NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOHY SIKKIM

Ravangla Campus
Barfung Block, Ravangla Sub Division, South Sikkim 737139

Subject: Engineering Physics (PH11101)

Module 3: Laser

 LASER:

1. Laser is a source which emits an intense, almost perfectly

monochromatic, directional, and highly coherent beam of
light.

2. The basic principle involved in the lasing action is the

phenomenon of stimulated emission, which was predicted by
Einstein in 1917.

 Stimulated Absorption:

The process in which an electromagnetic radiation of appropriate frequency pump an atom to its
excited state is called “stimulated absorption”.
E2  E1
Frequency of absorbed photon: ν  ………..(1)
h
Where, E1 and E2 are energy of ground and excited state and h is Planck's constant.

1
 Spontaneous Emission:

The process in which emission of photon takes place due to spontaneous transition of electron
from excited state to ground state is called “spontaneous emission”.
E2  E1
Frequency of emitted photon: ν ………..(2)
h
Where, E1 and E2 are energy of ground and excited state and h is Planck's constant.

 Stimulated Emission:

The process in which the transition of electron takes place from excited state to ground state
through the involvement of a photon of appropriate frequency which triggers the atom in excited
state to emit additional photon of energy equal to the difference between energy levels and in
same phase with incident photon is called “stimulated emission”.

2
  Einstein Coefficients:

N1 : Number of atoms per unit volume in energy state 1

N2 : Number of atoms per unit volume in energy state 2

ν : Frequency of radiation

uν  : Spectral energy density at temperature T

Stimulated absorption:

Probability rate of occurrence of absorption from state 1  2 is:

α N1 ……….(3)

and α u ν  ……….(4)

 The number of absorption transitions per unit time per unit volume:

 1  2absorption  N1B12uν  ……….(5)

Where, B12: a proportionality constant is a characteristic of energy states 1 and 2, and know as
the Einstein coefficient of absorption of radiation.

Spontaneous emission:

Probability rate of occurrence of spontaneous emission from state 2  1 is:

α N 2 …………(6)

 The number of spontaneous transitions per unit time per unit volume:

 2  1[Link]  N 2 A 21 ……….(7)

Where, A21: a proportionality constant is a characteristic of energy states 2 and 1, and know as
the Einstein coefficient of spontaneous emission.

3
Stimulated emission:

Probability rate of occurrence of stimulated emission from state 2  1 is:

α N2 …………(8)

and α u ν  …………(9)

 The number of stimulated transitions per unit time per unit volume:

 2  1[Link]  N 2B21uν………..(10)

Where, B21: a proportionality constant is a characteristic of energy states 2 and 1, and know as
the Einstein coefficient of stimulated emission of radiation.

At thermal Equilibrium:

Transition from state 12 = transition from state 2  1

  1  2absorption   2  1[Link]   2  1[Link]

 N1B12uν  N2A21  N2B21uν 

 N1B12uν   N2B21uν   N2A21

 N1B12  N2 B21 uν   N2A21

 u ν  
N 2 A 21
N1B12  N 2 B21 

 u ν  
A 21
1  B 
 B21 N1 12  N 2 
N2  B21 

 u ν  
A 21 1 …………..(11)
B21 N1  B12 
  1
N 2  B21 
According to Boltzmann, the equilibrium distribution of atoms among different energy states at
temperature T is given by: E
2
N 2 e- kT N  E2 E1 
 -E1  1 e kT

N1 e kT N2
N
 1  e kT
hν
……….(12)
N2
4
Using Equation (12) in (11):

u ν  
A 21 1
………..(13)
B21 B 
e kT  12   1
hν

 B21 
According to Planck radiation formula for Black body radiation:
8hν 3 1
u ν   hν
………..(14)
c 3 e kT  1

Comparing equation (13) and (14):

B12 A 21 8hν 3
1 ……….(15) and  ……… (16)
B 21 B 21 c3
From equation (15):

B12  B21 ……….(17)

 Coefficient of stimulated absorption is equal to coefficient of stimulated emission.

 In the presence of electromagnetic radiation, the probabilities of stimulated absorption and

stimulated emission in atom are equal.

From equation (16):

A 21 3
ν …………(18)
B 21
 Larger the energy difference between the two states (E 2 - E1 = hν), the much more likely is the
spontaneous compared to stimulated emission.

 Possibility of Amplification:

• For the amplification of the beam, the stimulated emission should be predominate over
spontaneous emission.

