Laser Engineering
Pre-requisites: Modern Physics, Optics, Waves, and Electricity Magnetism Credit Hours: Three (3) The course is aiming at giving deep understanding of lasers and laser components. It is suitable for students with background in physics, electrical and mechanical engineering. This is advance level undergraduate course on lasers and a previous knowledge of Optics, Waves and Electricity Magnetism is expected. First few weeks for basic introduction to lasers and review of laser research history and later weeks will cover the advanced laser design and understanding. Introduction: What is laser, brief history of laser development, principle components of laser, types of lasers, properties of laser beam, an overview of laser technology, energy states in atom, transition between energy states (absorption, spontaneous and stimulated emission), principles of laser, power and energy, special features of laser beam (directionality, diffraction, intensity, monochromaticity, coherency, line-width). (1 weeks) General Principles of Laser Operation: Thermal equilibrium, Einstein coefficients, condition for large stimulated emissions, condition for light amplification, population inversion, energy state, metastable state, three level laser, four level laser, line broadening, laser rate equations (two, three, and four level systems), generic laser, gain medium, pumping source, resonant cavity. (1 weeks) Generic Laser: Amplification and gain, optical resonator, laser action, gain of active medium (mathematical treatment), threshold condition, gain calculation, conditions for steady state oscillation, cavity resonance frequencies, laser modes (longitudinal and transverse), single mode operation, examples. (1 week) Optical Resonators: Resonator (cavity) configuration, fabry-perot resonator or plane parallel cavity, confocal resonator, hemispherical cavity or combination of plane and spherical resonator, long radius cavity, stability criterion, examples (stable and unstable resonator). (1 week) Pumping Source and Active Medium: what is pumping, pumping methods, optical pumping, electric pumping (direct discharge), electric pumping for semiconductor laser, chemical pumping, flash lamps, optical pumping configuration, optical pumping assembly, active mediums (atoms, molecules, liquids, dielectric solids, semiconductor material). (1 week) Gas Lasers (theory, working, design and construction), Metal Vapor Lasers: Gas lasers, atomic lasers, ionic lasers, molecular lasers, basic concepts of discharge tube, Brewster angle cut discharge tube, electrical circuits for gas lasers, high voltage power supplies for gas lasers, HeNe laser, design problems related to He-Ne laser, Argon Ion laser, Krypton Ion laser, CO2 (carbon dioxide) laser, N2 (nitrogen) laser, Excimer laser, He-Cd laser, Copper vapor laser, Gold vapor laser. (2 weeks)
Chemical and Dye Lasers: Introduction to chemical laser, HF (hydrogen and fluoride) laser, Chemical Oxygen-Iodine laser (COIL), military applications of COIL, dye lasers, Rhodamine dye laser. (1 week) Solid State Lasers (concepts, working, design and construction): Introduction to solid state laser, Ruby laser, Nd:YAG laser, Nd:Glass laser, electronics for solid state laser, cooling system for solid state laser, cavity design and pumping concepts for solid state laser, brief overview to commercial Nd:YAG lasers, Ti:Sapphire laser, tunable solid state laser (Alexandrite laser). (2 weeks) Semiconductor Laser, and Free-Electron Laser: Introduction to semiconductor laser, homojunction laser, heterojunction laser, semiconductor laser array, quantum well laser, vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL), brief introduction to free-electron laser. (1 week) Control of Laser Output (Q-switching and mode locking): Introduction to control of laser output beam, frequency selection, generation of high power pulses, Q-factor, Q-switching and giant pulses, methods of Q-switching, active Q-switching (mechanical Q-switching, acoustooptic Q-switching, electro-optic Q-switching), passive Q-switching (saturable absorber, cavity dumping), introduction to mode-locking, mode-locking techniques (active mode-locking, passive mode-locking), Q-switched Nd:YAG laser system. (2 weeks) Ultrafast Lasers: What is ultrafast laser, Ti:Sapphire laser, chirped pulse amplification (CPA) laser system, ultrafast laser systems, ultrafast diagnostics, mode-locked Ti:Sapphire laser system, basic concepts to Ti:Sapphire CPA laser system, ultrafast phenomenon, applications of ultrafast lasers. (2 weeks) Laser Applications: Industrial applications, material processing (laser drilling, laser cutting, laser welding), LIDAR (laser imaging detection and ranging), photolithography, medical applications (LASIK surgery, laser seizer), isotope separation using laser, Nuclear fusion, brief overview of major laser facility (NIF facility), laser holography, military applications. (1 weeks) Recommended books: Kelin J. Kuhn, Laser Engineering, Prentice Hall, (1997). Orazio Svelto, Principles of Lasers, Springer 5th edition (2009). William. T. Silfvast, Laser Fundamentals, Cambridge 2nd edition (2008). K. R. Nambiar, LASERS: Principles, Types and Applications, New Age (2009). Walter Koecher, Solid-State Laser Engineering, Springer (2009). Robert. F. Walter, Gas Lasers (Optical Science and Engineering), CRC Press (2006). Claude Rulliere, Femtosecond Laser Pulses: Principles and Experiments, Springer 2nd edition (1998). 8. K. Thyagarajan, Lasers: Fundamentals and Applications, Springer 2nd edition (2010). 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
