LASER CHARACTERISTICS

A laser is a device that causes atoms or molecules to emit light at

specific wavelengths, resulting in a highly narrow beam of radiation.

 The emission usually only covers a small spectrum of visible, infrared, and
ultraviolet wavelengths.
 When electrons especially (glasses, crystals, or gases) absorb energy from an
electrical current or another laser, they become excited.
 Being excited, they shift from a lower-energy orbit to a higher-energy orbit
around the atom's nucleus, creating a laser.
 The electrons emit photons when they return to their normal or "ground" states.

The first practical laser was created by Theodore H.Maiman at the Hughes Research
Laboratories in the year 1960. The characteristics of laser beams can be further divided
into four major categories,

 Superior Monochromatism
 Superior Directivity
 Superior Coherence
 High Output

What is Laser?
A laser is a device which stimulates atoms or molecules to emit light at various
wavelengths.

 It helps to amplify the light, producing a narrow beam of radiation.

 The emission covers a limited range of visible, infrared,
or ultraviolet wavelengths.
 Laser is an acronym for “Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of
Radiation.”
 Lasers not only help to increase the light’s intensity but also to generate light.
 Lasers emit light with the help of stimulated emission of radiation
 It helps to increase the intensity of radiation.
 While some lasers produce visible light, a few others produce ultraviolet or
infrared rays.

The various states and emissions of lasers are:

 Metastable State
 In a three-level laser, the material is initially excited to a short-lived high-energy
state, which then spontaneously descends to a slightly lower-energy state,
known as a metastable state, with an unusually long lifetime.
  Spontaneous Emission
 The direction and phase of spontaneous emission are random, and there is no
interaction with other photons. After a period of time, it may spontaneously decay
into a lower energy level, releasing energy in the form of a photon, which is
emitted in an unpredictable direction.
 Stimulated Emission
 When an atom or molecule in a higher energy level interacts with a photon with
the same energy as the difference between the atom or molecule's present
energy level and a lower energy level. When an excited electron interacts with
another photon, it produces stimulated emission.
 Population Inversion
 The rearrangement of atomic energy levels in a system that allows laser activity
to take place is called population inversion.

Lasers Working:
A laser’s output is a coherent electromagnetic field. All the waves, in a
coherent beam of electromagnetic energy, possess the same frequency and
phase.

 A basic laser comprises a chamber called the cavity especially developed to

reflect infrared, visible or ultraviolet waves so that they reinforce one another.
 The cavity can comprise solids, liquids or gases.
 The type of cavity material helps to determine the wavelength of the output.

Laser Working Principle

  Here, the mirrors are set at every end of the cavity, where one of them is totally
reflective, allowing no energy to pass via them.
 The other mirror is partially reflective, thus enabling only 5% of the energy to
pass through them.
 With the help of a process called pumping, energy is introduced into the cavity
via an external source.
 An electromagnetic field, due to the pumping activity, is seen to emerge inside
the laser cavity at the natural frequency of the atoms of the material which then
fills the cavity.

Thus, the waves are then reflected back and forth between the given mirrors. The
cavity’s length is such that the reflected waves are observed to reinforce one another.
The electromagnetic waves, which are in phase with one another, arise from the
cavity’s end with a partially reflective mirror. The output is seen to be in a continuous
beam, or a chain of brief, and intense pulses.

Characteristics of Lasers:
Theodore H. Maiman of Hughes Research Laboratories created the primary laser in
1960, and supported theoretical work by Charles Hard Townes and Arthur Leonard
Schawlow. Thus, the characteristics of a laser beam can be divided into four categories:

Superior Monochromatism:

Monochromatic light can be defined as light beams which have a single wavelength.
Photons are seen to originate from natural sources of light that consist of a range of
energies, colours and wavelengths. The various properties of laser which are similar to
Monochromatic light include:

 Frequency
 Wavelength
 Color

Superior Directivity:

In certain conventional sources of light such as, Lamps and Torchlights, the photons
typically move at random points. Thus, these sources help scatter light in all directions.
Lasers, herein, emit light in a distinct direction.

Superior Coherence:

Visible light is observed to receive emission from excited electrons (which are of higher
energy levels) and are then shifted to a lower energy level (ground state).
High Intensity:

The intensity of a wave is the energy that flows via a unit of normal area per unit time.
The light that originates from an ordinary source scatters in all directions. The laser light
is focused in one direction.

Temporal Coherence:
Temporal coherence is a measure of the average relationship between the value of a wave and itself
making a delay of τ, at any considerable pair of times.

 Temporal coherence gives the measurement of how monochromatic a source is. It

characterizes how good a wave can interfere with itself at a different time.
 The delay above which the phase or amplitude should be by a significant amount (and hence
the correlation decreases by a significant amount) is defined as the coherence time.

Spatial Coherence:
If you take systems such as optics or water waves, you will find the dimension of wave extends from
one or two spaces.

 Spatial coherence can, therefore, be described as the ability of two points in space of a wave
(x1 and x2) that will interfere.
 Spatial coherence in simple words can be said to be the cross-relation between two points in
a wave at all times.
When a wave has a single amplitude value over an infinite length, it is said to have perfect spatial
coherence. The significant interference that is present between the range of separation and the two
points can be used to define the diameter of the coherence area, A c.
Temporal and Spatial Coherence