Popular Pumping Mechanisms

Requirements of a LASER
(i) Active Medium :- Gain per unit length is an inherent property.

(ii) Optical Resonator :- Length (L) dependence of gain ( but L can not be very very high without limit, rather it should be as low as possible).

(iii) Pumping Mechanism (Method of obtaining Population Inversion) :Has to be very effective in order to ensure high enough Population Difference.

NOTE :- All three of the above are equally important. However, having
chosen an active medium and optimized the resonator parameters, the factor most potentially tailored is the Pumping mechanism.

Population Inversion Methods / Pumping Mechanisms

(i) Optical Pumping

(ii) Electrical Pumping Other Methods (iii) Chemical Pumping

Most common

(iv) Gas dynamic Pumping (v) Laser Pumping (vi) Nuclear Pumping

(vii) Particle-kinetic energy Pumping

Optically Pumped Lasers :Ruby (Al2O3 Cr3+) Nd:YAG (Nd Y2Al5O12), Yb:YAG, Er: YAG Nd:Glass, Er:Glass

Nd:KGW
Nd:YVO4 Nd:GSGG Solid State Lasers

Nd:YLF
Ti:Sapphire, Cr:LiSAlF, Cr:LiCaAlF Alexandrite (Cr doped chrysoberyl = BeAl2O4 Cr 3+) Dye Lasers (Liquid Laser) Cs Vapor (Gas Laser) Fiber Lasers

Electrically Pumped Lasers :Gas Lasers :(i) Atomic :- He-Ne, He-Cd, He-Zn, He-Hg, Cu Vapor, Au Vapor, Pb Vapor, Water Vapor (Far IR 30 m to 1.8 mm) (ii) Ionic :- Ar, Kr, Ne, Xe (iii) Molecular :- CO2, CO, N2, Excimer, CH3OH, C2H2F2, CH3F, HCN (Far IR)

Semiconductor Lasers :(i) Binary :- Ga As, In P, Zn Se ( II-VI), Ga N (Blue-Green) (ii) Ternary :- In Ga As, Ga Al As (iii) Quaternary :- In Al Ga As, In Al Ga P, Ga In As Sb, Al Ga As Sb

Chemical Pumping :HF, DF, HCl, HBr, COIL, I-Photodissociation

Gas Dynamic Pumping :- CO2 GDL

Laser Pumping :CH3 OH (by CO2 Laser), Nd:YAG (by Diode Lasers), Dye Laser (by doubled & tripled Nd:YAG, N2, Ar+, Excimer - KrF, XeF, XeCl, Q-switched Ruby, Copper vapor, Krypton Laser)

Nuclear Pumping :- X-ray Laser Other Pumping methods:Free Electron Laser (Particle-kinetic energy Pumping), X-ray Laser, Gamma Ray Laser

NOTE :- Gas lasers do not lend themselves so readily to optical pumping because of the small widths of their absorption lines and usually broad emission of the pumping lamps. However, He lamp (~ 390 nm) and Cs vapor absorption lines match and hence optical pumping of the gas laser is possible.

OPTICAL PUMPING

Optical Pumping
Many optically pumped lasers have a gain medium consisting of rare earth or transition metal ions doped into an insulating dielectric solid. In a laser that is optically pumped, the upper laser level is populated by absorption of a photon from some optical
ULL
E

source.
That is the laser material is illuminated with light at the right wavelength to excite the lasing species.

LLL

The light source can be a high-intensity

lamp (lamp pumping) or another laser (laser pumping).

 The upper levels of the pump transition usually span a range of energies. In fact, there are typically multiple upper levels, which all decay to the metastable ULL. This means the laser can be excited at many wavelengths corresponding to any transition between G and those many upper levels. Thus, many (solid state) lasers are optically pumped with light sources emitting a broad range of wavelengths.

The early lasers were mostly lamp-pumped.

But the trend in recent years has been toward laser-pumped lasers.

Pumping Process :-

Light from a powerful source (Flash lamp or Arc lamp or incandescent

lamp) is conveyed to the active material which is usually in the form of a cylindrical rod (diameter of few mms to few cms and length of few cms to

few 10s of cms).

The laser can be operated in pulsed or CW mode depending on whether the pump source is pulsed or continuous.

NOTE :Optical pumping is a process in which light is used to raise (or pump) electrons from a lower energy level in an atom or molecule to a higher

one.
The technique was developed by 1966 Nobel Prize winner Alfred Kastler in the early 1950s.

