RUBY LASER
RUBY LASER
A ruby laser is a solid-state laser. This is the first successful laser
developed by Maiman in 1960. The active material in the Ruby is
chromium ion and so energy level of chromium Ions takes part in
the lasing action. Ruby laser produces visible light of deep red
colour of wavelength 694.3 nm.
Construction of ruby laser: A ruby laser consists of three
important elements (i) laser medium (ii) the pumping source and
(iii) the optical resonator.
i. Laser medium or gain medium in ruby laser: In a ruby laser, a
single crystal of ruby (Al₂O₃) doped with small (0.05%)percentage
of Cr₂O₃ acts as host material.
ii. Pump source or energy source in ruby laser:
The pump source in a ruby laser provides energy to the laser medium.
In a ruby laser, we use flashtube as
the energy source or pumping
source. The flash of the tube lasts
several milliseconds. During this
period of time, the tube absorbs
energy amounting to Several
thousand joules and most of the
energy is spent on heating the
Apparatus.
(produce intense light pulses)
This heat produced is removed by liquid nitrogen circulating
around the Ruby rod.
The remaining part of the energy in the form of blue and
green radiation is absorbed by the Ruby.
This energy ensures the excitation of chromium Ion from the
ground state to the excited energy state for achieving
population inversion.
iii. Optical resonator: The two ends of the cylindrical ruby rod are
flat and parallel. The ruby rod is placed in between two mirrors
having optical coating. At one end of the rod, the mirror is fully
silvered whereas, at another end the mirror is partially silvered.
The fully silvered mirror will completely reflect the light whereas the
partially silvered mirror will reflect most part of the light but allows a
portion of light to pass out as output laser light.
The optical pumping result when incident photons of wavelength
5500Å raise the chromium Ion from ground state E1 to higher
excited state E3.
These ions interact with the crystal lattice and decay to metastable
period (3 x 10−3sec) producing population inversion.
state E2 by non radiating transition where they can stay for a longer
Working of ruby laser:
The ruby laser is a three level solid-state laser. In this laser, optical
pumping is done by a helical xenon flash lamp which provides
energy to the atoms to raise electrons from lower energy level to
the higher energy levels.
Consider the laser medium consisting of three energy levels E1,
E2, E3 with N number of electrons such that E1 < E2 < E3. The
energy level E1 is known as ground energy state, the energy level
E2 is metastable state and the energy level E3 is known as excited
state.
Initially most of the electrons are in the lower energy state (E1)
and only a few number of electrons are in the excited states.
When light energy is supplied to the laser medium (ruby) with
the flash lamp, the electrons in the lower energy state E₁ gains
enough energy and jumps into the excited state (E3).
The excited electrons in the state E3 can not stay for a longer
within ̴10−8sec. The excited electrons come down to the
period of time and come back to the lower state
stay there about 3× 10−3 sec which is much greater than the
metastable state E2 by non radiating transition then they can
lifetime of pumping state E3.
As a result of this the number of electrons in the metastable
state E2 increase and hence population inversion is achieved.
Since the state of population inversion is not a stable one,
hence one or two electrons come down to ground state
spontaneously. During this transition, a photon is emitted
which induces stimulated emission.
This Photon Travels through the Ruby rod in a direction
parallel to the axis of the rod and reflects back and forth (or
to and fro) by the reflecting ends of the optical resonator
until it Stimulates an excited chromium ion.
Stimulated excited chromium Ion emits a photon exactly in
same phase with the stimulating photon.
The Stimulated transition of chromium Ion from metastable state
E2 to the ground state E1 is known as laser transition. These in-
phase photons stimulate more chromium ions and hence the
number of photons emitted increases.
This process repeats and hence the in-phase photos get
multiplied. Thus, a strong and coherent laser beam is obtained
through the partially reflecting face. So ruby laser has a pulse
output and hence called pulse laser.
The metastable state M of ruby is a doublet of separation of 14
ͦͦͦͦͦͦ
A .ͦͦͦ So the output of the laser has two lines of wavelength 6943
A ͦͦͦand 6929 ͦͦͦ. However the line 6943 A ͦͦͦ predominates.
