Assignment 1 | Laser Physics | SSP 4713

Name : Nadhrah bt Murad

Program : 4 SSZ
I/C No. : 910723-06-5100
Matric No. : AS 100097
Lecturer : Dr Raja Kamaruzaman bin Raja Ibrahim
Questions :
Choose one type of laser. Discuss :-
1. How laser can be produced
2. Active medium used
3. Energy level system
4. Pumping source
5. Laser system
6. Efficiency

Answers :
Type of laser : Liquid laser ( Dye laser )
No. Questions Answers
1. How laser can be produced The light from a laser contains exactly one color or
wavelength rather than a lot of different wavelengths.
Scientists say that laser light is monochromatic, meaning
of one color. All the wavelengths are in phase. That is,
they are all "waving" together, like a well-timed audience
"wave" at a football game.

All the wave crests (high points) and troughs (low points)
are lined up. Scientists say the laser light is coherent.
While light waves from ordinary sources (such as
flashlights, light bulbs, or the Sun) spread out in all
directions. Laser light waves all travel in the same
direction, exactly parallel to one another. This means that
laser light beams are very narrow and can be concentrated
on one tiny spot.


Scientists say the laser light is collimated. Because the
laser light is monochromatic, coherent, and collimated,
all of its energy is focused to produce a small point of
intense power. This focused power makes laser light
useful for cutting and welding. It also makes it possible to
control laser light very precisely and make it do all kinds of
useful things.
2. Active medium used
In dye laser the liquid material called dye (for example
rhodamine B, sodium fluoresein and rhodamie 6G) uses as
an active medium, which causes to produce laser light.

3. Energy level system

The S
0
to S
1
transition covers a broad range of frequencies
due to the rotational-vibrational energy levels. Once
excited to the S
1
state, these molecules can de-excite to
the lowest vibrational level of S
1
in a transition which
takes a pico-second. This non-radiative decay is referred to
as internal conversion. Transitions from this lowest
vibrational level of S
1
to the vibrational levels of S
0
can
occur spontaneously. A further possibility is that
molecules nonradiatively move from S
1
to T
1
, or S
2
to
T
2
. Spontaneous emission occur from T
1
to S
0
.

4. Pumping source
Nd-YAG laser is used to excite the dye. Their setup
looked like:




5. Laser system The pumping process works like this:
1. Rapid excitation of a vibrational-rotational level of S
1

2. Internal conversion to the lowest vibrational level of S
1

3. Laser emission to the vibrational-rotational levels of
S
0
sufficiently far above the ground state that their
populations are low (Davis 251).
The system needs the S
1
state to be heavily populated
because of the broad fluorescence
spectrum. Furthermore, intersystem crossing populates
T
1
and absorption can occur from the same wavelengths
as emitted in the fluorescence. This loss must be
minimized and is done so by adding substances such as
oxygen or detergents to the dye. This can further be done
by using a dye solution in which intersystem crossing is
unlikely to occur. Using the Nd-YAG laser, however, the
transfer to the triplet state can be ignored because of the
short laser pulses. When the pump intensity is sufficient
to achieve an upper level population density, the lower
level is scarcely populated.

6. Efficiency The output power of dye lasers can be considered to start
from 1 watt with no theoretical upward limit. The output
beam diameter is typically 0.5mm and the beam
divergence is from 0.8 to 2 milli radians. The conversion
efficiency of the light from the pumping source to an
output from the dye laser is relatively high approximately
25%.