Schematic of Optical pumping of a laser rod (bottom) with an arc lamp (top). [Red : hot. Blue : cold. Green : light. Non-green arrows: water flow. Solid colors: metal. Light colors: fused quartz].

Commonly used Optical Pumping Configurations 1. Helical :Lamp Rod Rod

Lamp Lamp is a long Quartz tube coiled into a helix. Diameter of the helix is small and helix is

wound tightly.
Light reaches directly or after reflection at the specular cylindrical surface.

2. Elliptical / Cylindrical :Lamp is in the form of a cylinder (Linear Lamp) and the length is ~ that of the active rod. Lamp Lamp is placed along one of the focal axes F1 of the elliptical cylinder and the rod is placed along the second focal axis F2. The distance between the electrodes, referred to as the arc length of this lamp, is generally chosen to be about the same as the laser rod length. The bore of the flashlamp (the inside diameter of the quartz tubing or "envelope") is usually the same as the diameter of the laser rod. The lamp and rod are placed inside a reflecting housing with their axes parallel.

Rod
Cylindrical reflector

Elliptical reflector

Gas arc lamp with water jacket for cooling

Example :-

Linear single and double lamp pumping of Nd:YAG Laser

Single lamp elliptical reflector cavity

3. Close Coupled Configuration :The rod and the lamp are placed as close as possible and are surrounded by a close coupled cylindrical reflector. Cylinders made of diffusely reflecting

material (Eg : Compressed MgO or BaSO4 powder or

white ceramic) are often used.

Cylindrical close-coupled

4. Multiple Configurations :Multiple configurations using more than one elliptical cylinder or several lamps are used.
Efficiency of multiple designs is lower than the corresponding single configurations, but are used in High Power systems.
Close-coupled (Double)

Double- Ellipse

Close-coupled configurations (a) Circular cylinder; (b) Single-lamp closewrap; (c) Double-lamp close-wrap (d) Four-lamp close-wrap (e) Closecoupled multiple coaxial design

Four-lobe Elliptical

Spherical

NOTE :-

Helical pumping is simple but efficiency is poor.

A reasonably efficient pumping geometry is an elliptical cylinder reflector. Greater pumping efficiency is achieved with the rod and lamp as near one another as possible with an ellipse of low eccentricity. The most common pumping configurations are single ellipses with one lamp and double ellipses with two lamps.

Arrangement of Pump and Laser Rod

A ruby laser head

Laser pumping lamps. The top three are xenon flashlamps while the bottom one is a krypton arc lamp

These gas discharge lamps show the spectral line outputs of the various noble gases.

NOTE : Three sources (lamps) for Optical Pumping :(a) Flash lamps (Pulsed pumping) (b) Arc lamps (CW pumping)

(c) Incandescent lamps (Cheaper CW pumping with a Tungsten

wire) Flash/Arc Lamps generally use Xenon or Krypton gas inside a Quartz

tube.
The Krypton lamp produces most of its output light in the infrared region of the absorption bands of Nd:YAG and Nd:Glass. Thus, it is the

best spectral match for these laser materials.

Krypton lamps are not widely used because of their cost (Far more expensive than xenon lamps).

Xenon lamps usually have lower efficiency. But they have sufficient output in the desired spectral region & their lower efficiency is usually acceptable.

Xenon flash lamps have greater emission in the blue-green region of ruby laser absorption. Thus, they are used with all ruby lasers.

In spite of being expensive, high efficiency requirements and high power Nd:YAG and Nd:Glass systems demand the use of Krypton lamps.

Diode Laser Pumping

End pumping

Side pumping

Pumping Efficiency :To calculate or estimate the pumping efficiency, the pump process can be divided into four distinct steps : 1. Emission of radiation by the lamp

2.
3. 4.