From equation (13) and (15):

A 21 hν
 e kT  1
B21u ν 
A 21 hν
  e kT  1
B 21uν 

5
  2  1[Link] h
…………(19)
 e kT
1
 2  1[Link]

For hν >> kT (i.e. ordinary optical source in visible region):

Example 1:  6000 A  ν  5 1014 s 1 T  103 K

Thus, 
 
hν 6.63 1034 Js 5 1014 s 1   24 …………..(20)
kT 
1.38 1023 JK 1 103 K  

Using Equation (20) in (19):

A 21
 e kT  1  e 24  1  1010
hν

B21u ν 
 Emission from ordinary light is predominately due to spontaneous transitions, and hence is
incoherent.

For hν << kT (i.e. transitions at room temperature in microwave region):

Example 2:   10cm  ν  3 109 s 1 T  300K

 
hν 6.63 1034 Js 3 109 s 1  5  10 4


………(21)
Thus,
kT  
1.38 1023 JK 1 300K 

Using Equation (21) in (19):

A 21 hν
 e kT  1  e510  1  5  10 4
4

B21u ν 
 Stimulated emission rate is much higher than spontaneous transitions, hence amplification is
obtained in MASERS.

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Example 3. Calculate the relative population of Na atoms in a sodium lamp in the first excited
state and in the ground state at a temperature of 250 C. Assume that  = 590 nm.

Solution: Given: λ = 590 nm T = 250 C = (250+273)K = 523K

Relative population of Na in first excited state (N2) to ground state (N1):

 E  E1   hν 
 exp    exp 
N2 hc 
 exp  2  
N1  kT   kT   kT 
 6.626 1034 Js  3 108 m / s 
 exp  9  23 
 590 10 m 1.38 10 J / K  523K 
 exp 46.67  5.39  10 21

 Population Inversion

The situation in which the number of atoms in the higher energy state exceeds that in the lower
energy state (N2 > N1) is known as “population inversion”.

N1 : Number of atoms per unit volume in energy state E 1

N2 : Number of atoms per unit volume in energy state E 2

• At thermal equilibrium, the number of atoms in higher energy state E2 is considerably

smaller than the number in lower energy state E 1 (i.e. N2 < N1).

7
• When a light of frequency ν passes through the medium, the atoms in ground state E 1
absorbs the radiation and get excited to energy state E 3. This phenomenon is known as
pumping because it pump the atoms to higher energy state.

• The atoms in energy state E3 with lifetime ~10-8 s makes immediate nonradiative
transition to metastable state E2 with longer lifetime ~10-3 s.

• The atoms in state E2 can undergo a spontaneous transition to state E1 emitting radiation
of frequency ν = E2-E1/h.

• Because of longer life time of state E 2, the population of atoms in state E2 grows with
time.

• If the pump power is high, the rate at which the atom goes over to energy state E 2 will be
so high that the number of atoms in state E 2 can be larger than the number of atoms in
state E1 (i.e. N2 > N1) and population inversion achieved.

• At population inversion, the spontaneous emitted photon moving inside the cavity
stimulates the excited atom to undergo transition to ground state by emitting radiation in
same phase.

• As this process continued, the number of emitted photons in same phase goes on
increasing resulting to increase of emitted light intensity.

• This increase in light intensity by stimulated emission is known as light amplification

(Light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation).

Before
2 E2
hν hν hν
hν hν hν
hν hν hν hν
hν hν hν
hν hν hν
hν hν hν
hν hν hν
hν hν
1 After E1

8
 Mathematical treatment to population inversion:

Active medium: A collection of atoms

ν : Frequency of monochromatic light propagating through the medium along x-direction.

I ν : Intensity of light beam of frequency of light beam of frequency ν.

uν  : Energy density of the light travelling through active medium

For light beam having frequencies in the range ν and ν+ν, the relation between the intensity and
energy density can be written as:

I ν ν : cuν ν ….…….(22)

Where, c is the speed of light in the medium.

N1 : Number of atoms per unit

volume in energy state E1
N2 : Number of atoms per unit
volume in energy state E2

In practice, the energy levels are not

absolutely sharp, but have a finite
energy spread due to Doppler affect
and certain other cause.

 During the passage of light beam of frequency ν through the medium, only certain number
of atoms N1 out of N1 in energy state E1 undergoes absorption.

9
The Rate of upward transitions per unit volume is:

N1B12uν   N1B12 I ν / c  ………..(23)

The Rate of downward induced transitions is:

N 2 B21uν   N 2 B21 I ν / c  ………..(24)

Where B12 and B21 are Einstein’s B coefficients.

