Laser Guide

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Introduction to Laser Technology

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Introduction to
Laser Technology 10

Basic Laser Principles 10.2
Propagation Characteristics of Laser Beams 10.6
Transverse Modes and Mode Control 10.10
Single Axial Longitudinal Mode Operation 10.11
Frequency and Amplitude Fluctuations 10.13
Tunable Operation 10.15
Types of Lasers 10.16
Laser Applications 10.28
Introduction to Laser Technology 10.1

10ch_LaserGuide_Final.qxd 6/16/2009 11:42 AM Page 10.2

Basic Laser Principles
Lasers are devices that produce intense beams of light which are For an electron to jump to a higher quantum state, the atom must receive
monochromatic, coherent, and highly collimated. The wavelength (color) energy from the outside world. This can happen through a variety of
of laser light is extremely pure (monochromatic) when compared to other mechanisms such as inelastic or semielastic collisions with other atoms and
sources of light, and all of the photons (energy) that make up the laser beam absorption of energy in the form of electromagnetic radiation (e.g., light).
have a fixed phase relationship (coherence) with respect to one another. Likewise, when an electron drops from a higher state to a lower state, the
Light from a laser typically has very low divergence. It can travel over great atom must give off energy, either as kinetic activity (nonradiative tran-
distances or can be focused to a very small spot with a brightness which sitions) or as electromagnetic radiation (radiative transitions). For the
exceeds that of the sun. Because of these properties, lasers are used in a wide remainder of this discussion we will consider only radiative transitions.
variety of applications in all walks of life.
The basic operating principles of the laser were put forth by Charles Townes PHOTONS AND ENERGY
and Arthur Schalow from the Bell Telephone Laboratories in 1958, and the In the 1600s and 1700s, early in the modern study of light, there was a great
first actual laser, based on a pink ruby crystal, was demonstrated in 1960 controversy about light’s nature. Some thought that light was made up
by Theodor Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories. Since that time, of particles, while others thought that it was made up of waves. Both
literally thousands of lasers have been invented (including the edible “Jello” concepts explained some of the behavior of light, but not all. It was finally
laser), but only a much smaller number have found practical applications in determined that light is made up of particles called “photons” which exhibit
scientific, industrial, commercial, and military applications. The helium neon both particle-like and wave-like properties. Each photon has an intrinsic
laser (the first continuous-wave laser), the semiconductor diode laser, and energy determined by the equation
air-cooled ion lasers have found broad OEM application. In recent years the
use of diode-pumped solid-state (DPSS) lasers in OEM applications has been
E = hn (10.1)
growing rapidly.
`The term “laser” is an acronym for (L)ight (A)mplification by (S)timulated where n is the frequency of the light and h is Planck’s constant. Since, for a
(E)mission of (R)adiation. To understand the laser, one needs to understand wave, the frequency and wavelength are related by the equation
the meaning of these terms. The term “light” is generally accepted to be
electromagnetic radiation ranging from 1 nm to 1000 mm in wavelength.
ln = c (10.2)
The visible spectrum (what we see) ranges from approximately 400 to 700
nm. The wavelength range from 700 nm to 10 mm is considered the near
infrared (NIR), and anything beyond that is the far infrared (FIR). Conversely, where l is the wavelength of the light and c is the speed of light in a
200 to 400 nm is called ultraviolet (UV); below 200 nm is the deep ultra- vacuum, equation 10.1 can be rewritten as
violet (DUV).
hc
E= . (10.3)
To understand stimulated emission, we start with the Bohr atom. l
THE BOHR ATOM

In 1915, Neils Bohr proposed a model of the atom that explained a wide
variety of phenomena that were puzzling scientists in the late 19th
century. This simple model became the basis for the field of quantum
mechanics and, although not fully accurate by today’s understanding, 15 ionized continuum
-
still is useful for demonstrating laser principles. n=3
Energy (eV)
10 1st excited state n=2

In Bohr’s model, shown in figure 10.1, electrons orbit the nucleus of an + E1 E2 E3
atom. Unlike earlier “planetary” models, the Bohr atom has a limited 5
number of fixed orbits that are available to the electrons. Under the right
circumstances an electron can go from its ground state (lowest-energy orbit) ground state
0 n=1
to a higher (excited) state, or it can decay from a higher state to a lower state,
but it cannot remain between these states. The allowed energy states are
called “quantum” states and are referred to by the principal “quantum
numbers” 1, 2, 3, etc. The quantum states are represented by an energy-level Figure 10.1 The Bohr atom and a simple energy-level
diagram. diagram
10.2 Introduction to Laser Technology


It is evident from this equation that the longer the wavelength of the light,
the lower the energy of the photon; consequently, ultraviolet light is much
more “energetic” than infrared light. -
-
Returning to the Bohr atom: for an atom to absorb light (i.e., for the light
energy to cause an electron to move from a lower energy state En to a higher + E1 E2 + E1 E2
energy state Em), the energy of a single photon must equal, almost exactly,
the energy difference between the two states. Too much energy or too
little energy and the photon will not be absorbed. Consequently, the wave- absorption
length of that photon must be
-
hc -
l=
DE
(10.4) + E1 E2 + E1 E2
where
DE = E m − E n .
Likewise, when an electron decays to a lower energy level in a radiative spontaneous emission
transition, the photon of light given off by the atom must also have an
energy equal to the energy difference between the two states. -
-

SPONTANEOUS AND STIMULATED EMISSION + E1 E2 + E1 E2
In general, when an electron is in an excited energy state, it must even-

tually decay to a lower level, giving off a photon of radiation. This event
is called “spontaneous emission,” and the photon is emitted in a random
stimulated emission
direction and a random phase. The average time it takes for the electron
to decay is called the time constant for spontaneous emission, and is
represented by t.
Figure 10.2 Spontaneous and stimulated emission
On the other hand, if an electron is in energy state E2, and its decay path
is to E1, but, before it has a chance to spontaneously decay, a photon
happens to pass by whose energy is approximately E24E1, there is a
probability that the passing photon will cause the electron to decay in
such a manner that a photon is emitted at exactly the same wave-
length, in exactly the same direction, and with exactly the same phase ne
n zo
ssio
as the passing photon. This process is called “stimulated emission.” ed emi
Absorption, spontaneous emission, and stimulated emission are illustrated ulat
stim
in figure 10.2.
Now consider the group of atoms shown in figure 10.3: all begin in exactly
the same excited state, and most are effectively within the stimulation
range of a passing photon. We also will assume that t is very long, and
that the probability for stimulated emission is 100 percent. The incoming stim
ulat
(stimulating) photon interacts with the first atom, causing stimulated ed e
mis
sion
emission of a coherent photon; these two photons then interact with the zon
e
next two atoms in line, and the result is four coherent photons, on down TIME
the line. At the end of the process, we will have eleven coherent photons,
all with identical phases and all traveling in the same direction. In other
excited decayed via decayed via
words, the initial photon has been “amplified” by a factor of eleven. Note
spontaneous emission stimulated emission
that the energy to put these atoms in excited states is provided externally
by some energy source which is usually referred to as the “pump” source.
Figure 10.3 Amplification by stimulated emission


Of course, in any real population of atoms, the probability for stimu-

lated emission is quite small. Furthermore, not all of the atoms are usually pumping process
in an excited state; in fact, the opposite is true. Boltzmann’s principle, a
fundamental law of thermodynamics, states that, when a collection of
atoms is at thermal equilibrium, the relative population of any two energy E4
levels is given by
quantum energy levels

N2 ⎛ E − E1 ⎞
= exp ⎜ − 2
}
⎟ (10.5) E3
N1 ⎝ kT ⎠
laser
action population
where N2 and N1 are the populations of the upper and lower inversion
energy states, respectively, T is the equilibrium temperature, and k is E2
Boltzmann’s constant. Substituting hn for E24E1 yields
DN ≡ N1 − N 2 = (1 − e − hv / kT ) N1. (10.6)
For a normal population of atoms, there will always be more atoms in ground
the lower energy levels than in the upper ones. Since the probability for energy level
E1
an individual atom to absorb a photon is the same as the probability for
an excited atom to emit a photon via stimulated emission, the collection

of real atoms will be a net absorber, not a net emitter, and amplification
level populations
will not be possible. Consequently, to make a laser, we have to create a
“population inversion.” Figure 10.4 A four-level laser pumping system
POPULATION INVERSION
Atomic energy states are much more complex than indicated by the
description above. There are many more energy levels, and each one has
its own time constants for decay. The four-level energy diagram shown
in figure 10.4 is representative of some real lasers. excitation
The electron is pumped (excited) into an upper level E4 by some mechanism mechanism
(for example, a collision with another atom or absorption of high-energy

radiation). It then decays to E3, then to E2, and finally to the ground
state E1. Let us assume that the time it takes to decay from E2 to E1 is partial high
lasing medium
much longer than the time it takes to decay from E2 to E1. In a large reflector reflector
population of such atoms, at equilibrium and with a continuous pumping
process, a population inversion will occur between the E3 and E2 energy resonator support structure
states, and a photon entering the population will be amplified coherently.
THE RESONATOR
Although with a population inversion we have the ability to amplify a Figure 10.5 Schematic diagram of a basic laser
signal via stimulated emission, the overall single-pass gain is quite small,
and most of the excited atoms in the population emit spontaneously and
do not contribute to the overall output. To turn this system into a laser, Now consider the laser system shown in figure 10.5. The lasing medium
we need a positive feedback mechanism that will cause the majority of is pumped continuously to create a population inversion at the lasing
the atoms in the population to contribute to the coherent output. This is the wavelength. As the excited atoms start to decay, they emit photons spon-
resonator, a system of mirrors that reflects undesirable (off-axis) photons out taneously in all directions. Some of the photons travel along the axis of
of the system and reflects the desirable (on-axis) photons back into the the lasing medium, but most of the photons are directed out the sides. The
excited population where they can continue to be amplified. photons traveling along the axis have an opportunity to stimulate atoms


they encounter to emit photons, but the ones radiating out the sides do Finally, to get the light out of the system, one of the mirrors has a partially
not. Furthermore, the photons traveling parallel to the axis will be reflected transmitting coating that couples out a small percentage of the circulating
back into the lasing medium and given the opportunity to stimulate more photons. The amount of coupling depends on the characteristics of the
excited atoms. As the on-axis photons are reflected back and forth laser system and varies from a fraction of a percent for helium neon lasers
interacting with more and more atoms, spontaneous emission decreases, to 50 percent or more for high-power lasers.
stimulated emission along the axis predominates, and we have a laser.
Practical Optical Coatings the availability of “super-polished” mirror substrates has led
to significant gains in laser performance. Likewise, ion-beam
sputtering and next-generation ion-assisted ion deposition
In the design of a real-world laser, the optical resonator is often has increased the packing density of laser coatings, thereby
the most critical component, and, particularly for low-gain reducing absorption, increasing damage thresholds, and
lasers, the most critical components of the resonator are the enabling the use of new and exotic coating materials.
mirrors themselves. The difference between a perfect mirror
coating (the optimum transmission and reflection with no scat-
ter or absorption losses) and a real-world coating, capable of

being produced in volume, can mean a 50-percent (or greater)
drop in output power from the theoretical maximum. Consider
the 543-nm green helium neon laser line. It was first observed
in the laboratory in 1970, but, owing to its extremely low gain,
the mirror fabrication and coating technology of the day was
incapable of producing a sufficiently loss-free mirror that was
also durable. Not until the late 1990s had the mirror coating
technology improved sufficiently that these lasers could be
offered commercially in large volumes.
The critical factors for a mirror, other than transmission and

reflection, are scatter, absorption, stress, surface figure, and
damage resistance. Coatings with low damage thresholds can
degrade over time and cause output power to drop significantly.
Coatings with too much mechanical stress not only can cause
significant power loss, but can also induce stress birefringence,
which can result in altered polarization and phase relationships.
The optical designer must take great care when selecting the
materials for the coating layers and the substrate to ensure that
the mechanical, optical, and environmental characteristics are
suitable for the application.
The equipment used for both substrate polishing and optical

coating is a critical factor in the end result. Coating scatter is a
major contributor to power loss. Scatter arises primarily from
imperfections and inclusions in the coating, but also from
minute imperfections in the substrate. Over the last few years,