Transfer of this radiation to the active medium

Absorption in the medium Transfer of the absorbed power to the upper laser level

Thus, the pumping efficiency P can be written as the product of four terms as follows

P r t a pq

. . . . . . . . . . . (1)

Where, r = Lamp radiative efficiency

t = Transfer efficiency
a = Absorption efficiency pq = Power quantum efficiency

Lamp radiative efficiency (r) = The efficiency of conversion from electrical input to light output in the wavelength range corresponding to the pump bands of the laser medium. Transfer efficiency (t) = The ratio of the pump power actually entering the rod to that emitted by the lamp in the useful pump range. Absorption efficiency (a) = The fraction of the light entering the rod that is actually absorbed by the material. Power quantum efficiency (pq) = The fraction of the absorbed power that leads to the population of the ULL. Typical Values :-

r = 0.43
= 0.36

for flash lamp pumped Nd:YAG laser for flash lamp pumped Alexandrite laser for elliptical pump cavity for helical lamp

t = 0.9 0.8
= 0.62

Comparison of computed P values :

[ 6.3 mm diameter rod ; Elliptical pump chamber, lamp current density 2000
3000 A/cm2 ; Lamp diameter = 5 mm ]

Material Ruby Alexandrite Nd:YAG Nd:Glass Nd:Cr:GSGG

r (%) 27 36 43 43 43

t (%) 78 65 82 82 82

a (%) 31 52 17 28 54

pq (%) 46 66 59 59 48

P (%) 3.0 8.0 3.5 5.8 9.1

Summary :1. 2. Radiative efficiency is < 50 % in each case. Absorption efficiency for Nd;Cr:GSGG is about 3 times that of Nd:YAG (because of Cr doping). 3. 4. Absorption efficiency for Alexandrite is quite high. Nd:Cr:GSGG and Alexandrite show high overall efficiency.

Comparison between Lamp pumped and Diode pumped Nd:YAG laser

Nd:YAG pumped by GaAlAs QW laser at 808nm with emission Bandwidth 1-2 nm. It can be seen that radiative and transfer efficiency is almost same but there is very large increase in absorption efficiency which leads to higher overall pump efficiency.

Example of Dye Laser

Dye Laser
Stimulated emission observed from an organic dye, chloroaluminum phthalocyanine
P. P. Sorokin and J. R.Lankard IBM J. Res.Dev. 10, 162 (1966).

755 m

Dye Laser A dye (Liquid) laser is a laser which uses an organic dye as the lasing medium, usually as a liquid solution. Compared to gases and most solid state lasing media, a dye can usually be used for a much wider range of wavelengths. The wide bandwidth makes them particularly suitable for tunable lasers and pulsed lasers. Moreover, the dye can be replaced by another type in order to generate different wavelengths with the same laser, although this usually requires replacing other optical components in the laser as well. Some of the dyes are Rhodamine 6G, fluorescein, coumarin, stilbene, umbelliferone, tetracene, malachite green.

Setup of a Tunable Dye Laser

Attractions :1. Unusual flexibility and Tunability Near UV to Visible and Near IR 2. Extremely narrow Spectral Bandwidth (Ultrapure light) 3. Ultrashort pulses (ps to ~ 25 fs)

Disadvantages : Rapid degradation during operation Very Complex liquid handling requirement Limited output power Need for pumping with green or blue laser, making the pump sources expensive

Handling of poisonous, often even carcinogenic and dirty

material Dyes themselves as well as the used solvents are sometimes

highly toxic (A particularly hazardous solvent, sometimes

used for cyanide dyes, is dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO), which greatly accelerates the transport of dyes into the skin)

Construction Since organic dyes tend to degrade under the influence of light, the dye solution is normally circulated from a large reservoir. The dye solution can be flowing through a cuvette, i.e., a glass container, or be as a dye jet, i.e., as a sheet-like stream in open air from a specially-shaped nozzle. With a dye jet, reflection losses from the glass surfaces and contamination of the walls of the cuvette are avoided. These advantages come at the cost of a complicated alignment. Dye lasers emission is inherently broad. In order to produce narrow bandwidth tuning there are many types of cavities and resonators which include gratings, prisms and etalons.

Rhodamine 6G, emitting at 580 nm (yellow-orange).

The most popular dye used for the dye laser is Rhodamine 6G. The reasons for its popularity : Its low cost Effectiveness

Easy availability
Low toxicity Using Rhodamine 6G as the dye enables tuning of the output laser beams wavelength between 540 nm to 640 nm, (peak energy at 590 nm) depending on other factors in the laser.

Dye Laser Nd:YAG Laser

Doubled Nd at 532 nm

Dye laser pumped by 532 nm doubled Nd:YAG

Lasers suitable as pump source for Dye Lasers Nitrogen (N2) Argon Ion Q-switched Ruby Copper vapor KrF

XeF
Frequency doubled Nd:YAG Frequency tripled Nd:YAG XeCl Krypton

Working of Dye Laser

The laser cycle begins with the dye molecule in the S0 level. A photon is absorbed, raising the molecule to some vibrational and rotational energy in the S1 level.
(Intersystem crossing) Triplet state (T1) Excited state (S2) Triplet state (T2)

The molecule very quickly

undergoes an electronic

transition (in a few femtoseconds), so that the molecule settles into the S1,G level. This transition does not produce laser radiation.