During each upward transition, a quantity of radiation hν is absorbed from the propagating light
and during each downward induced transition an equal amount of energy is added to the light
beam.

 The rate of change of spectral energy density of the beam in the frequency interval ν is:

d
uν ν  N 2 B21 I ν /c hν - N1B12 I ν /c hν
dt
hν
 N 2 - N1 B12I ν ………….(25) B12  B21 
c
For the light beam covering a distance dx in time dt in the medium:

dx  cdt
dx
 dt  ……….(26)
c
Now we have:
d
u ν ν  d cu ν ν  d I ν ν  ………..(27)
dt dx dx

Using Equation (27) in Equation (25):

d
I ν ν   hν N 2 - N1 B12I ν
dx c

dI ν hν  N 2 - N1 
   B12I ν ………….(28)
dx c  ν 

hν  N 2 - N1  ………….(29)
Let  B12   ν
c  ν 
Where αν is gain constant at frequency ν.

10
Using Equation (29) in (28):
dI ν
  ν I ν  dI ν   ν dx
dx Iν
Iν x
dI ν
 
 I ν 0 I ν
   ν dx
0
(Integrating both side)

 ln I ν  ln I ν 0   ν x  0
Iν
 ln  x
I ν 0 ν
Iν
  e ν x
I ν 0
 I ν  I ν 0 e ν x ………..(30) [Where (Iν)0 is a constant term]

The energy levels E1 and E2 have finite spectral width.

 The spectral line width due to transition between these levels has a finite frequency spread
ν about a mean frequency ν0.

The gain constant αν at mean frequency ν0 can be obtained by putting N = N in equation (29).

Thus,  ν 0  hν 0  N 2 - N1 B12
c  ν 
hν 0  N 2 - N1  A 21c 3  A 21 8hν 3 
  ν 0      3 
c  ν  8hν 30  B21 c 
c2 B  B 
  ν 0  N 2 - N1 A 21 ………….(31)  21 12 
8ν 02 cν

1. For N2 > N1, (αν)0 is positive

 Iν increases exponentially as x increases.

 As the light beam progresses through the medium, its intensity increases exponentially i.e.
there is an amplification of the intensity of the light beam.

 Population inversion is necessary for light amplification.

2. For N2 < N1, (αν)0 is negative

 Iν decreases exponentially as x increases

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 Pumping

The process of achieving population inversion in active medium is known as “pumping”.

 Pumping is a process by which atoms of the active medium are raised from lower energy
states to higher energy states.

• The pumping process in lasers involves a number of energy levels with complex excitation
processes.

• Different methods of atomic excitations are adopted in different types of lasers.

1. Excitation by strong source of light (flash lamp or arc lamp optical pumping.

2. Excitation by electron impact (electrical pumping).

3. Excitation by chemical reaction (chemical pumping).

 Main Components of Laser:

There are three main components of the LASER.

1. Active medium

2. Pumping Source

3. Optical resonator

1. Active Medium:

• The active medium consists of a collection of atoms, molecules, or ions (in solid, liquid,
or gaseous form) which is capable of amplifying light waves.

• Under normal circumstances, there are always a larger number of atoms in the lower
energy state than in the excited state.

• An electromagnetic wave passing through the active medium caused to form a state
called population inversion in which the number of atoms in the upper energy level is
greater than that in the lower energy level.

• To have optical amplification, the medium has to be kept in a state of population

inversion.

12
 2. Pumping Source:

• The pump enables us to obtain the state of population inversion between a pair of energy
levels of the atomic system.

• The pumping sources are different in different lasers and are mentioned below.

1. Flash lamp or arc lamp (Excitation by optical pumping).

2. Electric discharge (Excitation electrical pumping).

3. Chemicals reactions (Excitation chemical pumping).

4. Supersonic gas expansion (Excitation by gas dynamics pumping)

3. Optical Resonator:

A system formed by two mirrors facing each other with one partially reflecting is referred as
“optical resonator” or “resonant cavity”, between which the active medium capable of
population inversion is placed. The two mirrors reflects (fed back) most of the output energy
(light) to the medium to behave as oscillator, which can supply light energy and act as a light
source.

Active
Mirror Medium Mirror

Laser
Beam

1. The wave started from one mirror gets amplified while passing through the active medium and
partially transmitted through the second mirror while rest is reflected back to the first mirror. In
this process the ejection and amplification of light is occurring simultaneously forming the light
source.