Propagation Characteristics
m
of Laser Beams
BEAM WAIST AND DIVERGENCE This value is the far-field angular radius (half-angle divergence) of the
Diffraction causes light waves to spread transversely as they propagate, Gaussian TEM00 beam. The vertex of the cone lies at the center of the waist
and it is therefore impossible to have a perfectly collimated beam. The (see figure 10.6).
spreading of a laser beam is in accord with the predictions of diffraction It is important to note that, for a given value of l, variations of beam
theory. Under ordinary circumstances, the beam spreading can be so small diameter and divergence with distance z are functions of a single para-
it can go unnoticed. The following formulas accurately describe beam spread- meter, w0, the beam waist radius.
ing, making it easy to see the capabilities and limitations of laser beams. The
notation is consistent with much of the laser literature, particularly with
Siegman’s excellent Lasers (University Science Books). NEAR-FIELD VS. FAR-FIELD DIVERGENCE
Even if a Gaussian TEM00 laser-beam wavefront were made perfectly flat at Unlike conventional light beams, Gaussian beams do not diverge linearly,
some plane, with all rays there moving in precisely parallel directions, it as can be seen in figure 10.6. Near the laser, the divergence angle is
would acquire curvature and begin spreading in accordance with extremely small; far from the laser, the divergence angle approaches the
asymptotic limit described in equation 10.11 above. The Raleigh range (zR),
⎡ ⎛ pw2 ⎞ 2
⎤ defined
R ( z ) = z ⎢1 + ⎜ 0 ⎟ ⎥ _ as the distance over which the beam radius spreads by a factor
⎢ ⎝ lz ⎠ ⎥ (10.7) of √ 2, is given by
⎣ ⎦
and pw02
zR = (10.12)
2 ⎤ 1/ 2
l
⎡ ⎛ lz ⎞
(10.8)
w ( z ) = w0 ⎢1 + ⎜ ⎥
⎢ ⎝ p w02 ⎟⎠ ⎥ The Raleigh range is the dividing line between near-field divergence and
⎣ ⎦ mid-range divergence. Far-field divergence (the number quoted in laser
where z is the distance propagated from the plane where the wavefront specifications) must be measured at a point >zR (usually 10zR will suffice).
is flat, l is the wavelength of light, w0 is the radius of the 1/e2 irradiance This is a very important distinction because calculations for spot size and
contour at the plane where the wavefront is flat, w(z) is the radius of other parameters in an optical train will be inaccurate if near- or mid-field
the 1/e2 contour after the wave has propagated a distance z, and R(z) divergence values are used. For a tightly focused beam, the distance from
is the wavefront radius of curvature after propagating a distance z. R(z) the waist (the focal point) to the far field can be a few millimeters or less.
is infinite at z = 0, passes through a minimum at some finite z, and rises For beams coming directly from the laser, the far-field distance can be
again toward infinity as z is further increased, asymptotically approaching measured in meters.
the value of z itself.
The plane z = 0 marks the location of a beam waist, or a place where the
wavefront is flat, and w0 is called the beam waist radius.
1
The irradiance distribution of the Gaussian TEM00 beam, namely, w e2
irradiance surface
ne
w0 ic co
2P −2r 2 / w 2 ptot
I ( r ) = I 0e −2 r 2 / w 2
= e , (10.9) asym
pw 2 w0 v
z
where w = w(z) and P is the total power in the beam, is the same at all w0
cross sections of the beam. The invariance of the form of the distribution
is a special consequence of the presumed Gaussian distribution at z = 0.
Simultaneously, as R(z) asymptotically approaches z for large z, w(z) Figure 10.6 Growth in beam diameter as a function of
asymptotically approaches the value distance from the beam waist
lz
w (z) = (10.10)
p w0 LOCATING THE BEAM WAIST
For a Gaussian laser beam, the location (and radius) of the beam waist is
where z is presumed to be much larger than pw02/l so that the 1/e2
determined uniquely by the radius of curvature and optical spacing of the
irradiance contours asymptotically approach a cone of angular radius
laser cavity mirrors because, at the reflecting surfaces of the cavity mirrors,
w (z) l the radius of curvature of the propagating beam is exactly the same as
v= = . (10.11)
z p w0 that of the mirrors. Consequently, for the flat/curved cavity shown in figure
10.7 (a), the beam waist is located at the surface of the flat mirror. For a


symmetric cavity (b), the beam waist is halfway between the mirrors; for In any case but that of a flat output mirror, the beam waist is refracted
non-symmetric cavities (c and d), the beam waist is located by using the as it passes through the mirror substrate. If the output coupler’s second
equation surface is flat, the effective waist of the refracted beam is moved toward
L (R2 − L ) the output coupler and is reduced in diameter. However, by applying a
z1 = spherical correction to the second surface of the output coupler, the
R1 + R2 − 2L
(10.13) location of the beam waist can be moved to the output coupler itself,
and increasing the beam waist diameter and reducing far-field divergence. (See
z1 + z2 = L Calculating a Correcting Surface.)
where L is the effective mirror spacing, R1 and R2 are the radii of curvature It is useful, particularly when designing laser cavities, to understand the
of the cavity mirrors, and z1 and z2 are the distances from the beam waist effect that mirror spacing has on the beam radius, both at the waist and
of mirrors 1 and 2, respectively. (Note that distances are measured from at the curved mirror. Figure 10.8 plots equations 10.7 and 10.8 as a
the beam waist, and that, by convention, mirror curvatures that are con- function of R/z (curved mirror radius divided by the mirror spacing). As the
cave when viewed from the waist are considered positive, while those that mirror spacing approaches the radius of curvature of the mirror (R/z = 1),
are convex are considered negative.) the beam waist decreases dramatically, and the beam radius at the
curved mirror becomes very large. On the other hand, as R/z becomes
large, the beam radius at the waist and at the curved mirror are approxi-
mately the same.
250

R2 = ∞ R1 = 300
CALCULATING A CORRECTING SURFACE
A laser beam is refracted as it passes through a curved output mirror. If
a.
w0 = 0.15 the mirror has a flat second surface, the waist of the refracted beam
w300 = 0.37 moves closer to the mirror, and the divergence is increased. To counteract
this, laser manufacturers often put a radius on the output coupler’s second
125 surface to collimate the beam by making a waist at the output coupler.
R2 = 300 R1 = 300
b.
w0 = 0.17
w300 = 0.23
219 12
R2 = 600 R1 = 300
10
c.
w0 = 0.16
8
w300 = 0.31 curved mirror (wz)
w600 = 0.17 pw
lz 6
291 4
R2 = -100 flat mirror (w0)
R1 = 300 2
d.
w0 = 0.10 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
w-100 = 0.16
w600 = 0.59 Radius of Curved Mirror/Mirror Spacing (R/z)
dimensions in mm
Figure 10.7 Location of beam waist for common cavity Figure 10.8 Beam waist and output diameter as a
geometries function of mirror radius and separation


This is illustrated by the case of a typical helium neon laser cavity consist- It is important to note that this product is an invariant for transmission of a
ing of a flat high reflector and an output mirror with a radius of curvature beam through any normal, high-quality optical system (one that does not
of 20 cm separated by 15 cm. If the laser is operating at 633 nm, the beam add aberrations to the beam wavefront). That is, if a lens focuses the single
waist radius, beam radius at the output coupler, and beam half-angle mode beam to a smaller waist radius, the convergence angle coming into
divergence are the focus (and the divergence angle emerging from it) will be larger than that
of the unfocused beam in the same ratio that the focal spot diameter is
smaller: the product is invariant.
w0 = 0.13 mm, w200 = 0.26 mm, and v = 1.5 mrad,
For a real laser beam, we have
respectively; however, with a flat second surface, the divergence nearly W0V = M 2l / p (10.16)
doubles to 2.8 mrad. Geometrical optics would give the focal length of the
lens formed by the correcting output coupler as 15 cm; a rigorous calcu- where W0 and V are the 1/e2 intensity waist radius and the far-field
lation using Gaussian beam optics shows it should be 15.1 cm. Using the half-divergence angle of the real laser beam, respectively. Here we
lens-makers formula have introduced the convention that upper case symbols are used for
the mixed mode and lower case symbols for the fundamental mode beam
1 ⎛ 1 1⎞
= ( n − 1) ⎜ − ⎟ (10.14) coming from the same resonator. The mixed-mode beam radius W is M
f ⎝ R1 R2 ⎠ times larger than the fundamental mode radius at all propagation distances.
Thus the waist radius is that much larger, contributing the first factor of
with the appropriate sign convention and assuming that n = 1.5, we get a
M in equation 10.16. The second factor of M comes from the half-angle
convex correcting curvature of approximately 5.5 cm. At this point, the
divergence, which is also M times larger. The waist radius–divergence

