INTRODUCTION
No other scientific discovery of the 20th century has been demonstrated with so many
exciting applications as laser acronym for (Light Amplification by Stimulated
Emissionof Radiation). The basic concepts of laser were first given by an American
scientist, Charles Hard Townes and two Soviet scientists, Alexander Mikhailovich
Prokhorov and Nikolai Gennediyevich Basov who shared the coveted Nobel Prize
(1964). However, TH Maiman of the Hughes Research Laboratory, California, was
the first scientist who experimentally demonstrated laser by flashing light through a
ruby crystal, in 1960.
Laser is a powerful source of light having extraordinary properties which are not
found in the normal light sources like tungsten lamps, mercury lamps, etc. The unique
property of laser is that its light waves travel very long distances with e very little
divergence. In case of a conventional e source of light, the light is emitted in a jumble
of e separate waves that cancel each other at random and hence can travel very short
distances only. An analogy can be made with a situation where a large number of
pebbles are thrown It into a pool at the same time. Each pebble generates a wave of its
own. Since the pebbles are thrown at random, the waves generated by all the pebbles
cancel each other and as a result they travel a very short distance only. On the other
hand, if the pebbles are thrown into a pool one by one at the same place and also at
constant intervals of time, the waves thus generated strengthen each other and travel
long distances. In this case, the waves are said to travel coherently. In laser, the light
waves are exactly in step with each other and thus have a fixed phase relationship. It is
this coherency that makes all the difference to make the laser light so narrow, so
powerful and so easy to focus on a given. object. The light with such qualities is not
found in nature. A high degree of directionality and monochromatic is also associated
with these light beams. Therefore, in a laser beam the light waves not only are in the
same phase but also have the same color (wavelength) throughout their journey. The
beam of the ordinary light spreads out very quickly. On the other hand, the laser beam
is highly collimated and spreads very little. travels through space; even after traveling
to the, surface of the moon the spread of laser light has been found to be only about 3
km across. Hypothetically, if ordinary light was able to travel to the so moon, its beam
would have fanned out to such an extent leading to a diameter of the light on. the
moon as much as 40, 000 km.
After the first demonstration of laser in 1960, new applications of lasers in the
various field are announced almost every day. Laser finds applications In the fields of
communication, Industry, medicine, military operations, scientific research, etc.
Besides, laser has already brought great benefits in surgery, photography, holography,
engineering
and data storage. Though it is not possible to illustrate all the laser applications reported
so far in this project.
How does it Works ???
Laser Action & Quantum Theory
Laser action is based on well-established principles of quantum theory. Albert
Einstein, the greatest modern physicist, enunciated that an excited atom or a molecule,
when stimulated by an electromagnetic wave (i.e., light), would emit photons (packets
of light) having the same wavelength as that of the impinging electromagnetic wave.
Charles Townes was the first person who took advantage of this stimulated emission
process as an amplifier by conceiving and fabricating the first maser (acronym for
Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation). The first maser was
produced in ammonia vapour at a wavelength of 1.25 cm. Extending the maser
principle to optical wavelengths, Townes along with Arthur Leonard Schawlow
developed the concept of using a laser amplifier and an optical mirror cavity to
provide the multiple reflections necessary for rapid growth of light signal into an
intense visible beam.
Every atom, according to the quantum theory, can have energies only in certain
discrete states or energy levels. Normally, the atoms are in the lowest energy state or
ground state. When light from a powerful source like a flash lamp or a mercury arc
falls on a substance, the atoms in the ground state can be excited to go to one of the
higher levels.
This process is called absorption. After staying in that level for a very short duration
(of the order of 10-8 second), the atom returns to its initial ground state, emitting a
photon in the process. This process is called spontaneous or a emission.
A brief structural description
The light emitted from a laser is monochromatic, that is, it is of one
color/wavelength. In contrast, ordinary white light is a combination of many colors
(or wavelengths) of light.
Lasers emit light that is highly directional, that is, laser light is emitted as a
relatively narrow beam in a specific direction. Ordinary light, such as from a
light bulb, is emitted in many directions away from the source.
The light from a laser is said to be coherent, which means that the wavelengths of
the laser light are in phsame space and time. Ordinary light can ase in be a mixtureof
many wavelengths.