2. In this process, there are waves propagating along both directions interfere, and form suitable
standing wave pattern in the cavity.

13
 The phase change suffered by the wave in one complete round trip must be integral multiple
of 2.
2
i.e. 2 L   2m m  1,2,3 ………..(32)

1 1 λ: wavelength of radiation
 m
 2L
L: Cavity length
1 1
 m ν: wavelength of radiation
c/ν 2L
c …………...(33)
νm
2L

• Equation (33) demonstrates the discrete frequencies of oscillation in the cavity.

 Different values of m leads to different oscillation frequencies which constitute longitudinal

mode of the cavity.

• The frequency difference between adjacent longitudinal mode in the cavity is given by:
c ….…………(34)
ν 
2L
• The mirror of optical resonator have finite transverse dimensions and hence only that portion
of the wave which strike the mirror will be reflected back and the portion lying outside the
transverse dimension of the mirror will be lost.

• As the beam with finite transverse dimension diffracts with propagation, the beam obtains
larger transverse dimension than the mirror when comes back to first mirror.

 The portion of wave lying outside the mirror would be lost and the loss is referred as
“diffraction losses”.

The loss can be reduced by using spherical mirrors to form the resonant cavity.

R1 R2

14
• The spherical mirrors help in focusing and hence causing much less loss due to
diffraction.

• Only certain combination of curvatures and mirror separations give low diffraction loss,
and the resonators are referred to stable resonators.

• The stability condition is given as:

 L  L
0  1  1    1 …………… (35)
 R1  R2 
R1, R2: radii of curvatures of the mirrors.

15
 Types of laser:

There are four types of laser:

1. Solid State Laser (Ruby Laser, Nd:YAG Laser
2. Liquid Laser (Dye Laser)
3. Gas Laser (He-Ne, He-Cd, CO2 Laser)
4. Semiconductor Laser (Diode Laser)

 Ruby Laser:

Construction:

1. Consist of a cylindrical ruby crystal whose ends are optically flat, with one of the ends
completely silvered and the other end partially silvered.

2. The two ends thus form a resonant cavity.

3. The ruby crystal is placed inside a coiled Xenon flash lamp.

4. The flash lamp is connected to a capacitor which discharges a few thousand joules of energy
in a few milliseconds, resulting in a power output of few megawatts from flash lamp.

16
Working:

1. The ruby rod is crystal of aluminum oxide (Al2O3) doped with 0.05% chromium oxide
(Cr2O3), so that some of the Al3+ ions are replaced by Cr3+ ions.

2. The impurity chromium ions give pink colour to the ruby and give rise to laser action.

3. The energy-level diagram of chromium ion consist of energy level E 1 (ground state), excited
states E3 and E4 with life time 10-8 s and meta stable state E2 with life time 10-3 s.

E4

E3

E2
Meta Stable
state
Energy

Optical
Pumping
694.3 nm
692.7 nm

Ground E
1
state

4. The chromium ions in its ground state absorb a photons of wave length 4000 Å and 6600 Å
and the electrons make transition to states E4 and E3 respectively.

5. The electrons in level E3 and E4 immediately make a nonradiative transition to the metastable
state E2, in which the excess energy is absorbed by the lattice and does not appear in the form of
electromagnetic radiation.

6. In this process the number of electrons in metastable states E2 goes on increasing while the
number of electrons in ground state E 1 goes on decreasing, and the population inversion is
established between E2 and E1.

7. When an excited electron in metastable state E2 spontaneously drops down to ground state E 1,
a photon of wavelength 6943 Å is emitted.
17
8. The photon travels through the ruby rod is reflected back and forth and stimulate the excited
electron to cause the emission of a fresh photon in phase with stimulating photon.

9. This process is continued and a beam of coherent radiation builds up between the end face of
ruby rod.

10. When the photon intensity becomes sufficiently intense, a faction of it escapes through the
partially silvered end resulting to lasing.

Specification:

1. Ruby laser is a “pulsed laser” with pulse duration of the order of 0.1 – 1 μs and power of each
pulse is 104 – 105 W.

 The phenomenon of “spiking” exhibited in Ruby laser.

Explanation:

1. The duration of the exciting flash of light is of the order of a millisecond but it is intense
enough to built up population inversion very rapidly.

