This topic is mapped with CO1 and CO2

LASER

LASER stands for ‘Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation’

Why is it important to study Laser?

The answer is……..

In general we can say that

• It offers a high-speed way to process various materials and hence is being used on a large scale
in various industries.
• Innovative technologies are driving the growth of industrial lasers. Manufacturers are
introducing technologically advanced industrial lasers for various applications.
• The global industrial laser market is highly dynamic, and growing at a fast pace.
• The increasing innovations taking place in fiber lasers play an important role in the growth of
the global industrial laser market

Laser is a very intense, concentrated, highly parallel and monochromatic beam of light.
Coherence is a very important property of laser. It is important to know the difference between
incoherent and coherent light.

Incoherent Light: The light emitted from the Sun or other ordinary light sources such as
tungsten filament and fluorescent tube lights is spread over a wide range of
frequencies.
Fig. 1. Incoherent light emitted by conventional source[1]

For. eg. Sunlight is spread over Infra Red, Visible light and Ultra Violet spectrum. So, the amount
of energy available at a particular frequency is very less and hence less intense. Such light is
irregular and mixed of different frequencies, directions and duration, and is incoherent.
Incoherent light is due to spontaneous and random emission of photons by the atoms in
excited state. These photons will not be in phase with each other.

Coherent Light: Coherent light is uniform in frequency, amplitude, continuity and constant
initial phase difference. Coherent beam of light is obtained due to stimulated emission of
photons from the atoms jumping from meta-stable state to lower energy state.

Fig. 2. Coherent light emitted by Laser source[1]

Fig. 3. Comparison of coherent and incoherent light[2]

Characteristics of Laser Light which makes it dynamic:

1. Laser light is highly directional.

A laser beam departs from strict parallelism only because of diffraction effects. Light from other
sources can be made into an approximately parallel beam by a lens or a mirror, but the beam
divergence is much greater than for laser light.

2. Laser light is highly coherent.

Laser can maintain its coherence up-to kilo-meter. The corresponding coherence length for
light from a tungsten filament lamp or a gas discharge tube is typically considerably less than 1
m.

3. Laser light is highly monochromatic.

Tungsten light, spread over a continuous spectrum, gives us no basis for comparison. The light
from selected lines in a gas discharge tube, however, can have wavelengths in the visible region
that are precise to about 1 part in 106. The sharpness of laser light can easily be thousand times
greater, or 1 part in 109.
4. Laser light can be sharply focused. Flux densities for focused laser light of 1015 W cm-2 are
readily achieved.

5. Brightness: The primary characteristic of laser radiation is that lasers have a higher
brightness than any other light source. Brightness is defined as the power emitted per unit area
per unit solid angle.

Various Atomic Interactions related to LASER:

a) Induced Absorption:

The transition of atoms from ground state to higher energy state by absorbing photons of
suitable energy or frequency is called induced or stimulated absorption. These atoms absorb
the supplied energy and go to the excited or higher energy state. If E1 and E2 are energies of
ground state (lower energy) and excited state (higher energy) respectively, then the absorption
process can be expressed as

A+ hν= A*

where, A can be represented as ground state of atom and A* can be represented as excited
state of atom. Here hν=E2-E1

Fig. 4. Absorption process[3]

The process by which excited electrons emit photons while falling to the ground level or
lower energy level without any external agent is called spontaneous emission.

Fig. 5. Spontaneous emission process[3]

The spontaneous emission process can be expressed as

A* = A+ hν

where, A can be represented as ground state of atom and A* can be represented as excited
state of atom. Here hν=E2-E1

(c) Stimulated emission

Fig. 6. Stimulated emission process[3]

The stimulated emission process can be expressed as

A* + hν = A+ 2hν

where, A can be represented as ground state of atom and A* can be represented as excited
state of atom. Here hν=E2-E1

Features of Spontaneous Emission of Light

An excited atom can stay in the higher energy state only for the time of 10-8 s. After this time, it
returns back to the lower energy state by emitting a photon of energy hν = E1 – E0. This emission
is called ‘spontaneous emission’.

During spontaneous emission, photons are emitted randomly and hence they will not be in
phase with each other. Therefore, the beam of light emitted is incoherent. Thus the important
features of stimulated emission are
1. The emitted photon can move in any random direction. Thus light is not unidirectional.

2. There will be no phase relationship between the photons emitted from various atoms
resulting in incoherent light.

3. The radiation is less intense because of spreading of light in random directions.

4. The emitted radiation consists of different frequencies or wavelengths.

Features of Stimulated Emission of Light

1. Since an atom in the excited state is induced to emit photon, it results in emission of
two photons which are identical in terms of frequency, phase and direction, state of
polarization.

2. The time of emission of photons is same hence the photons are in phase with each
other resulting in coherent beam.

3. The radiation is highly intense, monochromatic, unidirectional and coherent.

4. The important feature of this process is that photon multiplication takes place.

Summary

1.This topic realizes the need to study laser.

2.The difference between conventional and laser light.

3.Three quantum mechanical processes when light interacts with medium.

Relevant Books for this topic

1.Laud B.B., Laser and Non -Linear Optics, Edition 1st, (1991), Wiley Eastern Ltd.

https://www.amazon.in/Lasers-Non-Linear-Optics-B-B- Laud/dp/8122430562/ref=sr_1_2?
dchild=1&keywords=laser+and+nonlinear+optics&qid=1592948185&s=books&sr=1-2

2. Ghatak A. (2012) Optics, McGraw Hill Education. ISBN: 978-1259004346.

https://www.amazon.in/Optics-Old-Ajoy-Ghatak/dp/1259004341
 Relevant Web links for this topic

1. https://www.rfwireless-world.com/Terminology/Coherent-Light-vs-Incoherent-Light.html
2. https://www.pngkit.com/view/u2e6r5y3y3y3u2o0_coherent-light-incoherent-light-
monochromatic-light-coherent-light/
3. http://www.physics-and-radio-electronics.com/blog/absorption-of-radiation-spontaneous-
emission-and-stimulated-emission

Relevant Videos for this topic

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXMEFuZlYOE
2. https://www.coursera.org/lecture/nanophotonics-detectors/spontaneous-emission-
enhancement-TyaUF