L light

A amplification
BY

S stimulated E emission
OF

R radiation

Q : What is a LASER ?
A laser (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) is a device which uses a quantum mechanical effect, stimulated emission, to generate a coherent beam of light from a lasing medium of controlled purity, size, and shape. The output of a laser may be a continuous, constant-amplitude output (known as CW or continuous wave), or pulsed, by using the techniques of Q-switching, modelocking, or gain-switching. In pulsed operation, much higher peak Powers can be achieved. A laser medium can also function as an optical amplifier when seeded with light from another source. The amplified signal can be very similar to the input signal in terms of wavelength, phase, and polarization, this is particularly important in optical communications. The verb "to lase" means "to produce coherent light" or possibly "to cut or otherwise treat with coherent light", and is a back-formation of the term laser. Common light sources, such as the incandescent light bulb, emit photons in almost all directions, usually over a wide spectrum of wavelengths. Most light sources are also incoherent; i.e., there is no fixed phase relationship between

the photons emitted by the light source. By contrast, a laser generally emits photons in a narrow, well-defined,
polarized, coherent beam of near-monochromatic light, consisting of a single wavelength or hue.

Various atomic concepts related to production of LASER

1. Induced Absorption (lower to higher level using hv) 2. Spontaneous Emission (10^-8 secs) 3.Stimulated Emission (1 and 2 together)

4.Population Inversion (more in higher levels)(due to 1)

5.Metastable State (10^-3 secs)(b/w high and low level)

Basic conditions required to produce a LASER beam

1. There must be a meta stable state in the system. 2. The system must achieve population inversion. 3. The photons emitted must be confined in the system for a time to allow them further stimulated emission.

Production of LASER beam

A laser generally consists of three important parts: An energy source (usually referred to as the pump or pump source) A gain medium or laser medium A mirror, or system of mirrors, forming an optical resonator

1. The Pump source is the part that provides energy to the laser system. Examples of pump sources include electrical discharges, flashlamps, arc lamps, light from another laser, chemical reactions and even explosive devices. The type of pump source used principally depends on the Gain medium, and this also determines how the energy is transmitted to the medium. A helium-neon(HeNe) laser uses an electrical discharge in the helium-neon gas mixture, a Nd:YAG laser uses a light focussed from a Xenon flash lamp, and excimer lasers use a chemical reaction. 2. The Gain medium is the major determining factor of the wavelength of operation, and other properties, of the laser. There are hundreds if not thousands of different gain media in which laser operation has been achieved. The gain medium is excited by the pump source to produce a population inversion, and it is in the gain medium that spontaneous and stimulated emission of photons takes place, leading to the phenomenon of optical gain, amplification. Examples of different gain media include: Liquids, such as dye lasers. These are usually organic chemical solvents, such as methanol, ethanol or ethylene glycol, to which are added chemical dyes such as coumarin, rhodamine and fluorescein. The exact chemical configuration of the dye molecules determines the operation wavelength of the dye laser. Gases, such as carbon dioxide, argon, krypton and mixtures such as helium-neon. These lasers are often pumped by electrical discharge.

Solids, such as crystals and glasses. The solid host materials are usually doped with an impurity such as chromium, neodymium, erbium or titanium ions. Typical hosts include YAG (yttrium aluminium garnet), YLF (yttrium lithium fluoride), sapphire (aluminium oxide) and silica glass.Solid-state lasers are usually pumped by flashlamps or light from another laser.
Semiconductors, a type of solid, in which the movement of electrons between material with differing dopant levels can cause laser action. Semiconductor lasers are typically very small, and can be pumped with a simple electric current, enabling them to be used in consumer devices such as compact disc players. See laser diode.

3. The Optical resonator, or Optical cavity, in its simplest form is two parallel mirrors placed around the gain medium. Light from the medium, produced by spontaneous emission, is reflected by the mirrors back into the medium, where it may be amplified by stimulated emission. The light may reflect from the mirrors and thus pass through the gain medium many hundreds of times before exiting the cavity. In more complex lasers, configurations with four or more mirrors forming the cavity are used. The design and alignment of the mirrors with respect to the medium is crucial to determining the exact operating wavelength and other attributes of the laser system. Other optical devices, such as spinning mirrors, modulators, filters and absorbers may be placed within the optical resonator, to produce a variety of effects on the laser output, such as altering the wavelength of operation or the production of pulses of laser light.

LASER beam have following properties :

Laser light is monochromatic. It contains one specific wavelength of light, which is determined by the amount of energy released when the electron drops to a lower-energy orbital. Laser light is coherent. Each proton moves in step with the other (i.e. all protons have wave fronts that move in unison). Laser light is highly directional (i.e. a laser beam is very tight and concentrated)

Some uses of LASER :

Laser cooling A technique that has had recent success is laser cooling. This involves ion trapping, a method where a number of ions are confined in a specially shaped arrangement of electric and magnetic fields. By shining particular wavelengths of laser light at the ions, it is possible to transfer momentum from the ions to the light photons, causing the ions to lose energy and to slow down, thus cooling the ions. If this process is continued, eventually all the ions in the trap are slowed and have the same energy level, forming an unusual arrangement of matter known as a Bose-Einstein condensate. Nuclear fusion The most extravagant use of lasers in science is in the field of fusion research. Some of the world's most powerful and complex arrangements of multiple lasers and optical amplifiers are used to produce extremely high intensity pulses of light of extremely short duration. These pulses are arranged such that they impact pellets of tritium-deuterium simultaneously from all directions, hoping that the squeezing effect of the impacts will induce atomic fusion in the pellets. This technique, known as inertial confinement fusion so-far has not been able to achieve breakeven, that is, less power is generated by the fusion reaction than is used to power the lasers, but research continues Target designator Another military use of lasers is as a laser target designator. This is a low-power laser used to indicate a target for a laser guided munition such as a smart bomb or missile, typically launched from an aircraft. The guided munition adjusts its flight-path to home in to the laser light reflected by the target, enabling a great precision in aiming. The laser designator can be shone onto the target by an aircraft or nearby infantry. Lasers used for this purpose are usually infrared lasers, to prevent easy detection of the guiding laser light by the enemy.