There are five paths by which the dye molecule may leave the S1,G state. These are : Spontaneous emission Stimulated emission Excited-state absorption of a pump photon Excited-state absorption of a laser photon Decay into a triplet band Only stimulated emission produces a usable laser beam. The other processes generally only reduce the amount of usable energy for the output beam and increase the heating of the solvent.

states from which laser emission takes place are called Singlets
(S). The Triplet states (T) do not contribute to lasing process. Absorption of radiation takes the molecule from the

bottom level of S0 to one of the S1 levels, where non-radiative

decay quickly brings it to the bottom level of S1. The later serves as the ULL, the LLL being one of the Vibrational-Rotational levels of S0. Although S T transitions are radiatively forbidden,

they may occur non-radiatively in collisions between molecules.

Eg :- S1 T1 , T1 S0 . (Intersystem crossing)

 Lasing begins when incident energy is absorbed by the dye, exciting it from the lowest singlet state to a high-energy level within the upper singlet band. From the high-energy level the dye falls to a slightly lower state within the same singlet band, which serves as an upper lasing level. A laser transition can then occur between the upper lasing level and the lower singlet state, which serves as a lower lasing level. NOTE :An alternative pathway exists to destroy laser action in the triplet states of the dye.

NOTE :

Triplet states originate when excited electrons in the dye

molecule spin in the same direction as that of the remaining electrons in the dye molecule.

The singlet states result when the excited electron spins in the
direction opposite to the lower-energy-state valence electrons still in the dye molecule.

Because triplet states have lower energies than corresponding singlet states, dye molecules can easily migrate to those states and in doing so depopulate the upper lasing level.

Thus, Triplet quenching is required for efficient operation of Dye lasers. This is done by either (a) Rapidly flowing the dye (b) Using a pump source with a short pump pulse (e.g., N2 laser

with 10 ns pulses)
(c) Adding triplet quenching additives like cyclooctatetraene. They provide deexcitation pathway; dye molecules re-enter. NOTE : Triplet states are metastable and have much longer lifetimes

than the singlet levels.

When a flashlamp is used (generally have pulse widths of over 1 ms), triplet states can form. For this reason, flashlamps

must be designed to discharge as quickly as possible.

Pumping Configurations :1. Longitudinal/End Pumping Dye laser cavity is collinear with the pump laser cavity.

Pump Laser

Output

Dye Cuvette

Mirror

Mirror

Longitudinal Pumping Configuration

2. Transverse Pumping

The axis of the dye cavity is perpendicular to the axis of the

pump laser cavity.
Mirror

Cylindrical Lens
Pump Laser

Dye Cuvette

Mirror

Output

Transverse Pumping Configuration

Schematic of Laser-pumped (transverse) dye laser

590 nm

Problems :-

The biggest problems in Dye lasers are

(a) The heat management (b) Degradation of the dye itself Solution :Both problems are alleviated by forming the dye into a

continually flowing sheet of liquid called a laminar flow.

Flowing dye is pumped through a nozzle to create a broad, flat stream onto which pump laser light is focused by a lens. NOTE :- Dye flow helps suppress the effects of triplet absorption in the dye by ensuring a fresh supply of dye .

ELECTRICAL PUMPING

Electrical Pumping
Achieved by allowing a current to pass through the gas mixture. Generally,

the current through is passed either along the laser axis direction
(Longitudinal discharge) or transversely to it (Transverse discharge). An electric discharge may be produced in a gas contained inside a glass tube

by applying a high voltage to the electrodes on either side of the tube.

Electrons are ejected from the cathode and drift towards the anode. When an electron collides with an atom (or molecule), there is a probability of

raising it to some higher energy state.

Discharge Process :- In an electrical discharge, ions and free electrons acquire additional KE from the applied electric field and are able to excite a neutral atom by collision.

