 28

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