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Course Title: Laser Physics: Lecture # 3

This document discusses laser physics and the principles behind stimulated emission and population inversion. It covers: 1) Stimulated emission rate and the Einstein coefficient for stimulated emission. 2) Pumping methods like optical pumping to selectively excite atoms into higher energy levels and create a population inversion between levels. 3) The Einstein relations which show that for a system in thermal equilibrium, the upward and downward transition rates must be equal. 4) How a three-level system can be used to achieve population inversion via optical pumping from the ground state to an excited state that rapidly decays to the upper laser level.

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FAKIHA GULZAR BS Physics
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163 views17 pages

Course Title: Laser Physics: Lecture # 3

This document discusses laser physics and the principles behind stimulated emission and population inversion. It covers: 1) Stimulated emission rate and the Einstein coefficient for stimulated emission. 2) Pumping methods like optical pumping to selectively excite atoms into higher energy levels and create a population inversion between levels. 3) The Einstein relations which show that for a system in thermal equilibrium, the upward and downward transition rates must be equal. 4) How a three-level system can be used to achieve population inversion via optical pumping from the ground state to an excited state that rapidly decays to the upper laser level.

Uploaded by

FAKIHA GULZAR BS Physics
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Course Title: Laser Physics

BS 8th : PHY-
MSc 4th : PHY-662
Credit hrs: 3(3-0)

Lecture # 3
Topic:
¨Stimulated emission rate

¨ Pumping
¨ The Einstein Relations
Objectives:
Learn about how laser light produced which
phenomenon are used under which circumstance
Stimulated emission rate
◻ In the case of stimulated emission, since the process is forced by the incident photon, the
emission of any photon adds in phase to that of the incoming wave.
◻ This wave also determines the direction of the emitted wave. In this case, too, we can
characterise the process by means of the equation

◻ where (dN2/dt)st is the rate at which transitions 2 → 1 occur as a result of stimulated


emission, B21 is called the Einstein coefficient for stimulated emission, the energy
density ρν = Nhν, where N is the number of photons per unit volume having frequency ν.
Absorption rate
◻ The energy difference E2-E1 required by the atom to undergo the transition be obtained from the
energy of the incident photon. This is the absorption process.
◻ In a similar, we can write an equation for absorption rate,

◻ where N1 is the number of atoms per unit volume that at the given time are lying in level1 and B12 is
called the Einstein coefficient for stimulated absorption.
◻ In the absorption process, the incident photon is simply absorbed to produce the 1 →2 transition.
◻ In the beginning of the century, Einstein also showed that the coefficients of stimulated emission and
absorption are equal, i.e. B21=B12 (assuming that degeneracy in both the upper and lower level is
same)
The Einstein Relations
◻ Einstein showed that the parameters describing the above three processes are
related through the requirement that for a system in thermal equilibrium, the rate
of upward transitions (E2 to E1) must be equal to the rate of downward transition
processes.
◻ We can write the upward transition rate as N1ρνB12.
◻ The total downward transition rate is the sum of the induced and spontaneous
contributions i.e. N2ρνB21+N2A21.
◻ In the preceding discussions A21, B21 and B12 are called the Einstein
coefficients.
The Einstein Relations
◻ The relation between them can be established as follows.
◻ For a system in equilibrium, the upward and downward transition rates must be
equal and hence we have
◻
The Einstein Relations
◻ The populations of various energy levels of a system in thermal equilibrium
are given by Boltzmann statistics to be:

◻ where Nj is the number of atoms in the jth level with energy Ej, N0 is the total
number of atoms, k is Boltzmann constant, and T is temperature in Kelvin.
The Einstein Relations
◻ we get ratio of spontaneous emission to stimulated emission in thermodynamic
equilibrium as

◻ The ratio of stimulated emission to spontaneous emission depends on the


temperature (in thermal equilibrium) frequency of the photons and the number of
photons available for stimulation.
Do these examples
◻ Example:
◻ Calculate the ratio of spontaneous emission to stimulated emission for tungsten
filament lamp operating at a temperature of 1500 K (assume the average
frequency ν to be 5x1014 Hz).
◻ Example:
◻ At what temperature are the rates of spontaneous and stimulated emission
◻ equal for λ=550 nm radiation? At what wavelength are they equal at room
temperature (T=300 K)?
The Einstein Relations
◻ The above discussion indicates that the process of stimulated emission competes with
the processes of spontaneous emission and absorption.
◻ Clearly if we wish to amplify a beam of light by stimulated emission then we must
increase the rate of this process in relation to the other two processes.
◻ To achieve this for a given pair of energy levels we must increase
◻ i) radiation density and
◻ ii) the population density N2 of the upper level in relation to the population density N1
of the lower level.
◻ We shall show that to produce laser action we must create a condition in which N2>N1,
even though E2>E1 that is we must create a so-called population inversion.
pumping
◻ To create a population inversion in the optical region, we must supply energy
selectively to the lower energy level, to excite atoms into the upper energy level.
◻ This excitation process is called pumping. Pumping produces a non-thermal
◻ equilibrium situation.
◻ One of the methods used for pumping is stimulated absorption, that is the energy
levels which one hopes to use for laser action are pumped by intense irradiation of
the system.
◻ Now as B12 and B21 are equal once atoms are excited into upper level the
probabilities of further stimulated absorption or emission are equal so that even with
very intense pumping we can not get more atoms in the excited state.
◻ The best we can achieved is the equal population in both the levels,
therefore, to make a laser amplifier with just two energy levels is not
possible, i.e. a population inversion in a two level system can never be
achieved by optical pumping.
◻ Therefore, we must look for materials with either three or four energy
levels system. This is not a problem as atomic systems generally have a
large number of energy levels.
◻ A three level system is illustrated in Figure 4.6. Initially the distribution obeys the
Boltzmann law.
◻ If the collection of atoms is intensely illuminated by photons, they can be excited into
the level E3 from the ground level E1. From the level E3, the atoms decay by
non-radiative process to the level E2 and a population inversion may be created between
E2 and E1.

◻ Ideally the transition from level E3 to E2 should be very rapid to keep E3 level almost
empty.

◻ The transition from E2 to E1 should be slow, that is E2 should have relatively longer
lifetime.
◻ This allows a large build-up in the number of atoms in level E2.

◻ Hence N2 may become greater than N1 and then population inversion will be achieved.
◻ The level E3 should preferably consist of a large number
of closely spaced levels so that pumping uses a wide range
of the radiation. This increases the pumping efficiency.
◻ Three level lasers, for example ruby, require very high
pumping powers because the terminal level of the laser
transition is the ground state.
◻ This means that more than half of the ground state atoms
has to be pumped to the upper state to achieve population
inversion.
References:
Masroor, I. 2008. Lasers and optics. Pakistan institute of engineering and applied
sciences, Islamabad.
Svelto, O. 2009. Principles of Lasers. Springer, 5th Edition.
Silfvast, W. T. (2004). Laser fundamentals. Cambridge university press.

Links:
Thank You

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