NOTE :- The positive ions, owing to their much heavier mass, are accelerated to lower velocities and thus do not play any significant part in the excitation process. Electrical pumping occurs via one or both of the following processes

(i)

Electron Impact (Direct) Eg: N2 Laser

(ii) Resonant Energy Transfer (Indirect) Eg: He-Ne Laser, CO2 Laser

Electron Impact

e X X* e
Here, the gas consists of only one species. X is the atom in the ground state and X* is in excited state. This is called Collision of the 1st kind

 The electron loses KE. Energy lost by the electron is converted to internal excitation energy of the atom. Total energy (Internal + KE) before and after the collision are the same. The internal energy added to the molecule may be in the form of vibrational

and rotational energy, as well as electronic energy.

Resonant Energy Transfer

For a gas consisting of two species (A & B), the excitation can occur as a result of collisions between atoms of different species. Let B be in the ground state and A be in the excited state brought about by electron impact. After the collision, species A will be in ground state and B in excited state -

A B A B E
* *

 The energy difference E will be added to or subtracted from the translational energy. This is called Collision of the 2nd kind. This is an attractive way of pumping B, if the upper state of A is metastable forbidden transition. Hence, once A is excited to its upper level, it will remain there for a long time, thus constituting an energy reservoir for excitation of the species B.

Resonant Energy Transfer Process

An excited species can transfer energy to another by photon transfer. That

is, the photon spontaneously emitted by one species is absorbed by the other.

Here, the 1st species drops to a lower level and the 2nd species is raised to a
higher level. This means there is an excitation transfer. Hence, one requirement is : The photon emitted by the donor species must

be within the absorption linewidth of the acceptor species, i.e., there must
be a resonance (or near-resonance) of the atomic transitions. The transfer cross-section is large, when the corresponding atomic or

molecular transition frequencies are approximately equal. However,

excitation transfer can occur between species A and B even if the transitions are not precisely resonant.

The energy defect (E) can be made up from translational degrees of freedom, thus in accordance with the Law of Conservation of Energy.

Based on whether the temperature of the system is raised or lowered, the energy defect can be of two types :-

(i) Positive energy defect (Exothermic)

(ii) Negative energy defect (Endothermic)

Positive energy defect :

A*
E

A* + B = A + B* + E

B*

This process raises

the temperature of
the system

 There is Exothermic excitation transfer. The extra energy E after the excitation transfer appears as additional KE of A & B.

Negative energy defect :

A*

A* + B = A + B* - E B*
E

This endothermic process lowers the temperature of the system AB. The

defect in energy is made up for at the expense of the collision partners. The
KE of AB after the excitation transfer is less than that before the transfer.

Example of CO2 Laser

CO2 Laser
Lasing in a CO2 molecule was first demonstrated by CKN Patel in 1964.

CO2 is the active gas in which the lasing process occurs.

The standard CO2 laser includes in the active medium a

mixture of CO2 with N2 and He. The optimal proportion of

these three gases in the mixture depends on the laser system and the excitation mechanism. Generally, for a continuous wave laser the typical proportions are: CO2:N2:He - 1:1:8

CO2 is a linear tri-atomic molecule, and the three atoms are situated on a straight line with the Carbon atom in the middle. Three vibrational modes of CO2 molecule are illustrated :

Symmetric stretch mode

Normal mode frequency 1388 cm-1

Bending mode

Normal mode frequency 667 cm-1

Asymmetric stretch mode

Normal mode frequency 2349 cm-1

N2 (V = 0)

Lasing in CO2 laser occur when there is a transition from higher energy level of the asymmetric mode into one of the other two.

The transition to the symmetric stretching mode correspond to the

wavelength of 10.6 m (The most powerful and popular line). The transition to the bending mode correspond to ~ 9.6 m.

V1 001

100

020
010

V0

Role of N2 and He in CO2 Laser Operation

Electric discharge is created in the laser tube. The energy of the accelerated electrons is transferred by collisions to the Nitrogen molecules and CO2 molecules. Nitrogen molecules help in the process of the excitation of the CO2 molecules. The first vibrational energy level of the Nitrogen molecule is very similar to the asymmetric stretching mode of the CO2 molecule, so energy can be easily transferred from the excited Nitrogen molecules to the CO2 molecules. Helium molecules are added to the gas mixture in order to: Empty the lower laser energy level so that population inversion is maintained. Stabilize the electrical discharge by taking heat away from the lasing area.

Gas pressure inside the CO2 laser tube is 5-30 [Torr], of which 10% CO2 gas, 10% N2 and the rest is He. Note :- The specific heat (which determines the thermal conductivity) of He [1.24 cal/gr* 0K] is five times that of Nitrogen [0.249 cal/gr* 0K].