beam waist has been transferred to the output coupler, with a radius of
half-angle product for the mixed mode beam also is an invariant, but is
0.26 mm, and the far-field half-angle divergence is reduced to 0.76 mrad,
M2 larger. The fundamental mode beam has the smallest divergence
a factor of nearly 4.
allowed by diffraction for a beam of that waist radius. The factor M2 is called
Correcting surfaces are used primarily on output couplers whose radius the “times-diffraction-limit” number or (inverse) beam quality; a diffrac-
of curvature is a meter or less. For longer radius output couplers, the tion-limited beam has an M2 of unity.
refraction effects are less dramatic, and a correcting second surface radius
For a typical helium neon laser operating in TEM00 mode, M2 < 1.05. Ion
is unnecessary.
lasers typically have an M2 factor ranging from 1.1 to 1.7. For high-energy
multimode lasers, the M2 factor can be as high as 30 or 40. The M2 factor
HIGHER ORDER GAUSSIAN LASER BEAMS describes the propagation characteristics (spreading rate) of the laser
In the real world, the truly 100-percent, single transverse mode, Gaussian beam. It cannot be neglected in the design of an optical train to be used
laser beam (also called a pure or fundamental mode beam) described by with the beam. Truncation (aperturing) by an optic, in general, increases
equations 10.7 and 10.8 is very hard to find. Low-power beams from the M2 factor of the beam.
helium neon lasers can be a close approximation, but the higher the power The propagation equations (analogous to equations 10.7 and 36.8) for
of the laser, and the more complex the excitation mechanism (e.g., trans- the mixed-mode beam W(z) and R(z) are as follows:
verse discharges, flash-lamp pumping), or the higher the order of the
mode, the more the beam deviates from the ideal. 1/ 2
⎡ ⎛ zM 2l ⎞ 2 ⎤ ⎡ ⎛ z ⎞ 2⎤
To address the issue of higher order Gaussian beams and mixed mode W ( z ) = W0 ⎢1 + ⎜ ⎥ = W0 ⎢1 + ⎜ ⎥ (10.17)
beams, a beam quality factor, M2, has come into general use. A mixed mode ⎢ ⎝ pW02 ⎟⎠ ⎥ ⎢⎣ ⎝ ZR ⎠⎟ ⎥⎦
⎣ ⎦
is one where several modes are oscillating in the resonator at the same and
time. A common example is the mixture of the lowest order single transverse ⎡ ⎛ pW 2 ⎞ 2 ⎤ ⎡ ⎛ ZR ⎞ 2 ⎤
mode with the doughnut mode, before the intracavity mode limiting R ( z ) = z ⎢1 + ⎜ 0
⎟ ⎥ = z ⎢1 + ⎜ ⎟ ⎥. (10.18)
aperture is critically set to select just the fundamental mode. Because all beams ⎢⎣ ⎝ zM 2l ⎠ ⎥⎦ ⎢⎣ ⎝ z ⎠ ⎥⎦
have some wavefront defects, which implies they contain at least a small
admixture of some higher order modes, a mixed mode beam is also called The Rayleigh range remains the same for a mixed mode laser beam:
a “real” laser beam.
pW02 pw02
For a theoretical single transverse mode Gaussian beam, the value of the waist ZR = = = zR . (10.19)
M 2l l
radius–divergence product is (from equation 10.11):
w0v = l / p. (10.15)


Now consider the consequences in coupling a high M2 beam into a fiber.

Fiber coupling is a task controlled by the product of the focal diameter (2Wf) APPLICATION NOTE
and the focal convergence angle (vf). In the tight focusing limit, the focal
Stable vs Unstable Resonator Cavities
diameter is proportional to the focal length f of the lens, and is inversely
proportional to the diameter of the beam at the lens (i.e., 2Wf ∝ f/Dlens). A stable resonator cavity is defined as one that self-focuses
energy within the cavity back upon itself to create the typical
The lens-to-focus distance is f, and, since f#vf is the beam diameter
Gaussian modes found in most traditional lasers. The
at distance f in the far field of the focus, Dlens ∝ fvf. Combining these
criterion for a stable cavity is that
proportionalities yields
0 ≤ g1g2 ≤ 1
Wf vf = constant where
L L
for the fiber-coupling problem as stated above. The diameter-divergence g1 = 1 − and g2 = 1 −
R1 R2
product for the mixed-mode beam is M2 larger than the fundamental mode
beam in accordance with equations 10.15 and 10.16.
where R1 and R2 are the radii of the cavity mirrors and L is
There is a threefold penalty associated with coupling a beam with a high the mirror separation.
M2 into a fiber: 1) the focal length of the focusing lens must be a factor
The mode volumes of stable resonator cavities
of 1/M2 shorter than that used with a fundamental-mode beam to obtain
are relatively small. This is fine when the excitation regions
the same focal diameter at the fiber; 2) the numerical aperture (NA) of
of a laser are also relatively small, as is the case with a HeNe

the focused beam will be higher than that of the fundamental beam
or DPSS laser. However, for large-format high-energy
(again by a factor of 1/M2) and may exceed the NA of the fiber; and 3)
industrial lasers, particularly those with high single-pass
the depth of focus will be smaller by 1/M2 requiring a higher degree of
gain, stable resonators can limit the output. In these cases,
precision and stability in the optical alignment.
unstable resonators, like the one shown in the illustration
below, can generate higher output with better mode quality.
In this case, the output coupling is determined by the ratio of
the diameters of the output and high-reflecting mirrors, not
the coating reflectivity. In the near field, the output looks
like a doughnut, because the center of the beam is occluded
by the output mirror. At a focus, however, the beam has
most of the propagation characteristics of a
fundamental-mode stable laser.
lasing medium
UNSTABLE RESONATOR
Unstable Resonator Design


Transverse Modes and

Mode Control
The fundamental TEM00 mode is only one of many transverse modes that
satisfies the condition that it be replicated each round-trip in the cavity.
Figure 10.9 shows examples of the primary lower-order Hermite-Gaussian
(rectangular) modes.
Note that the subscripts m and n in the mode designation TEMmn are
correlated to the number of nodes in the x and y directions. The prop-
agation equation can also be written in cylindrical form in terms of
radius (r) and angle (f). The eigenmodes (Erf) for this equation are a
series of axially symmetric modes, which, for stable resonators, are TEM00 TEM01* TEM10
closely approximated by Laguerre-Gaussian functions, denoted by TEMrf.
Figure 10.10 Low-order axisymmetric resonator modes
For the lowest-order mode, TEM00, the Hermite-Gaussian and Laguerre-
Gaussian functions are identical, but for higher-order modes, they differ
spot, it is usually desirable to operate in the lowest-order mode possible,
significantly, as shown in figure 10.10.
TEM00. Lasers, however, tend to operate at the highest-order mode pos-
The mode, TEM01*, also known as the “bagel” or “doughnut” mode, is sible, either in addition to, or instead of, TEM00 because the larger beam
considered to be a superposition of the Hermite-Gaussian TEM10 and diameter may allow them to extract more energy from the lasing medium.
TEM01 modes, locked in phase and space quadrature. (See W.W. Rigrod,
The primary method for reducing the order of the lasing mode is to add
“Isolation of Axi-Symmetric Optical-Resonator Modes,” Applied Physics
sufficient loss to the higher-order modes so that they cannot oscillate with-
Letters, Vol. 2 (1 Feb. ‘63), pages 51–53.)
out significantly increasing the losses at the desired lower-order mode. In
In real-world lasers, the Hermite-Gaussian modes predominate since strain, most lasers this is accomplished by placing a fixed or variable aperture inside
slight misalignment, or contamination on the optics tends to drive the sys- the laser cavity. Because of the significant differences in beam diameter,
tem toward rectangular coordinates. Nonetheless, the Laguerre-Gaussian the aperture can cause significant diffraction losses for the higher-order
TEM10 “target” or “bulls-eye” mode is clearly observed in well-aligned modes without impacting the lower-order modes. As an example, consider
gas-ion and helium neon lasers with the appropriate limiting apertures. the case of a typical argon-ion laser with a long-radius cavity and a variable
mode-selecting aperture.
MODE CONTROL When the aperture is fully open, the laser oscillates in the axially symmetric
The transverse modes for a given stable resonator have different beam TEM10 target mode. As the aperture is slowly reduced, the output changes
diameters and divergences. The lower the order of the mode is, the smaller smoothly to the TEM01* doughnut mode, and finally to the TEM00 fun-
the beam diameter, the narrower the far-field divergence, and the lower damental mode.
the M2 value. For example, the TEM01* doughnut mode is approximately In many lasers, the limiting aperture is provided by the geometry of the
1.5 times the diameter of the fundamental TEM00 mode, and the Laguerre laser itself. For example, by designing the cavity of a helium neon laser so
TEM10 target mode is twice the diameter of the TEM00 mode. The theo- that the diameter of the fundamental mode at the end of the laser bore
retical M2 values for the TEM00, TEM01*, and TEM10 modes are 1.0, 2.3, is approximately 60 percent of the bore diameter, the laser will naturally
and 3.6, respectively (R. J. Freiberg et al., “Properties of Low Order operate in the TEM00 mode.
Transverse Modes in Argon Ion Lasers”). Because of its smooth intensity
profile, low divergence, and ability to be focused to a diffraction-limited
TEM00 TEM01 TEM10 TEM11 TEM02
Figure 10.9 Low-order Hermite-Gaussian resonator modes


Single Axial Longitudinal

Mode Operation
THEORY OF LONGITUDINAL MODES This has a significant impact on the performance of a laser system because,
In a laser cavity, the requirement that the field exactly reproduce itself in as vibration and temperature changes cause small changes in the cavity
relative amplitude and phase each round-trip means that the only allow- length, modes sweep back and forth through the gain. A laser operating
able laser wavelengths or frequencies are given by with only two or three longitudinal modes can experience power fluctu-
ations of 10% or more, whereas a laser with ten or more longitudinal
P Nc modes will see mode-sweeping fluctuations of 2 percent or less.
l= or n = (10.20)
N P
where l is the laser wavelength, n is the laser frequency, c is the speed of SELECTING A SINGLE LONGITUDINAL MODE
light in a vacuum, N is an integer whose value is determined by the lasing A laser that operates with a single longitudinal mode is called a single-
wavelength, and P is the effective perimeter optical path length of the beam frequency laser. There are two ways to force a conventional two-mirror
as it makes one round-trip, taking into account the effects of the index of laser to operate with a single longitudinal mode. The first is to design the
refraction. For a conventional two-mirror cavity in which the mirrors are laser with a short enough cavity that only a single mode can be sustained.
separated by optical length L, these formulas revert to the familiar For example, in the helium neon laser described above, a 10-cm cavity
would allow only one mode to oscillate. This is not a practical approach
2L Nc for most gas lasers because, with the cavity short enough to suppress
l= or n = . (10.21)
N 2L additional modes, there may be insufficient energy in the lasing medium
to sustain any lasing action at all, and if there is lasing, the output will
These allowable frequencies are referred to as longitudinal modes. The
be very low.
frequency spacing between adjacent longitudinal modes is given by