Common components of all LASER
• Active Medium
The active medium may be solid crystals such as ruby or Nd:YAG. liquid dyes.
gases like CO2 or Helium/Neon, or semiconductors such as GaAs. Active mediums
contain atoms whose electrons may be excited to a metastable energy level by an
energy source.
• Excitation Mechanism
Excitation mechanisms pump energy into the active medium by one or more of three
basic methods; optical, electrical or chemical.
• High Reflectance Mirror
A mirror which reflects about 100% or the laser lighL
• Partially Transmissive Mirror
A mirror which reflects less than 100% of the laser light and transmits the
remainder.
'
• Energy Is applied to a med furn raising electrons to an unstable energy level.
• These atoms spontaneously decay to a relatively long-lived, lower energy,
metastable state.
• A populationinversion is achieved when the majority of atoms have
reached this metastable state.
• Lasing action occurs when an electron spontaneously returns to its ground state
and produces a photon.
• If the energy from this photon is of the precise wavelength, it will stimulate
the production of another photonof the same wavelength and resulting in a cascading
effect.
• The highly reflectivemirror and partially reflective mirror continue the
reaction by directing photons back through the medium along the long axis of
the laser.
• The partially reflective mirror allows the transmission of a small amount of
coherent radiation that we observe as the '·beam".
• Laserradiation will continue as long as energyis applied to the lasing medium.
SOME IMPORTANT APPLICATIONS
Anti-Missile Defence System (Star Wars)
In an antimissile defence system, laser is used to dispose the energy of warhead, not by
vaporising or melting it, but by partially damaging the missile, say by drilling a hole.
Tremendous energy is required to completely burn the missile, which is not practicable.
If a guided vane of a missile is fractured, several vibrations will be developed in the air
frame thereby disintegrating major sensitive portion of the missile.
Two types of anti-missile defence systems have been visualised. One such
system, laser kill system is completely earthbound . Here, an early warning
microwave radar
gives a rough position of the approaching missile. Then a lidar aligned to the target
by the tracking radar gives the precise position of the missile. This data is fed on to
another high intensity laser beam which actually does the killing. To exploit the
laser's killing capability, a high speed servo system and a complex
Optical Fibre
A system with an AlGaAs laser for 850 nm wavelength and a graded-index multimode
fibre is applied to intra-city networks with bit rates of 32-140 Mb/s and with
transmission spans shorter than 10 km. For distances more than 10 km, a system with
in GaAsP laser operating at 1 300 nm wavelength and with a graded-index multimode
or single mode fibre is preferred in inter-city networks with bit rates higher than 100
Mb/s. When more telecommunication channels are required in a metropolis, the
optical fibre telecommunication system is quite effective because the special fibre
cables which give more bandwidth can easily replace the existing metal-wire cables in
the duct Majority of the present companies use single mode fibres that operate at 1300
nm wavelength with future upgradability to 1500 nm where the attenuation loss will
be the least. Already, commercial systems have been installed with bit rates as high as
565 Mb/s which is equivalent to 7680
two-way conversation over a pair of fibres. Since fibres have very high capacity and
can transmit voice, data and video, efforts are underway to install fibres into individual
houses, with universal information system. Systems are already in use that provide
continuing interactive service smoke and heat detectors to automatically alert fire
alarms, police alarms and medical alert alarms to summon aid. There is also a potential
for completely auto
Status of Laser Development in India
The research and development work in the field of lasers started in our country 28
years back on a very small scale at a few research laboratories of the Defence
Research & Development Organisation, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, National
Physical Laboratory, IIT, Kanpur, and IISc, Bangalore. Later, a number of research
laboratories and teaching institutions also entered into this area. A Study Group on
Lasers, constituted in 1971 by DRDO, and INSA Laser Committee constituted under
the Chairmanship of Prof. P Venkateswarlu in 1976 (the author was a member of the
two committees) made detailed studies to assess the status of R&D work on laser at
both international and national levels and gave suitable recommendations for
development of lasers and laser systems in the country. In 1988, Dr DD Bhawalkar,
Director, Centre for Advanced Technology (CAT), Indore, gave a status report on
lasers to the Science Advisory Council
to the Prime Minister. Very briefly the current status of the laser work in the country is
outlined below:
Laser rods of ruby, Nd:glass, flash lamps and hard coated laser mirrors, have been
developed indigenously at the Defence Science Centre (DSC), Delhi, and the solid
sate lasers giving peak power output of a few megawatts have been developed for
Defence applications. BARC has also developed these lasers with mainly imported
components, Laser range finders with Nd:YAG or Nd:glass as the active element have
been developed at Instruments Research Development Establishment(IRDE),
Dehradun and DSC. CAT, is developing a high power Nd:glass laser for atomic
energy application,
Helium-Neon lasers of low power output (2-5 mW) with lifetimes of a few
thousand hours have been developed at IISc, NPL, and Bharat Electronics Ltd.,
Bangalore. The technology has been transferred by NPL to M/s Laser Instruments,
New Delhi and by
BARC, Bombay to ECIL, Hyderabad. they started production of these lasers
commercially about 20 years back but stopped production since their performance is
far from satisfactory. BEL also made an attempt about 10 years back and stopped
production due to lack of sufficient technology
Carbon dioxide lasers giving an output power in the range 10-100 W have been
developed at BARC IIT, Kanpur, IRDE and DSC, Central Electronics Ltd. (CEL)
and Jyoti Ltd. have started commercial production of these lasers around 1975 but
have stopped production by 1982. CAT has developed transverse carbon dioxide
laser with 3.5 kW power.
