Lasers

Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation.

TUTORIAL OPTOELEKTRONIKA
Catatan Kuliah 2
@ By Agus Supriyanto
Optoelectronics Laboratory
Introduction to Lasers

Introduction to Lasers

Introduction to Lasers
In popular science fiction movies during the 1950s, monsters were often
portrayed that could emit lethal rays of light from their eyes (Figure 1)

but until the invention of the laser, such concentrated and powerful energy
beams were only fantasy.

Now it is possible to modify, probe, or destroy matter using the highly
focused radiation from energy sources known as lasers.


Ketika elektron berada di pita energi konduksi dan terjadi rekombinasi ke pita
energi valensi, maka dapat terjadi emisi photon yang dikenal dengan
spontaneous Emission
Ketika elektron berada di pita energi konduksi dan diberi stimulasi atau injeksi
photon maka terjadi rekombinasi ke pita energi valensi, sehingga dapat terjadi
emisi photon yang dikenal dengan Stimulated Emission.
Ketika elektron berada di pita energi valensi dan adanya injeksi photon maka terjadi
eksitasi elektron ke pita energi konduksi yang dikenal dengan Stimulated Absorption

Sejarah Perkembangan Laser
Albert Einstein may inadvertently have taken the initial step in laser development
by realizing that two types of emission are possible. In an article published in
1917, he was the first to suggest the existence of stimulated emission.

Einstein's work, which became key to the development of quantum mechanics,
holds that energy exists in discrete units or quanta and that atoms and molecules
(and therefore everything else) are restricted to having only certain discrete
amounts of energy.

A scientist at Columbia University, Charles H. Townes, was the first to succeed
in amplification of stimulated radiation in the early 1950s, but his work centered
around microwaves (with a much longer wavelength than visible light), and he
termed his device a maser

Two Soviets, Nikolai Basov and Aleksander Prokhorov, shared the 1964 Nobel
Prize in physics with Townes for their pioneering work on the principles
underlying masers and lasers. Schawlow was awarded a share of the 1981
Nobel Prize in physics for his laser research.


GAS LASERS

JENIS LASERS
Ion lasers employ expensive plasma tubes constructed of graphite or
beryllium oxide (BeO). Normally, a solenoid is placed around the tube. The
magnetic field generated by the solenoid "squeezes" the plasma in order to
increase the current density (current per unit area) in the active medium,
providing for more efficient excitation. The large amount of current passing
through the tube necessitates some type of cooling system. Normally, either
water or forced airflow provides maintenance of stable operation
temperatures

Type Wavelengt
h
(nm)
Mode of
Operation
Power Output (Watts) PRR
(pps)
Pulse Width
(secs)
Beam
Divergenc
e
(mrad)
TEM
00
Multimode
Nitrog
en
337.1 Normal pulse 300 10
3

peak
1-50 10 10
9
1 7
HeCd 325.
441.6
CW 5 10
3

50 10

3

0.5
Argon 457.9-
514.5
CW 2.0 (all
lines)
0.5
Krypto
n
350.7-
799.3
CW 1.3 (all
lines)
0.5
HeNe 632.8 CW 3 10
3
1.0
CO 4.0 10
3
-
5.5 10
3

CW 1.0
CO
2
10.6 10
3
CW
Normal pulse
Q-switched
300
2-3
10
3


400
2.5 x 10
3


1-5 10
3

200-400

1 10
3

0.2-0.4 10
6

1.0
1.0
2.2
H
2
O 118.3
10
3

CW
Normal pulse
1 10
3

50 (peak)
5.7
5.7
TABEL JENIS GAS LASERS

SOLID STATE LASER

Type Wavelengt
h
(nm)
Mode of
Operation
Pulse
Energy
(J)
Peak
Power
(watts)
PRR
(pp
m)
Pulse Width
(secs)
Beam
Divergenc
e
(mrad)
Ruby 694.3 Normal
pulse
Q-switched
4.0 5.7 x 10
3

100 x 10
6


6.0
6.0

0.7 x 10
-3

10-20 x 10
-9


5.0
5.0

Nd:Gla
ss
1.06 x 10
3
Normal
pulse
Q-switched
8.0 11.4 x 10
3

30 x 10
6

6.0
6.0
0.7 x 10
-3

10-20 x 10
-9


5.0
Nd:YA
G



1.06 x 10
3




CW

Normal
pulse
Q-switched
0.25 watt
(TEM
00
)
0.3

1.0 watt


5 x 10
6



600



10-20 x 10
-9


2.0
(single
mode)
5.0
5.0
SEMICONDUCTOR DIODE LASERS

Semiconductor diode lasers having sufficient power output to be useful in
optical microscopy are now available from a host of manufacturers. In general
these devices operate in the infrared region, but newer diode lasers operating
at a variety of specific visible wavelengths are rapidly being developed

Diode lasers are fabricated utilizing a specialized type of semiconductor
junction, and therefore share many of the advantages and characteristics of
other semiconductors and solid-state devices. Although these lasers rely on
electronic processes that take place in a solid semiconductor medium, the
basic principles of laser action in diode lasers are no different from those
controlling the operation of other (non-semiconductor) laser systems. In all
lasers, it is necessary for energy transitions to occur among electrons in the
lasing medium, and some of these must involve the emission of photons
(categorized as optical transitions). In order for these transitions to result in
emission of amplified light, the process of stimulated emission must
predominate over either spontaneous emission or absorption. This situation
is achieved under the conditions of a population inversion in the active
medium, a process whereby the electron population of an upper energy level
is induced to grow larger than that of a lower level.