The second method is to introduce a frequency-control element, typically
c a low-finesse Fabry-Perot etalon, into the laser cavity. The free spectral range
Dn = . (10.22)
P of the etalon should be several times the width of the gain curve, and the
reflectivity of the surfaces should be sufficient to provide 10 percent or
As can be seen from equation 10.22, the shorter the laser cavity is, the
greater loss at frequencies half a longitudinal mode spacing away from the
greater the mode spacing will be. By differentiating the expression for
etalon peak. The etalon is mounted at a slight angle to the optical axis of
n with respect to P we arrive at
the laser to prevent parasitic oscillations between the etalon surfaces and
Nc Nc the laser cavity.
dn = − 2
dP or dn = − 2 dL. (10.23)
P 2L Once the mode is selected, the challenge is to optimize and maintain its
output power. Since the laser mode moves if the cavity length changes
Consequently, for a helium neon laser operating at 632.8 nm, with a cavity
slightly, and the etalon pass band shifts if the etalon spacing varies slightly,
length of 25 cm, the mode spacing is approximately 600 MHz, and a
it important that both be stabilized. Various mechanisms are used. Etalons
100-nm change in cavity length will cause a given longitudinal mode
can be passively stabilized by using zero-expansion spacers and thermally
to shift by approximately 190 MHz.
stabilized designs, or they can be thermally stabilized by placing the etalon
The number of longitudinal laser modes that are present in a laser depends in a precisely controlled oven. Likewise, the overall laser cavity can be
primarily on two factors: the length of the laser cavity and the width of passively stabilized, or, alternatively, the laser cavity can be actively stabi-
the gain envelope of the lasing medium. For example, the gain of the lized by providing a servomechanism to control cavity length, as discussed
red helium neon laser is centered at 632.8 nm and has a full width at in Frequency Stabilization.
half maximum (FWHM) of approximately 1.4 GHz, meaning that, with
The Ring Laser: The discussions above are limited to two-mirror
a 25-cm laser cavity, only two or three longitudinal modes can be present
standing-wave cavities. Some lasers operate naturally in a single longi-
simultaneously, and a change in cavity length of less than one micron will
tudinal mode. For example, a ring laser cavity, (used in many dye and
cause a given mode to “sweep” completely through the gain. Doubling
Ti:Sapphire lasers as well as in gyroscopic lasers) that has been constrained
the cavity length doubles the number of oscillating longitudinal modes that
to oscillate in only one direction produces a traveling wave without the
can fit under the gain curve doubles.
fixed nodes of the standing-wave laser. The traveling wave sweeps through
The gain of a gas-ion laser (e.g., argon or krypton) is approximately the laser gain, utilizing all of the available energy and preventing the
five times broader than that of a helium neon laser, and the cavity spac- buildup of adjacent modes. Other lasers are “homogeneously broadened”
ing is typically much greater, allowing many more modes to oscillate allowing virtually instantaneous transfer of energy from one portion of
simultaneously. the gain curve to another.
A mode oscillating at a frequency near the peak of the gain will extract
more energy from the gain medium than one oscillating at the fringes.


FREQUENCY STABILIZATION If the laser frequency decreases, the ratio decreases. In other words, the
The frequency output of a single-longitudinal-mode laser is stabilized by etalon is used to create a frequency discriminant that converts changes
precisely controlling the laser cavity length. This can be accomplished in frequency to changes in power. By “locking” the discriminant ratio at
passively by building an athermalized resonator structure and carefully a specific value (e.g., 50 percent) and providing negative feedback to the
controlling the laser environment to eliminate expansion, contraction, and device used to control cavity length, output frequency can be controlled.
vibration, or actively by using a mechanism to determine the frequency If the frequency increases from the preset value, the length of the laser
(either relatively or absolutely) and quickly adjusting the laser cavity cavity is increased to drive the frequency back to the set point. If the
length to maintain the frequency within the desired parameters. frequency decreases, the cavity length is decreased. The response time
of the control electronics is determined by the characteristics of the laser
A typical stabilization scheme is shown in figure 10.11. A portion of the system being stabilized.
laser output beam is directed into a low-finesse Fabry-Perot etalon and
tuned to the side of the transmission band. The throughput is compared Other techniques can be used to provide a discriminant. One common
to a reference beam, as shown in the figure. If the laser frequency method used to provide an ultrastable, long-term reference is to replace
increases, the ratio of attenuated power to reference power increases. the etalon with an absorption cell and stabilize the system to the saturated
center of an appropriate transition. Another method, shown in figure
10.12, is used with commercial helium neon lasers. It takes advantage of
the fact that, for an internal mirror tube, the adjacent modes are orthog-
reference onally polarized. The cavity length is designed so that two modes can
detector
oscillate under the gain curve. The two modes are separated outside the
laser by a polarization-sensitive beamsplitter. Stabilizing the relative
signal amplitude of the two beams stabilizes the frequency of both beams.
detector etalon
The cavity length changes needed to stabilize the laser cavity are very small.
In principle, the maximum adjustment needed is that required to sweep the
frequency through one free spectral range of the laser cavity (the cavity
pick-off mode spacing). For the helium neon laser cavity described earlier, the required
beamsplitter change is only 320 nm, well within the capability of piezoelectric actuators.
length-tunable laser Commercially available systems can stabilize frequency output to 1 MHz
cavity
length
or less. Laboratory systems that stabilize the frequency to a few kilohertz
control have been developed.
Figure 10.11 Laser frequency stabilization scheme
comparator
control
electronics
horizontal vertical
polarization polarization
reference reference
beam beam
high reflecting
mirror HeNe laser discharge tube
adjustable cavity spacer output coupler
Figure 10.12 Frequency stabilization for a helium neon laser


Frequency and Amplitude

Fluctuations
The output of a freely oscillating laser will fluctuate in both amplitude and
frequency. Fluctuations of less than 0.1 Hz are commonly referred to as
“drift”; faster fluctuations are termed “noise” or, when talking about laser output
sudden frequency shifts, “jitter.” laser
The major sources of noise in a laser are fluctuations in the pumping

source and changes in length or alignment caused by vibration, stress,
and changes in temperature. For example, unfiltered line ripple can cause
output fluctuations of 5 to 10 percent or more. feedback circuit
Likewise, a 10-mrad change in alignment can cause a 10-percent variation
in output power, and, depending upon the laser, a 1-mm change in length power circuit
can cause amplitude fluctuations of up to 50 percent (or more) and fre-
quency fluctuations of several gigahertz. power supply/controller
High-frequency noise (>1 MHz) is caused primarily by “mode beating.”
Transverse Laguerre-Gaussian modes of adjacent order are separated by a
calculable fraction of the longitudinal mode spacing, typically ~17 MHz in Figure 10.13 Automatic current control schematic
a 1-m resonator with long radius mirrors. If multiple transverse modes oscil-
late simultaneously, heterodyne interference effects, or “beats,” will be
observed at the difference frequencies. Likewise, mode beating can occur detector circuitry is compared to a reference. As output power fluctuates,

between longitudinal modes at frequencies of the sensing circuitry generates an error signal that is used to make the
appropriate corrections to maintain constant output.
c c
Dn longitudinal = = . (10.24)
2L 2P Automatic current control effectively reduces amplitude fluctuations caused
by the driving electronics, but it has no effect on amplitude fluctuations
Mode beating can cause peak-to-peak power fluctuations of several percent. caused by vibration or misalignment. Automatic power control can effec-
The only way to eliminate this noise component is to limit the laser output tively reduce power fluctuations from all sources. Neither of these control
to a single transverse and single longitudinal mode. mechanisms has a large impact on frequency stability.
Finally, when all other sources of noise have been eliminated, we are left Not all continuous-wave lasers are amenable to APC as described above.
with quantum noise, the noise generated by the spontaneous emission of For the technique to be effective, there must be a monotonic relationship
photons from the upper laser level in the lasing medium. In most applica- between output power and a controllable parameter (typically current or
tions, this is inconsequential. voltage). For example, throughout the typical operating range of a gas-
ion laser, an increase in current will increase the output power and vice
versa. This is not the case for some lasers. The output of a helium neon
METHODS FOR SUPPRESSING
laser is very insensitive to discharge current, and an increase in current may
AMPLITUDE NOISE AND DRIFT
increase or decrease laser output. In a helium cadmium laser, where elec-
Two primary methods are used to stabilize amplitude fluctuations in com- trophoresis determines the density and uniformity of cadmium ions through-
mercial lasers: automatic current control (ACC), also known as current out the discharge, a slight change in discharge current in either direction
regulation, and automatic power control (APC), also known as light reg- can effectively kill lasing action.
ulation. In ACC, the current driving the pumping process passes through
a stable sensing resistor, as shown in figure 10.13, and the voltage across If traditional means of APC are not suitable, the same result can be obtained
this resistor is monitored. If the current through the resistor increases, the by placing an acousto-optic modulator inside the laser cavity and using
voltage drop across the resistor increases proportionately. Sensing circuitry the error signal to control the amount of circulating power ejected from
compares this voltage to a reference and generates an error signal that the cavity.
causes the power supply to reduce the output current appropriately. If the One consideration that is often overlooked in an APC system is the
current decreases, the inverse process occurs. ACC is an effective way to geometry of the light pickoff mechanism itself. One’s first instinct is
reduce noise generated by the power supply, including line ripple and to insert the pickoff optic into the main beam at a 45-degree angle,
fluctuations. so that the reference beam exits at a 90-degree angle. However, as
With APC, instead of monitoring the voltage across a sensing resistor, shown in figure 10.15, for uncoated glass, there is almost a 10-percent
a small portion of the output power in the beam is diverted to a pho- difference in reflectivity for s and p polarization.
todetector, as shown in figure 10.14, and the voltage generated by the


APPLICATION NOTE
laser head Measuring Frequency Stability

laser output
laser The accepted method of measuring long-term frequency
beam sampler stability is to heterodyne the laser to be tested with another
amplifier
photodetector laser of equal or greater stability. By observing the variation
of the resulting beat frequencies, the combined drift of the
two lasers can be measured. The results will be no better
feedback circuit than the sum of the two instabilities and will, therefore,
provide a conservative measure of frequency drift.
power supply/controller
In the charts below, a frequency-stabilized HeNe was
hetrodyned with the output from a Zeeman-stabilized laser.
The charts show the performance over one minute and over
an eight-hour typical workday. The laser can be cycled over a
Figure 10.14 Automatic power control schematic 20°C temperature range without mode hopping.
In a randomly polarized laser, the ratio of the s and p components is not

