EE5500 Introduction to Photonics

Tutorial 4
1. (a) Consider a ruby crystal with two energy levels separated by an energy difference
corresponding to a free-space wavelength o= 694.3 nm, with a Lorentzian lineshape of width
330 GHz. The spontaneous lifetime is tsp = 3 ms and the refractive index of ruby is n = 1.76.
If N1+N2 = Na = 1022 cm-3, determine the population difference N = N2 - N1 and the attenuation
coefficient at the line center under conditions of thermal equilibrium at T =300 K (so that
the Boltzmann distribution is obeyed).
(b) What value should the population difference N assume to achieve a gain coefficient
0.5 cm-1 at the central frequency?
(c) How long should the crystal be to provide an overall gain of 4 at the central frequency when
cm-1?
2. Determine the saturation photon-flux density, and the corresponding saturation intensity, for
the = 694.3nm ruby laser transition at . Use the parameters given in table 1. Assume
that s 2tsp.
3. Consider a homogeneously broadened amplifying
medium with a Lorentzian lineshape of width
as shown in figure. Show that for a photonflux density, the amplifier gain coefficient
assumes a Lorentzian lineshape with width

4. A commercially available ruby laser amplifier using a 15-cm-Iong rod has a small-signal gain of
12. What is the small-signal gain of a 20-cm-Iong rod? Neglect gain saturation effects.
5. A 15-cm-Iong rod of Nd3+ glass used as a laser amplifier has a total small-signal gain of 10 at
1.06 m. Use the data in table 1 to determine the population difference N (Nd3+ ions per cm3)
required to achieve this gain.
6. The transition between two energy levels exhibits a Lorentzian lineshape of central frequency
o = 5 X 1014 with a linewidth 1 THz. The population is inverted so that the maximum gain
coefficient cm-1. The medium has an additional loss coefficient s= 0.05 cm-I, which is
independent of . Estimate the loss or gain encountered by a light wave in 1 cm if it has a
uniform power spectral density centered about with a bandwidth 2.

7. Write the rate equations for a two-level system, showing that a steady-state population
inversion cannot be achieved by using direct optical pumping between levels 1 and 2.
8. A unity refractive-index medium of volume 1 cm3 contains Na = 1023 atoms in thermal
equilibrium. The ground state is energy level 1; level 2 has energy 2.48 eV above the ground
state (o = 0.5 m). The transition between these two levels is characterized by a spontaneous
lifetime tsp = 1 ms, and a Lorentzian lineshape of width = 1 GHz. Consider two temperatures,
T1 and T2, such that kT1= 0.026 eV and kT2= 0.26 eV.
(a) Determine the populations N1 and N2.
(b) Determine the number of photons emitted spontaneously every second.
(c) Determine the attenuation coefficient of this medium at = 0.5 m assuming that the incident
photon flux is small.
(d) Sketch the dependence of the attenuation coefficient on frequency, indicating on the sketch
the important parameters.
(e) Find the value of photon-flux density at which the attenuation coefficient decreases by a factor
of 2 (i.e., the saturation photon-flux density).
(f) Sketch the dependence of the transmitted photon-flux density (d) on the incident photon-flux
density (0) for and when (0)/s 1.
9. Consider a homogeneously broadened laser amplifying medium of length d = 10 cm and a
saturation photon flux density = 4 X 1018 photons/cm2s. It is known that a photon-flux density
at the input ) = 4 X 1015 photons/cm2s produces a photon-flux density at the output d) = 4
X 1016 photons/cm2s.
(a) Determine the small-signal gain of the system Go.
(b) Determine the small-signal gain coefficient .
(c) What is the photon-flux density at which the gain coefficient decreases by a factor of 5?
(d) Determine the gain coefficient when the input photon-flux density is ) = 4 X 1019
photons/cm2s. Under these conditions, is the gain of the system greater than, less than, or the
same as the small-signal gain determined in (a)?

Table 1