Diode lasers are fabricated utilizing a specialized type of semiconductor
junction, and therefore share many of the advantages and
characteristics of other semiconductors and solid-state devices.

The simplest and most commonly utilized semiconductor is silicon, where each
atom in the solid form shares electrons with four neighbors in a tetrahedral
symmetry. Silicon is the example most often employed to illustrate various
properties of semiconductors, although many important materials in diode
laser applications are compounds of groups III and V elements, including
gallium arsenide, indium phosphide, and indium arsenide. Even though the
band arrangement is similar for all semiconductors, there are large differences
in the band gap and in the distribution of electrons among the bands at specific
temperature conditions.


Semiconductor lasers operate in a very different fashion, but also rely on
electrical currents to produce the necessary population inversion. In these
devices the inversion is produced between populations of current carriers
(electrons and electron-hole pairs) in the plane of the junction between
dissimilar regions of the semiconductor. Light emission in a semiconductor
laser is concentrated in the junction plane by feedback from the cleaved
ends of the crystal (Figure 9). The chip material has a high refractive index,
and reflects enough light back into the crystal to achieve gain. The cleaved
face can also be polished to control the reflectivity. Typically one end of the
crystal is coated with a reflective material so that emission only occurs
from a single end, as illustrated in Figure 9.
Prototipe
Laser Diode
Optical Power and Differential Quantum Efficiency
The optical output power is



where h depends on two factors: (1) the injection current efficiency accounting
for the fraction of injected carriers contributing to the emission process (some
the carriers can recombine in the undoped confinement regions where the
carriers do not interact with the optical field), and the (2) the optical efficiency
accounting for the fraction of generated photons that are transmitted out of the
cavity. Note that the threshold current depends on the injection current as well
as on the junction temperature T
jct
. The differential quantum efficiency is then
current dependent:



We see that h(I)
ext
can be negative if di
th
/di>1. The light output P
out
vs. the
injection current will have a negative slope.

OPERATING EFFICIENCY
An additional comparison of lasers can be made in terms of how efficiently typical
lasers operate. The operating efficiency of a laser may be defined as its "optical
output power, P
laser
, divided by its electrical input power, P
in
," as in Equations 1 and 2.
Equation 1
Operating efficiency = P
laser
/P
in

or
Equation 2
% Efficiency = P
laser
/P
in
(100%)

EXAMPLE :
Hitung Efisiensi Operasi dari : The operating plasma tube voltage of a 1-mW HeNe laser
is 1500 V at 5 mA.
Temperature Dependence of Laser Output
The current threshold for lasing in GaAs is strongly temperature-
dependent, as shown in graphics. At low temperature (up to
approximately 30 K) the threshold is fairly constant. Above 100 K, the
threshold current density for laser operation increases rapidly with
increasing temperature. At the cryogenic temperature of 77 K, the
threshold current in a gallium arsenide laser is about one tenth that of
the room temperature value. This means that cooling to cryogenic
temperatures changes the operating and performance characteristics of
the laser.

Kurva.Temperature dependence of
threshold current

Gallium arsenide lasers emit radiation in the near infrared portion of the
spectrum. The exact wavelength depends on the temperature at which the
laser is operated. This is shown in Figure 6 which gives the wavelength of a
gallium arsenide laser as a function of temperature. At temperatures above
room temperature, the threshold for laser operation rises and it becomes
difficult to operate the laser. However, gallium arsenide lasers have been
operated over the range of temperatures from liquid helium temperature to
room temperature.

Kurva.
Temperature dependence of
lasing wavelength

Spectral Characteristics
Operation of a gallium arsenide laser is characterized by a threshold
current. Figure 7 shows the peak pulsed power of a typical GaAs laser as a
function of the peak current input. The threshold current for this diode is
about 10 amperes. When the current through the device is relatively low, a
broad spectrum of spontaneous emission with a bandwidth of around 100
nanometers is observed. When the current through the junction is
increased stimulated emission will begin when the optical gain exceeds
the losses. The threshold current density will depend on the temperature,
on the absorption losses in the material, on the reflectivity of the diode
surface, and on the doping of the material

Kurva
Peak power output of laser diode as
a function of peak input current.

Spatial Characteristics
One of the most important characteristics of gas lasers is the very
small divergence of the emitted radiation. This characteristic is not
shared by semiconductor lasers. The main reason is that light is
emitted through the aperture defined by the small junction.
Diffraction through the narrow dimensions of the junction causes the
beam to spread into a broader angle than is observed with other
types of lasers. Figure 9 illustrates the beam divergence of a typical
GaAs laser. The emission from a gallium arsenide laser tends to be
an elliptical beam with a full angle divergence around 20 in the
direction perpendicular to the junction and around 5 in the direction
parallel to the junction. These angles may vary considerably with
individual lasers.

Other Types of Semiconductor Lasers

Material

Wavelength
(m)

ZnS
ZnO
Gan
ZnSe
CdS
ZnTe
GaSe
CdSe
CdTe
GaAs
InP
GaSb
InAs
Te
PbS
InSb
PbTe
PbSe

0.33
0.37
0.40
0.46
0.49
0.53
0.59
0.675
0.785
0.84-0.95
0.91
1.55
3.1
3.72
4.3
5.2
6.5
8.5

In addition to gallium arsenide lasers, a
variety of other semiconductor lasers have
been developed. Most of these lasers are in
the laboratory development and have not
reached commercial status. Table 3 gives
some other semiconductor laser materials,
and their wavelengths of operation. Those
indicated by the letter I are pumped by
injection, which is the direct-current flow
described in this module for GaAs lasers


Semiconductor Laser
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