INTENSITY FREQUENCY
+1
necessarily stable, and using a 90-degree reference beam can actually
(MHz)
0
increase amplitude fluctuations. This is of much less concern in a laser with -1
a high degree of linear polarization (e.g., 500:1 or better), but even then 60 seconds
+0.2
there is a slight presence of the orthogonal polarization. Good practice
(%)
0
dictates that the pickoff element be inserted at an angle of 25 degrees -0.2
or less. TIME
+1
FREQUENCY
(MHz)
-1
8 hours
INTENSITY
+0.2
100
(%)
0
-0.2
90 TIME
80
Short- and long-term frequency stability of a
70 frequency stabilized helium neon laser
PERCENT REFLECTANCE
60
s-plane
50
p-plane
40
30
20
10 vp
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
ANGLE OF INCIDENCE IN DEGREES
Figure 10.15 Reflectivity of a glass surface vs. incidence

angle for s and p polarization


Tunable Operation
Many lasers can operate at more than one wavelength. Argon and krypton
lasers can operate at discrete wavelengths ranging from the ultraviolet to
the near infrared. Dye lasers can be continuously tuned over a spectrum of
wavelengths determined by the fluorescence bandwidths of the specific
dyes (typically about 150 nm). Alexandrite and titanium sapphire lasers can
be tuned continuously over specific spectral regions. output coupler
plasma tube
Littrow prism
To create a tunable laser, the cavity coatings must be sufficiently broadband
to accommodate the entire tuning range, and a variable-wavelength
tuning element must be introduced into the cavity, either between the
cavity optics or replacing the high-reflecting optic, to introduce loss at Figure 10.16 Littrow prism used to select a single
wavelength
undesired wavelengths.
Three tuning mechanisms are in general use: Littrow prisms, diffraction

gratings, and birefringent filters. Littrow prisms (see figure 10.16) and their
close relative, the full-dispersing prism, are used extensively with gas lasers
that operate at discrete wavelengths. In its simplest form, the Littrow prism
is a 30-60-90-degree prism with the surface opposite the 60-degree angle
coated with a broadband high-reflecting coating. The prism is oriented so
that the desired wavelength is reflected back along the optical axis, and

the other wavelengths are dispersed off axis. By rotating the prism the
retroreflected wavelength can be changed. In laser applications,
the prism replaces the high-reflecting mirror, and the prism’s angles are altered
(typically to 34, 56, and 90 degrees) to minimize intracavity losses by
having the beam enter the prism exactly at Brewster’s angle. For higher-power
lasers which require greater dispersion to separate closely spaced lines, the
Littrow prism can be replaced by a full-dispersing prism coupled with a high
reflecting mirror.
Gratings are used for laser systems that require a higher degree of
dispersion than that of a full-dispersing prism. Prism-tunable-ion laser
Birefringent filters have come into general use for continuously tunable dye
and Ti:Sapphire lasers, since they introduce significantly lower loss than do
gratings. The filter is made from a thin, crystalline-quartz plate with its fast
axis oriented in the plane of the plate. The filter, placed at Brewster’s angle
in the laser beam, acts like a weak etalon with a free spectral range wider
than the gain curve of the lasing medium. Rotating the filter around the
normal to its face shifts the transmission bands, tuning the laser. Since there
are no coatings and the filter is at Brewster’s angle (thereby polarizing
the laser), there are no inherent cavity reflection losses at the peak of the
transmission band. A single filter does not have as significant a line-
narrowing effect as does a grating, but this can be overcome by stacking
multiple filter plates together, with each successive plate having a smaller
free spectral range.


Types of Lasers
Since the discovery of the laser, literally thousands of types of lasers have and light enters and exits the chamber through Brewster’s windows or
been discovered. As Arthur Shawlow is purported to have said, “Hit it extremely low-loss antireflection-coated normal windows. Because most
hard enough and anything will lase.” However, only a relative few of these gas-discharge lasers are operated at extremely low pressures, a getter is
lasers have found broadly based, practical applications. needed to remove the impurities generated by outgassing in the walls
of the container or by erosion of the electrodes and bore caused by the
Lasers can be broadly classified into four categories: gas discharge lasers,
discharge. The Brewster’s window is used to linearly polarize the output
semiconductor diode lasers, optically pumped lasers, and “other,” a cat-
of the laser.
egory which includes chemical lasers, gas-dynamics lasers, x-ray lasers,
combustion lasers, and others developed primarily for military applications. The most common types of gas-discharge lasers are helium neon lasers,
These lasers are not discussed further here. helium cadmium lasers (a metal-vapor laser), noble-gas ion lasers (argon,
krypton), carbon-dioxide lasers, and the excimer-laser family. Each of these
will be discussed briefly below.
GAS-DISCHARGE LASERS
In principle, gas-discharge lasers are inherently simple—fill a container with Helium Neon Lasers
gas, put some mirrors around it, and strike a discharge. In practice, they The helium neon (HeNe) laser, shown in figure 10.17, the second laser to
are much more complex because the gas mix, discharge parameters, and be discovered, was the first to be used in volume applications. Today,
container configuration must be specifically and carefully designed to millions of these lasers are in the field, and only semiconductor diode
create the proper conditions for a population inversion. Furthermore, lasers are sold in greater quantity.
careful consideration must be given to how the discharge will react with The HeNe laser operates in a high-voltage (kV), low-current (mA) glow
its container and with the laser optics. Finally, since the temperature of discharge. Its most familiar output wavelength is 633 nm (red), but HeNe
the gas can affect the discharge conditions, questions of cooling must be lasers are also available with output at 543 nm (green), 594 nm (yellow),
addressed. 612 nm (orange), and 1523 nm (near infrared). Output power is low,
Figure 10.17 below shows a cutaway of a helium neon laser, one of the ranging from a few tenths to tens of milliwatts, depending on the wave-
simplest gas-discharge lasers. An electrical discharge is struck between length and size of the laser tube.
the anode and cathode. The laser bore confines the discharge, creating Helium is the major constituent (85 percent) of the gas mixture, but it is
the current densities needed to create the inversion. In this example, the the neon component that is the actual lasing medium. The glow discharge
laser mirrors are mounted to the ends of the tube and are effectively part pumps the helium atoms to an excited state that closely matches the
of the gas container. In other cases, the mirrors are external to the container, upper energy levels of the neon atoms. This energy is then transferred to
cathode connection through housing

precision mirror adjustment
metallic spider for bore centration
optional Brewster's window
for linear polarization
getter gas reservoir high-reflecting mirror
glass to metal seals bore current-regulated

power supply
collimating output mirror
output beam coaxial with short anode lead and potted ballast
cylindrical housing for low anode capacitance
Figure 10.17 Typical HeNe laser construction


the neon atoms via collisions of the second kind (i.e., exciting the neon to Noble-Gas Ion Lasers
a higher energy level as opposed to transferring the energy as kinetic motion). The noble-gas ion lasers (argon-ion and krypton-ion), have been the
One characteristic of the glow discharge is its negative impedance (i.e., mainstay of applications requiring high cw power in the visible, ultra-
increasing the voltage decreases the current); consequently, to function violet, and near-infrared spectral regions. High-power water-cooled
with a standard current-regulated power supply, a ballast resistor must be systems can be found in research laboratories around the world; lower-
used in series with the laser to make the overall impedance positive. power air-cooled systems are used in a wide variety of OEM applications.
Argon-ion lasers are available with output up to 7 W in the ultraviolet
The popularity (and longevity) of the HeNe laser is based on five factors:
(333–354 nm) and 25 W or more in the visible regions (454–515 nm), with
they are (relative to other lasers) small and compact; they have the best
primary output at 488 nm (blue) and 514 nm (green). Krypton-ion lasers
inherent beam quality of any laser, producing a virtually pure single trans-
have their primary output at 568 nm (yellow), 647 nm (red), and 752 nm
verse mode beam (M2 < 1.05); they are extremely long lived, with many
(near infrared). Mixed-gas lasers combine both argon and krypton to
examples of an operating life of 50,000 hours or more; they generate
produce lasers with a wider spectral coverage.
relatively little heat and are convection cooled easily in OEM packages;
and they have a relatively low acquisition and operating cost. Unlike the HeNe laser, ion lasers operate with a high-intensity low-pressure
arc discharge (low voltage, high current). A 20-W visible laser will require
Helium Cadmium Lasers
10 kW or more power input, virtually all of which is deposited in the laser
Helium cadmium (HeCd) lasers are, in many respects, similar to the HeNe
head as heat which must be removed from the system by some cooling
laser with the exception that cadmium metal, the lasing medium, is solid
mechanism. Furthermore, the current densities in the bore, which can be
at room temperature. The HeCd laser is a relatively economical, cw source
as high as 105A/cm2, place large stresses on the bore materials.
for violet (442 nm) and ultraviolet (325 nm) output. Because of its excel-

lent wavelength match to photopolymer and film sensitivity ranges, it is Ion lasers can be broken into two groups: high-power (1–20= W)
used extensively for three-dimensional stereolithography and holographic water-cooled lasers and low-power air-cooled lasers. Both are shown
applications. schematically in figure 10.19.
As mentioned above, cadmium, a metal, is solid at room temperature. For The main features of both lasers are the same. Both use a coiled, directly-
lasing to occur, the metal must be evaporated from a reservoir, as shown heated dispenser cathode to supply the current; both have a gas return path
in figure 10.18, and then the vapor must be distributed uniformly down that counteracts gas pumping (non-uniform gas pressure throughout the
the laser bore. This is accomplished through a process called electrophoresis. length of the tube caused by the charged particles moving toward the
Because cadmium will plate out on a cool surface, extreme care must be electrodes).
taken in the design of the laser to contain the cadmium and to protect the
optics and windows from contamination, since even a slight film will intro-
fins for air cooling
duce sufficient losses to stop lasing. The end of life usually occurs when solid BeO bore thermionic
cadmium is depleted from its reservoir. anode cathode
internal
mirrors
AIR-COOLED ION LASER
brewster window
external
cadmium reservoir cataphoretic anode
mirrors
heater
thermionic Brewster's
angle windows
cathode
bore external solenoid
disc bore structure (electromagnet)
anode
bore support cadmium
main anode thermionic
trap water-cooling path
helium pump cathode
HIGH-POWER WATER-COOLED ION LASER
Figure 10.18 Construction of a HeCd laser Figure 10.19 Air-cooled and water-cooled ion lasers


The bore of an air-cooled system is always made of beryllium oxide (BeO),

a ceramic known for its ability to conduct heat. A fin structure is attached
to the outside of the ceramic bore, and a blower removes the generated
heat, typically less than 1 kW. electrode
Water-cooled systems are available with either BeO bores or a construction laminar flow
discharge region
wherein tungsten discs are attached to a thin-walled ceramic tube sur-
rounded by a water jacket. The heat from the discs is conducted through electrode
the walls of the tube to the surrounding water. The entire bore structure
is surrounded by a solenoid electromagnet, which compresses the discharge
to increase current density and minimize bore erosion.
The main life-limiting factors in ion lasers are cathode depletion and gas
consumption. The intense discharge drives atoms into the walls of the
discharge tube where they are lost to the discharge. Over time the tube
pressure will decrease, causing the discharge to become unstable. This cooling coils
is particularly a problem with krypton-ion lasers. Water-cooled systems
typically have some refill mechanism to keep the pressure constant. Air- blower
cooled systems typically do not, limiting their practical operating life to
approximately 5000 operating hours.
Carbon Dioxide Lasers