2. As soon as a larger population is achieved in upper level, the laser action starts producing a
pulse.

3. The stimulated emission depletes the upper level population more rapidly than it is restored by
the flash light and the process is repeated.

 A series of pulses is produced until the intensity of the flash light falls to such a level that it
can no longer rebuild the required population inversion.

Drawback:

1. Require very high pumping power because the laser transition terminates at the ground state
and more than on-half of the ground state atoms must be pumped up to the higher state to
achieve population inversion.

2. The ions happen to be in their ground state absorb the 6943 Å photons from the beam as it
builds up.

18
• He-Ne Laser

Construction:

1. Consist of a long and narrow discharge tube filled with a mixture of He and Ne in a ration
10:1.

2. The pressure inside the tube is about 1 Torr.

3. The gas system is enclosed between a pair of concave mirrors so that a resonator system is
formed.

4. One of the mirrors is of very high reflectivity while the other is partially transparent so that
energy may be coupled out of the system.

5. The spacing between the mirrors is equal to an integral number of half-wavelengths of the
laser beam.

6. An electric discharge produced in gas mixture by electrodes connected to a high frequency

electric source.

Working:

1. The transitions from energy levels 5s to 4p, 4s to 3p and 5s to 3p of Ne results the emission of
3.39 μm, 1.15 μm and 6328 Å, respectively.

2. Energy levels of He: 23S1 (19.82 eV) and 21S0 (20.61 eV).

Energy levels of Ne: 5s (20.66 eV), 4p (20.30 eV), 4s (19.78 eV), 3p (18.70 eV).

19
 (20.66 eV)
(20.61 eV) 21S0
5s 3.39μm
He-Ne
Collision (19.78 eV) 4p (20.30 eV)
(19.82 eV) 23S1 4s 632.8 nm
1.15 μm
3p (18.70 eV)
Fast radiative
Excitation by collision transition
with electron
Energy

3s

Diffusion to walls

Ground
state
M M
L L
Discharge K He-Ne K
Electrode Collision

Helium Neon

3. When an electric discharge is passed through the gas, the electrons travelling down the tube
collide with the He atoms and the electrons get excited to metastable states 2 3S1 (19.82 eV) and
21S0 (20.61 eV).

 Electrons excited to these states stay in these levels for a sufficiently long time before losing
energy through collisions.

4. Some of the He atoms transfer their energy to ground state Ne atoms by collisions, and the
electrons get excited to states 5s (20.66 eV), 4s (19.78 eV), which results in a sizeable population
of the levels 5s and 4s.

 The He atoms help in achieving a population inversion in the Ne atoms.

5. The excited electrons in 5s level decay spontaneously to 3p state with emission of photons of
wavelength 6328 Å.

20
6. This photon travels the gas mixture and is reflected back and forth by the mirror-ends, which
stimulates an excited Ne atom causing the emission of another photon of wavelength 6328 Å in
phase with the stimulating photon.

7. This process is continued and a beam of coherent radiation builds up in the tube.

8. When the photon intensity becomes sufficiently intense, a faction of it escapes through the
partially silvered end.

9. The electrons from 3p level of Ne atom drop down spontaneously to lower metastable state 3s
by emitting incoherent light and finally drops down to ground state through collision with
radiation less transition.

10. Similarly, the transition between 5s to 4p and 4s to 3p results in the emission of radiation
having wavelengths 3.39 μm and 1.15 μm, respectively.

11. Thus, a He-Ne laser can be tuned to give radiation of any desired wavelength by choosing the
end mirrors having high reflectivity over required wavelength range.

Specification:

1. Typical output power lies between 1 to 50 mW of continuous wave for input of about 5–10 W.

Precaution:

1. The pressures of the two gases must be chosen so that the condition of population inversion is
not quenched.

 The conditions must be such that the there is an efficient transfer of energy from He to Ne
atoms.

21
2. The energy level 3s is metastable, and thus electrons in state 3s may excite to 3p, which may
cause decrease of population inversion. Therefore, the tube containing gaseous mixture is made
sufficiently narrow so that the electrons in 3s get de-excited to ground state through collision
with tube walls.

Advantages:

1. The light emits from gas laser is more directional and monochromatic as compared to solid
state laser due to the absence of certain defects like crystal imperfection, thermal distortion, and
scattering which appear in solid-state laser.

2. Gas laser operated continuously because the electron impacts that excite the He and Ne atoms
occur all the time unlike pulsed excitation from the xenon flash lamp in ruby laser.

3. The power needed for excitation is less than that in a three-level ruby laser since the laser
transition does not terminate at ground state.