BARC and Solid State Physics Laboratory (SPL), Delhi have developed low power
gallium- arsenide lasers with a view to use them for applications in communication and
ranging BARC demonstrated communication over 20 Km distance using laser. Further
work is necessary to develop these lasers with heterostructures and to improve their
efficiency.
Basic laser materials like ruby, Nd:phosphate glass and lithium niobate are being
developed at DSC for Defence applications, Central Glass and Ceramics Research
Institute, Calcutta(CGCRI), has also developed good quality Nd'silicate glass for
commercial applications. The development of gallium-arsenide and Nd:YAG crystals
is under process at SPL. Several establishments and institutes like DSC, IRDE, IISc,
NPL, BARC, IIT,
Kanpur and BEL have established optical workshops including coating
facilities to fabricate laser components. Good experience has been gained to fabricate
laser rods and hard coated laser morrors at DSC
Fibre-Optic Communication
In 1980, a panel on Optical Fibre Communication System constituted by the
Electronics Commission recommended the introduction of optical fibre
communication in India. With this in view, CGCRI took up an R&D project on
indigenous development of optical communication fibre. In1982, a System Appraisal
Group for Optical Fibre and Cables comprising representatives of the Department of
Electronics, Ministry of Defence, IIT, De/hi, Telecommunication Research Centre
(TRC) and Hindustan Cables Ltd. recommended setting up of R&D and
manufacturing facilities of optical fibres and cables at HCL through collaborative
arrangement. It was decided to manufacture at HCL the multimode graded index fibre
with' 3 to 5 db/km loss and bandwidth up to 100 MHz.
Similarly, the production of optical fibre has been started at OPTEL, Bhopal with
foreign collaboration.
The Department of Communications has Successfully installed the optical fibre cable
and an 8 Mb system to provide junctions between two exchanges in the Pune
Telephone system. TRC has taken up a design of an indigenous 34 Mb .system to be
installed between Thana and Powai in the Bombay Telephone system. Efforts are onle
way to introduce optical fibre communication several trunk routes in the country.
Facilities for 93 characterisation of optical fibres have been set up at HCL and IIT,
Delhi,
A SIMPLE EXEPERIMENT USING LASER BEAM TO OBSERVE
THE TOTAL INTERNAL REFLECTION OF LIGHT
Aim:To observe the total internal reflection of light.
Prerequisite knowledge:Phenomenon of total internal reflection. Handling of laser
light
Materials requierd:
• LASER light
• Stool
• Transparent water bottle
Procedure
Make a hole from the bottom area of the bottle
Fill the bottle with water so that the stream of water keeps flowing through the hole
Now take the laser light and point towards the hole from the opposite side of the
bottle and observe
RESULTS
We observe that the stream of water is lightened and it seems like the stream of light is
flowing through the hole and bending without any error
principle behind the experiment
It's the most simplest application of the total internal refletion [Link] the stream is
water medium and the air is present exterior to it which is less denser than the water
and hence total internal reflection takes place. Throughout the stream of water the
light ray strikes to the alternate internal walls of the stream as shown in the figure.