Because of their ability to produce very high power with relative efficiency, Figure 10.20 Schematics of transverse flow CO2 laser
carbon dioxide (CO2) lasers are used primarily for materials-processing system
applications. The standard output of these lasers is at 10.6 mm, and
output power can range from less than 1 W to more than 10 kW.
Unlike atomic lasers, CO2 lasers work with molecular transitions (vibrational At first glance, the construction of an excimer laser is very similar to that
and rotational states) which lie at low enough energy levels that they can of a transverse-flow, pulsed CO2 laser. However, the major difference is that
be populated thermally, and an increase in the gas temperature, caused the gases in the system are extremely corrosive and great care must be taken
by the discharge, will cause a decrease in the inversion level, reducing in the selection and passivation of materials to minimize their corrosive
output power. To counter this effect, high-power cw CO2 lasers use flowing effects. A system built for CO2 would fail in minutes, if not seconds.
gas technology to remove hot gas from the discharge region and replace The principal advantage of an excimer laser is its very short wavelength.
it with cooled (or cooler) gas. With pulsed CO2 lasers that use transverse The excimer output beam can be focused to a spot diameter that is
excitation, the problem is even more severe, because, until the heated gas approximately 40 times smaller than the CO2 laser beam with the same
between the electrodes is cooled, a new discharge pulse cannot form beam quality. Furthermore, whereas the long CO2 wavelength removes
properly. material thermally via evaporation (boiling off material), the excimer
A variety of types of CO2 lasers are available. High-power pulsed and cw lasers with wavelengths near 200 nm remove material via ablation
lasers typically use a transverse gas flow with fans which move the gas (breaking molecules apart), without any thermal damage to the surrounding
through a laminar-flow discharge region, into a cooling region, and back material.
again (see figure 10.20). Low-power lasers most often use waveguide
structures, coupled with radio-frequency excitation, to produce small, SEMICONDUCTOR DIODE LASERS
compact systems.
The means of generating optical gain in a diode laser, the recombination
Excimer Lasers of injected holes and electrons (and consequent emission of photons)
The term excimer or “excited dimer” refers to a molecular complex of in a forward-biased semiconductor pn junction, represents the direct con-
two atoms which is stable (bound) only in an electronically excited state. version of electricity to light. This is a very efficient process, and practical
These lasers, which are available only as pulsed lasers, produce intense diode laser devices reach a 50-percent electrical-to-optical power con-
output in the ultraviolet and deep ultraviolet. The lasers in this family version rate, at least an order of magnitude larger than most other lasers.
are XeFl (351 nm), XeCl (308 nm), KrF (248 nm), KrCl (222 nm), ArF Over the past 20 years, the trend has been one of a gradual replacement
(193 nm), and F2 (157 nm). They are used extensively in photolithography, of other laser types by diode laser based–solutions, as the considerable
micromachining, and medical (refractive eye surgery) applications. challenges to engineering with diode lasers have been met. At the same


time the compactness and the low power consumption of diode lasers Gain guiding and index guiding in diode lasers
have enabled important new applications such as storing information in To confine the light laterally (between planes perpendicular to the junction
compact discs and DVDs, and the practical high-speed, broadband trans- plane), two main methods (with many variants) are used. The first and
mission of information over optical fibers, a central component of the simplest puts a narrow conductive stripe on the p-side of the device to limit
Internet. the injected current to a line, giving a gain-guided laser. There is some
spreading of current under the stripe, and the light is restricted only by
Construction of a double-heterostructure diode laser
absorption in the unpumped regions of the junction. The transverse mode
In addition to a means to create optical gain, a laser requires a feedback
of the laser light is therefore not tightly controlled. Many high-power
mechanism, a pair of mirrors to repeatedly circulate the light through the
diode lasers, used for instance in side-pumping another solid-state laser
gain medium to build up the resulting beam by stimulated emission.
(where mode control is less critical), are gain guided.
The stripe structures needed to make a laser diode chip are formed on
a single crystal wafer using the standard photolithographic patterning
techniques of the semiconductor industry. The substrate crystal axes are
first oriented relative to the patterning such that, after fabrication, a top
contact 0.25
natural cleavage plane is normal to the stripe direction, and cleaving both typical
(1)
ends of the chip provides a pair of plane, aligned crystal surfaces that p-cladding
act as a Fabry-Perot resonator for optical feedback. These mirrors use either p-type active
the Fresnel reflectivity of the facet (often sufficient because of the high layer output
gain of diode lasers), or they can be dielectric coated to other reflectivities. facet
This might be desired, for instance, to protect against damage from the oxide

insulator
high irradiance at the facets. This geometry gives the familiar edge-
vx≅10º n-cladding
emitting diode laser (see figure 10.21). bottom
Pout contact p-cladding
The semiconductor crystal must be defect free to avoid scattering of (5) n-cladding
carriers and of light. To grow crystal layers without defects, commercial
vy≅30º
semiconductor lasers use III-V compounds, elements taken from those
columns of the periodic table. These form varying alloys with the addition dimensions in mm
of dopants that can be lattice-matched to each other and to the initial

crystal substrate. The band gap of the semiconductor chosen determines Figure 10.21 Schematic of a double heterostructure
the lasing wavelength region. There are three main families: GaN-based index-guided diode laser
lasers with UV-blue outputs, GaAs-based lasers with red-near infrared
outputs, and InP-based lasers with infrared outputs. These base crystals
are precisely doped with Ga, Al, In, As, and P to precisely control the band
gap and index of refraction of the layers in the diode structure.
These compounds are direct band-gap semiconductors with efficient

recombination of injected holes and electrons because no phonons (lat-
DPout
tice vibrations) are required to conserve momentum in the recombination laser
output DI
interaction. The injection layers surrounding the junction, the cladding
Pout ,
layers, can be indirect band-gap semiconductors (where phonons are
optical
involved). output spontaneous
power emission
To make a planar waveguide that concentrates the light in the junction
region (confinement between the top and bottom horizontal planes of the
active region in figure 10.21), the cladding layers are made of an alloy of
lower refractive index (larger band gap) than the active junction region. This
is then termed a double-heterostructure (DH) laser. The output power of the Ith Imax
laser is horizontally polarized because the reflectivity of the planar wave-
I, forward drive current
guide is higher for the polarization direction parallel to the junction plane.
Because the junction region is thin for efficient recombination (typically
0.1 mm), some light spreads into the cladding layers which are therefore Figure 10.22 Definition of threshold current, Ith, and
made relatively thick (typically 1 mm) for adequate light confinement. slope efficiency from the curve of light output, Pout vs
drive current I


More efficient lateral laser mode control is achieved by fabricating, with in size to the Bohr radius of the electron (or hole) in the material. This
multiple photolithographic, epitaxial, and etching steps, regions of low index brings in quantum effects—the confined carrier acts, in the direction
of refraction on either side of the lasing stripe (the two lateral n-cladding perpendicular to the layer plane, as a one-dimensional particle in a poten-
regions in the upper half of figure 10.21). This confines the light by wave- tial well. In practical terms, the density of carriers is greatly increased in
guiding between planes perpendicular to the junction plane as well giving this QW structure, and the laser threshold current decreases by an order
an index-guided laser. These lasers produce a stable single transverse of magnitude. The laser’s active region is effectively an engineered, man-
mode of lowest order, as required in data storage applications to read made material whose properties can be designed.
compact discs, and telecommunications applications where coupling into
There is a disadvantage to QW lasers: the active region is too thin to
a fiber optic is important.
make a reasonable waveguide. This problem is solved by inserting inter-
Threshold current and slope efficiency definitions mediate layers of graded index between the QW and both cladding layers.
Output power from a diode laser increases linearly with the drive current This is termed the graded-index separate-confinement heterostructure
excess above the threshold current (see figure 10.22). This steeply rising (GRINSCH) since the carriers are confined to the QW while the laser mode
light output curve is extrapolated backward to the zero light output inter- is confined by the surrounding layers. The electrical and optical confinements
cept to define the threshold current; the weak incoherent light emission are separate. For higher output power, several QWs separated by buffer lay-
for currents below threshold is due to the spontaneous recombination of ers can be stacked on top of one another,—a multiple quantum well (MQW)
carriers such as occurs in LEDs. structure. A structure with only one quantum layer is designated a single
quantum well (SQL) to distinguish it from a MQW.
When divided by the drive voltage V, the slope of the output vs current
curve yields the differential (above threshold) electrical-to-optical power The lasing wavelength in QW lasers is determined by both the bulk band
conversion efficiency (also termed the slope or quantum efficiency) which gap and the first quantized energy levels; it can be tuned by varying the
ranges from 50 to 80 percent for various devices. QW thickness. Further adjustment of the wavelength is possible with
strained quantum QWs. If an epitaxial layer is kept below a critical
DPout
Slope efficiency = . (10.25) thickness, an alloy with a lattice mismatch to the substrate will distort
V DI
its lattice (in the direction normal to the substrate) to match the substrate
lattice instead of causing misfit dislocations. The strain in the lattice of the
Fabrication methods and quantum wells
resulting QW changes its band gap, an effect taken advantage of to put
Three types of epitaxial crystal growth are employed in fabricating the
the lasing wavelength into a desired region.
layers of semiconductor alloys for diode laser chips: liquid phase epitaxy
(LPE), metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), and molecular Wavelength stabilization with distributed,
beam epitaxy (MBE). surface-emitting output geometries
The wavelength of a AlGaAs diode laser tunes with substrate temperature
Most early diode lasers were made by the LPE process, and it is still in
at a rate of about 0.07 nm/°C, a rapid enough rate that many applications
use for many commercial diode lasers and LEDs. In this process, a heated,
require the baseplate of the device to be mounted on a temperature con-
saturated solution is placed in contact with the substrate, and it is cooled,
trolled thermoelectric cooler to maintain wavelength stability. Wavelength,
leaving an epitaxial film grown on the substrate. High-quality crystal
threshold current, and efficiency are all sensitive to changes in temperature.
layers are readily produced by this technique, but it is hard to control alloy
If the laser baseplate temperature is allowed to drift, in addition to this
composition. Furthermore, making thin layers is difficult. Because Quan-
long-term shift in wavelength, the output oscillation will jump between
tum well (QW) structures, discussed below, require very thin layers. The
drifting longitudinal cavity modes and thus exhibit small, rapid, dis-
LPE process is not appropriate for these devices; they are fabricated
continuous changes in wavelength and/or output power which often are
using the MOCVD or MBE process.
undesirable.
In the MOCVD process, gases transport the reactants to the heated
To address this issue, gratings are fabricated into the laser, either at the
substrate, where they decompose and the epitaxial layer slowly grows.
ends of the gain stripe to create a distributed Bragg reflector (DBR)
In the high-vacuum MBE process, the reactants are evaporated onto
structure, or along the whole length of the gain region to create a distributed
the substrate, giving a very slow, controlled epitaxial growth. The equipment
feedback (DFB) structure. The grating has a period on the order of 200
for MBE is more expensive, and the process is slower making this process
nm and is fabricated using interferometric techniques. (The beam from
most suitable for critical and complex devices of low production volume.
an argon or HeCd laser is split into two; the beams are are then over-
The emergence of the MOCVD and MBE processes made possible improved lapped to create fringes, which in turn are used to expose the photoresist
diode lasers employing quantum well structures as their active regions. A in the photolythography process.) The gratings work by providing a small
quantum well is a layer of semiconductor of low electron (or hole) poten- reflected feedback at each index step. The single frequency whose multiple
tial energy between two other layers of higher potential energy. The well fed-back reflections add up in phase determines the lasing wavelength and
layer is made thin enough, typically less than 0.01 mm, to be comparable stabilizes it against changes in drive current and baseplate temperature.