• Properties

Monochromaticity:

1. ‘Chrome’ means color and monochrome means one color.

 Laser beam is characterized by a single wavelength.

2. Laser beams have a pure spectrum having small spectral width λ = 10-6 Å.

3. The spectral width (λ) is related to the coherence length (L) of a given radiation by:
2 2ν ………..(36)
 ~  
L c c
ν
Where, ν is the monochromaticity, and ν is the frequency of light.

 Spectral width is an indication of the monochromaticity of a given radiation.

Coherence:

1. The coherence time and coherence length for a laser beam is much larger than those for an
ordinary light.

2. The coherence time for a laser beam is about 2 ms, giving a coherence length of 600 km. The
coherence length is 30 cm for red cadmium light against the coherence time of 10 -9 s.
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 High contrast interference fringes can be obtained by two laser beams having a path
difference of several hundred kilometers.

Directionality:

1. Divergence of laser beam arises due to the diffraction.

The angular divergence of a laser beam of wavelength λ due to an aperture of diameter D is

given by:

………..(37)
 
D
2. The laser beam is observed to have very low angular divergence of the order of 10 -5 radians.

 The laser can travel to long distances without spreading.

3. The laser beam can be brought to an extremely sharp focus due to high directionality of the
beam.

4. The radius of focusing spot is given by:

l f …………(38)
r
a
Where, λl is the wavelength of laser light, f is the focal length of lens, a is the radius of aperture.

 The area of the focused spot is given by:

 f 
2

A  r 2    l  ………… (39)
 a 

1. Owing to angular divergence and focusing, a laser beam becomes highly intense.

2. Flux densities of 1015 W/cm2 for focused laser light are readily achieved.

̊ at focused point.
3. A laser beam can produce a temperature of the order of 10 4 C

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• Applications:

Laser in Science and Research:

1. Laser torch is used to see objects at very long distances.

2. Laser beams have been used in precision measurements of long distances.

Example: The distance of moon has been determined to an accuracy of 15 cm.

3. Laser rays have proved to be useful in detecting nuclear explosions and earthquakes in the
surfaces of distant planets and satellites.

4. Lasers are finding increasing applications in the study of Raman, ESR and NMR
spectroscopy.

5. Laser beam is also used in three-dimensional lens less photography (holography) and in
nonlinear optics.

6. Laser beam has been used to perform an improved version of Michelson-Morley experiment,
in which velocity of light is measured with an accuracy of 3 mm/s using He-Ne laser.

Laser in Engineering:

1. The Laser beam is used for cutting fabric for clothing and as well as steel sheet in various
application in industry.

2. Laser beam also used to drill extremely fine holes in paper clip, single human hair and hard
materials including teeth and diamond.

3. The Laser beam is used for welding in which metallic rods can be melted and joined by means
of a laser beam.

4. The laser beam also used to harden the surface of engine crank-shafts and cylinder walls
through heat-treatment by laser.

5. Laser beam is used to vaporise unwanted materials during manufacture of electronic circuit on
semiconductor chip.

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Laser in Medicine:

1. The Laser beam is used in delicate eye surgery like cornea grafting by which the surgical
operation is completed in a much shorter time.

2. Laser beam also used to in the treatment of kidney stone, cancer, tumor and in cutting and
sealing the small blood vessels in brain operation.

Example 4. The spectral spread of a laser light 6943Å is 0.0001 Å. Calculate the coherence
length and coherence time?

Solution: Given: λ = 5943Å λ= 0.0001 Å.

 2

5943 A 35319249 8
2

Coherence Length: L ~  10 cm  3531.9249cm
 0.0001 0.0001

L 3531.9249cm
Coherence Time:  c ~   117.73ns
c 3 1010 cm / s

Example 5. The output power of a given laser is 1mW and the emitted wavelength is 630 nm.
Calculate the number of photons emitted per second. If the area of laser beam is 10 -6 m2, then
find the intensity of laser beam.
Solution: Given: λ = 630 nm Poutput = 1 mW

Area of beam: 10-6 m2

Energy of each photons: E photon 
hc 6.626 10 34  3 108
 J
 630 10 9
 3.16 1019 J

Energy emitted per sec: Es = 1 10-3J/s

Es 1 10 3
Number of photons emitted per sec (N):   3.16 1015
E photon 3.16  10 19

P 110 3
Intensity of laser beam: I  6
 1  10 3 W / m 2
A 10

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