Because the laser operates in a single frequency, noise is also reduced. DBR
Pout
and DFB lasers are used extensively as telecommunication light sources.
top contact
The DFB laser is an edge emitter. In the second-order gratings fabricated HR
in both DFB and DBR lasers, the first-order diffraction is perpendicular to mirror stacks
the surface of the grating. By providing an output window on one of the (dielectric
or DBRs)
gratings in a DBR laser, the output can be brought out through the surface
of the chip, i.e., a surface-emitting laser.
QW
Recently, another surface-emitting structure, the vertical-cavity surface-
active layer
emitting laser (VCSEL), has come into use in telecommunication links. In
this structure (see figure 10.23) multilayer mirrors are fabricated on the
top and bottom of the QW gain region to give feedback. Consequently, the
laser output is perpendicular to the active QW plane.
The epitaxial growth process of this structure is more difficult than that
for edge emitters This is because provision must be made to channel
substrate
current flow around the mirrors to reduce device resistance (for clarity, the bottom
bypass channels are omitted in figure 10.23) and because precise control contact
of the mirror layer thicknesses is needed to locate standing wave peaks
at the QW active layer(s). Countering these drawbacks, by having no facets Figure 10.23 Schematic of the VCSEL structure, with light

to cleave, these lasers have a similar topology to LEDs. They can be tested emitted perpendicular to the active layer
at the wafer level and packaged using similar low-cost manufacturing
methods. In addition, VCSELs have large-area circular beams (defined by
the circular limiting aperture of the mirrors) and low threshold currents so (~7 MW/cm2). The output is limited to this level to stay safely under
they couple well into optical fibers and fit well in low-power (~1 mW) the irradiance that would cause damage to the facet.
communication system applications.
Enlarging the emitting area with an increase of the lateral width of the active
Diode laser beam conditioning stripe is the most common method of increasing the laser output power,
Because the emitting aperture is small on a typical diode laser, beam but this also relaxes the single transverse mode constraint. Multiple
divergences are large. For example, the emitting area for the index-guided transverse lateral modes, filaments, and lateral mode instabilities arise
laser shown in figure 10.21 might be as small as 3#1 mm, resulting in as the stripe width increases. For example, in a GaAs laser running at
diverges of 10#30 degrees. The optics needed to collimate this beam or 808 nm, the output power rises linearly from 500 mW to 4 W as the lateral
to focus it into a fiber must work at a high numerical aperture, resulting width of the emitting aperture increases from 50 to 500 mm. Howerer,
in potential lens aberrations, and requiring critical focusing because of the M2 value of the beam in this plane increases from 22 to 210. The
short depth of field. Focal lengths must be kept short as well or the optics M2 increase makes it difficult to couple these devices to fibers, but
rapidly become large. The beam inself is elliptical and may be astigmatic. they find considerable application in pumping solid-state laser chips
It is often desireable to first circularize the beam spot with an anamorphic designed to accept a high-numerical-aperture focus.
prism pair or cylinder lens before coupling the laser output into an opti-
cal train. Higher-power lasers with high-order modes cause additional The pump diode lasers for even higher-power DPSS lasers are made as
problems when coupling their beams into a fiber or optical system. A wide linear arrays of 20 or more stripe emitters integrated side by side on a
variety of specialized components are available to address these issues, 1-cm-long semiconductor bar. The bar is mounted in a water-cooled
from molded miniature aspherical lenses to hyperbolic profile fiber housing to handle the heat load from the high drive current. These diode
cylinder lenses, but all require critical focusing adjustment in their mount- laser arrays provide from 20 to 40 W of continuous output power at wave-
ing into the laser diode housing. For these reasons many diode lasers are lengths matching the absorption bands of different laser crystals (e.g.,
offered with beam-correcting optics built in by the manufacturer who has 808 nm for pumping Nd:YAG lasers). The individual stripe emissions are
the appropriate tooling for the task. Typically these lasers are available not coherently related, but bars can be used to side pump a laser rod, just
as collimated units, or as fiber-coupled (“pigtailed”) devices. as the arc lamps they replace formerly did. Another common delivery
geometry is a bundle of multimode fibers, fanned into a line of fibers on
High-power diode lasers one end with each fiber butted against an individual stripe on the bar,
Single transverse mode diode lasers are limited to 200 mW or less of with the other end of the bundle gathered into a circular grouping. This
output power by their small emitting aperture. The facet area is so converts the bar output into a round spot focusable onto the end of the
small (about 3#1 mm) that this power still represents a high irradiance crystal to be pumped.


Finally, for even more output, a few to a dozen bars are mounted like a deck OPTICALLY PUMPED LASERS
of cards one on top of another in a water-cooled package, connected in Optically pumped lasers use photons of light to directly pump the lasing
series electrically, and sold as a stacked array. These can deliver in excess medium to the upper energy levels. The very first laser, based on a synthetic
of 500 W output power from one device. ruby crystal, was optically pumped. Optically pumped lasers can be
Packaging, power supplies, and reliability separated into two broad categories: lamp-pumped and laser pumped.
For low-power lasers, the industry uses standard semiconductor device In a lamp-pumped laser, the lasing medium, usually a solid-state crystal,
package designs, hermetically sealed with an output window. Lasers with is placed near a high-intensity lamp and the two are surrounded by an
higher power dissipation come with a copper baseplate for attachment to elliptical reflector that focuses the light from the lamp into the crystal,
a finned heat sink or thermoelectric cooler (TEC). Many are offered as shown in figure 10.24. In laser-pumped systems, the light from
coupled into a fiber at the manufacturing plant in a pigtailed package another laser is focused into a crystal (or a stream of dye), as shown in
(with an output fiber attached) because of the criticality in mounting the figure 10.25.
coupling optics as mentioned above. In general, ignoring the efficiency of the pump laser itself, laser pumping
Careful heat sinking is very important because all the major device para- is a much more efficient mechanism than lamp pumping because the
meters—wavelength, threshold current, slope efficiency, and lifetime— wavelength of the pump laser can be closely matched to specific absorption
depend on device temperature (the cooler, the better). Temperature-servoed bands of the lasing medium, whereas most of the light from a broad-
TECs are preferred for stable operation with the temperature sensor for spectrum lamp is not usefully absorbed in the gain medium and merely
feedback mounted close to the diode laser. results in heat that must be removed from the system. Furthermore, the
size of the laser pump beam can be tightly controlled, serving as a gain
Diode lasers are susceptible to permanent damage from static electricity aperture for improving the output mode characteristics of the pumped
discharges or indeed any voltage transient. Their low operating voltage laser medium. On the other hand, laser pumping is often not suitable for
(~2 V) and ability to respond at high speed means that a static discharge high-energy applications where large laser crystals are required.
transient can be a drive current spike above the maximum safe level and
result in catastrophic facet damage. All the usual antistatic electricity Diode-pumped solid-state (DPSS) lasers, a class of laser-pumped lasers, will
precautions should be taken in working with diode lasers: cotton gloves, be discussed in detail below.
conductive gowns, grounded wrist straps, work tables, soldering irons, and
so on. Correspondingly, the drive current power supply should be filtered DIODE-PUMPED SOLID STATE LASERS
against surges and include “slow starting” circuitry to avoid transients.
The DPSS laser revolution
Diode lasers degrade with high power and long operating hours as The optical difficulties encountered with diode lasers—difficulty in
crystal defects migrate and grow, causing dark lines or spots in the coupling to the high divergence light, poor mode quality in the slow axis
output mode pattern and increases in threshold current or decreases in of wide-stripe lasers, low output power from single-transverse-mode
slope efficiency. The best way to prolong life is to keep the laser baseplate lasers— led to a new philosophy (figure 10.26) about how best to use these
running cool. Remember that accelerated life tests are run by operating efficient, long-lived, compact light sources. This concept, championed in
at high baseplate temperature. Expectations for the median life of a device the 1980s by a group at Stanford University headed by Prof. Bob Byer, has
are set from measurements of large populations—individual devices can been termed the diode-pumped solid state (DPSS) laser revolution.
still suddenly fail. Nevertheless, the industry expectations today for
The logic is simple. The primary light source (the diode laser) pumps another
standard diode lasers run within their ratings is ~105 hours of operation
laser (an infrared crystal laser) to convert to a good mode, the beam of which
for low-power diode lasers and perhaps an order of magnitude less for the
is wavelength converted (by nonlinear optics techniques) to a visible
high-power versions.
output. The diode laser source replaces the discharge lamp for optically
Summary of applications pumping the gain crystal in a traditional, high-efficiency, infrared laser. The
The applications mentioned in the discussion above, and a few others, are infrared beam is generated in that independent resonator with a good
summarized in the following table and ordered by wavelength. The newer mode, and consequently it can be efficiently converted with an intracavity
GaN lasers provide low power (10–100 mW) blue and UV wavelengths nonlinear crystal to a visible beam with a good mode. Though power is lost
finding applications as excitation sources for biomedical fluorescence at each step, the result is still a single-mode visible beam generated with
studies (DNA sequencing, confocal microscopy). The dominant appli- a total electrical-to-optical conversion efficiency of several percent. These
cation for diode lasers is as readouts for optical data storage, followed DPSS lasers are replacing the older visible gas lasers whose conversion
by growing numbers in use in telecommunications. For high-power efficiencies rarely reach 0.1 percent.
(>1 W) diode lasers, the main application is as optical pumps for other
End- and side-pumping geometries
solid state lasers.
The first DPSS lasers were made by focusing the diode light from a single
laser diode emitter through the high-reflector coating (at 1.06 mm) on the


Diode Laser Applications

Wavelength Lattice Application
l (nm) Material*
375 GaN Biomedical fluorescence
405 GaN Biomedical fluorescence, DVD mastering, direct-to-plate
440 GaN Biomedical fluorescence, HeCd laser replacement
635–640 GaAs Pointers, alignment, HeNe laser replacement
650–680 GaAs Biomedical fluorescence, barcode scanners, pointers, alignment, surgical
780 GaAs Audio CD readouts
785 GaAs Raman spectroscopy
808 GaAs Optical pumps for Nd:YAG lasers, thermal printing
940 InP Optical pumps for Yb:YAG lasers
980 InP Optical pumps for Er fiber telecom amplifiers
1310 InP Input source for telecom short-wavelength channels, OCT
1455 InP Optical pump for Raman gain in standard telecom fiber
1550 InP Input source for telecom long-wavelength channels

*Ga, Al, In, P dopants are added to form the required layered strutures
elliptical
reflector high reflector pump high reflector
laser (transmits pump wavelength)
lasing crystal
flashlamp
mode-matching output
optics coupler
lasing crystal
Figure 10.25 Schematic of a laser-pumped laser
output coupler
Then in the late 1980s two advances were made. First, a variety of new
laser rod materials, better tailored to take advantage of diode laser pumps,
were introduced. Nd:YVO4 crystals have five times the gain cross section
Figure 10.24 Schematic of a lamp-pumped laser
of Nd:YAG, and the Nd can be doped into this crystal at much higher
concentrations. This decreases the absorption depths in the crystal from
end of the Nd:YAG rod. This “end-pumping” geometry provide good over- cm to mm, easing the collimation or focusing quality required of the pump
lap between the pumped volume and the lasing volume, but it limited the beam. This crystal had been known, but could be grown only to small
pump power to that available from single-mode diode emitters. dimensions, which is acceptable for diode-pumped crystals. Another
crystal introduced was Yb:YAG, pumped at 980 nm and lasing at 1.03 mm
In order to increase laser output and reduce cost (diode lasers suitable leaving very little residual heat in the crystal per optical pumping cycle and
for end pumping are twice as expensive as diode laser arrays), diode arrays allowing small chips of this material to be pumped at high levels.
were mounted along the length of the laser rod. However, because of
poor overlap of the pump beam with the 1.06 mm beam, the efficiency of Second, means were devised to make micro-cylindrical lenses (focal lengths
this “side-pumping” technique was only half that of end-pumping less than a mm) with the correct surfaces (one type is a hyperbolic profile)
geometries. No pump diode cost savings resulted. for collimating or reducing the fast-axis divergence of the diode laser
output. With good tooling and beam characterization these are correctly


positioned in the diode beam and bonded in place to the diode housing. 488 nm Solid-State Lasers
This allows more conventional lenses, of smaller numerical aperture, to be A variety of solid-state approaches are used to achieve 488 nm output,
used in subsequent pump light manipulations. a popular wavelength used for excitation of fluorophores in biotech
applications. One approach, optically pumped semiconductor lasers (OPSL),
End-pumping with bars
utilizes a diode to pump a solid state gain chip atop a Bragg reflector
With these two new degrees of freedom, laser designers realized they
which then passes through an external non linear crystal to double the 976
could create optical trains that would give them end-pumping system
nm fundamental radiation down to 488 nm. The OPSL approach typically
efficiencies (achieve good overlap between pump and lasing modes) with
requires a large number of components and more complex fabrication,
diode arrays as pump sources to obtain a lower diode cost per watt in
coating and assembly compared to other approaches that follow. True
their systems. This produced an explosion of unique DPSS laser designs
DPSS approaches utilize a pump diode, two gain mediums and a frequency
generically described as “end-pumping with bars.”
mixing of 914 and 1064 nm radiation along with a single frequency
Figure 10.27 shows the example previously mentioned, delivering the generator to produce 491 nm, a wavelength close, but not quite optimum
array light through a fiber bundle, with the fibers at one end spread out for the narrow bandwidth filters and fluorophores used in these appli-
to butt align with the linear stripes of an array, and the other end of the cations. Directly doubled diodes (DDD) offer the best of both worlds by
bundle gathered to an approximately circular spot. generating both the optimum 488 nm wavelength and a minimal num-
ber of components to achieve it (see figure 10.28). DDD’s use a pump diode
Although the circular spot is large, its focal image, formed with high
at 976 nm and unlike other doubled diode laser approaches which use
numerical aperture (NA) optics, is small enough to satisfactorily overlap
external cavity components, an integrated nonlinear crystal/cavity. This
the IR cavity laser mode. The small depth of focus, from the high NA optics,
approach results in a laser that is highly efficient, robust and volume
is inconsequential here because of the short absorption depth in the
manufacturable.
Nd:YVO4 laser crystal. The laser head can be disconnected from the diode
modules at the fiber coupler without loss of alignment.
In another example, an even higher-NA optic (comprising a cylinder lens

and a molded aspheric lens) was used to directly focus the 1-cm width of
a micro-lensed array bar onto the end of a Nd:YVO4 gain crystal. This pro- output HR
Nd:YVO 4
duced an oblong pump spot, but good overlap with the IR cavity mode was
fiber
achieved by altering the infrared cavity (inserting two intracavity beam bundle
expansion prisms in that arm) to produce a 5:1 elliptical cavity mode in
focusing
the gain crystal. Another design used a nonimaging pyramidal “lens duct”
optics
to bring in the pump light from a diode laser stack to the end of a gain 20 W 20 W
crystal. Yet another brought light from several arrays into a lasing rod cen-
tered in a diffuse-reflecting cavity by means of several planar (glass-slide) diode bar diode bar
waveguides, each piercing a different sector of the reflector sidewall. These
are but a few of the design approaches that have been successfully taken.
Figure 10.27 Schematic of an “end-pumping with bars”
geometry using fiber bundle delivery, one of many
variants on the DPSS laser theme
primary light mode wavelength

source converter converter
pump diode IR laser nonlinear hT = hPhMhl

laser crystal crystal ≅ 3%
high eff., good eff., good eff.,

hP = 50% hM ≅ 12% hl ≅ 50%
poor mode, good mode, good mode,

M2 = 50 M2 = 1.5 M2 = 1
Figure 10.26 The logic for DPSS lasers


Two early solutions to this problem emerged. The first is to make the IR
fundamental cavity long enough to give hundreds of oscillating modes, so that the
radiation noise terms average to insignificance as in a long gas laser. The second is
~976 nm to make the IR oscillation run on a single longitudinal mode so that there
are no SFM terms. This can be done by using intracavity frequency control
SHG output elements such as an etalon, or by using a ring cavity (with a Faraday-
~488 nm
effect biasing element to maintain the direction of light travel around the
pump nonlinear ring). Ring cavities eliminate the standing-wave interference effect of
diode crystal linear cavities, termed “spatial hole burning,” and the laser runs single
frequency when this is done. As more experience was gained with DPSS
Figure 10.28 Directly doubled diodes laser design, other clever solutions to the “green problem” were found,
tailored to each particular device and often held as trade secrets. It can be
surmised that these involve precise control of wavelength, spatial hole
Microchip lasers burning, beam polarization, and cavity-element optical path differences
Another procedure that can be used to make available potentially to reduce the strength of longitudinal mode SFM terms.
inexpensive, mass produced, low power, visible output DPSS lasers is Uniqueness of DPSS laser designs and laser reliability
mimicking semiconductor chip processing methods. In the late 1980s, Unlike the gas lasers they replace, no universal approach is applied in the
MIT Lincoln Labs took this approach and created the “microchip” laser. details of different DPSS laser designs and laser models. There is a large
A thin Nd:YVO4 plate is polished flat and then diced into ~2-mm-square variety of solutions to the major problems, many solutions are unique,

chips. Each of these chips is then optically contacted to similar, flat, diced and many are held as proprietary. Major design differences are found in:
KTP doubling crystal plates to make a cube. Prior to dicing, the surfaces
that will become the outer cube surfaces are coated for high reflectivity $ the means for optically coupling the pumping light into the gain
at 1.06 mm. When single-mode diode laser pump light is focused through medium,
one mirrored end of the cube, the heat produced makes a thermally- $ the management of the thermal lens produced by absorption of the
induced waveguide that creates a stable cavity for IR lasing. Since the pump light in the cavity,
KTP crystal is within this cavity, the IR lasing is converted to a 532-nm $ the control of green noise,
(green) output beam with 10’s of milliwats of output. The diode tempera-
$ the strain-free mounting, heat sinking, and placement of the small
ture must be controlled to maintain a stable pump wavelength and thermal
lasing and nonlinear crystals in the laser cavity, and
waveguide. In addition, the cube temperature should be stabilized. Because
of the short cavity, the IR laser operates at a single longitudinal mode, $ the hermetic sealing of the laser cavity to protect the often delicate
and the cavity length must be thermally tuned to keep the mode at the peak crystals and critical alignments of components
of the gain curve. Laser operation in a single frequency suppresses “green
noise,” discussed next.
Note that because the intracavity space must be hermetically sealed there
The “green noise” problem usually is no field repair, maintenance, or adjustment of a DPSS laser head.
As the early DPSS laser designs giving visible-output beams were being If it fails, it is returned to the manufacturer.
introduced, it became apparent that there was a problem unique to this
It is evident that DPSS lasers are a lot less generic than the gas lasers they
architecture. The visible output power, 532 nm in the green spectrum,
replace. For a problem with a particular laser model, there may be no
could break into high-frequency chaotic oscillations of nearly 100-percent
standard solution available in the technical literature. With so many vari-
peak-to-peak amplitude. This was named the “green problem” by Tom Baer
ables, there often are surprises when new designs are first manufactured
(then at Spectra-Physics), who in 1986 showed the effect to be due to the
and introduced. Under these circumstances, the user is advised to pick a
dominance of sum-frequency-mixing (SFM) terms coupling different lon-
supplier with a record of years of consistent manufacture, who has over
gitudinal modes over second-harmonic-generation (SHG) terms, in the
time dealt with his own unique set of component and assembly problems.
nonlinear conversion step from IR to visible output. Several conditions
If this advice is followed, then the expectation with current products is that
(all met by the new laser designs) lead to this effect: (1) the IR laser cavity
a new DPSS laser will operate reliably for 10,000 hours or more.
is short (~10 cm or less) with only a few longitudinal modes oscillating,
(2) nonlinear conversion efficiencies are high (20% or more), and (3) non- 561 nm DPSS Laser
linear phase-matching bandwidths span several longitudinal mode spacings The newest addition to the CVI Melles Griot laser product line is a DPSS
(true of the commonly used KTP doubling crystal). Then the sum fre- laser with yellow output at 561 nm, an ideal excitation wavelength for
quency mixing output losses couple the longitudinal modes in relaxation biomedical fluorescence.
oscillations where the turn on of one mode turns off another.


This 16.5-cm-long laser head delivers up to 75 mW of output power, and The Q-switched industrial DPSS laser is a 1-W-average-power, ultravio-
consumes less than 10 W of wall plug power at 25 mW and less than 18 let (355 nm), high-repetition-rate (30 kHz) system. Output is obtained by
W at 75 mW. The laser is pumped by a single stripe diode laser. Frequency- doubling the 1.064-mm Q-switched fundamental to green at 532 nm,
selective elements in the cavity limit IR oscillation to the 1.123 mm Nd line and then mixing the green beam with the residual transmitted infrared
(one of the weaker lines in the 1.064 mm manifold) and constrain this oscil- to 355 nm. This process is straightforward in a high-peak-power pulsed
lation to a single longitudinal mode. The output is low noise (0.5 percent beam—just a matter of inserting the appropriate doubling and tripling
rms) with excellent mode quality (M2< 1.2). Polarization is vertical with crystals. What is remarkable is that DPSS laser designs have matured
respect to the mounting surface with an extinction ratio of >100:1. sufficiently to make this possible in a hands-off, long lived, system rugged
enough to survive and be useful in an industrial environment.
An example of a DPSS laser product line—
the CVI Melles Griot visible output lasers The double-clad fiber laser is shown in figure 10.30. Fiber lasers work by
Figure 10.29 depicts the mix of laser crystals, laser operating wavelengths, optically pumping (with a diode laser) a doped fiber and adding mirrors
and doubling crystals generating the four visible output wavelengths of for feedback at either end of the fiber. In the dual-clad fiber, the Yb-doped
the present CVI Melles Griot product line of continuous wave DPSS lasers. single-mode fiber core is surrounded by a large diameter cladding (with
a corrugated star-shaped cross section in the figure) that is itself clad by
Other notable DPSS lasers
a low-index polymer coating. Diode laser light at 940 nm is readily
A brief discussion of three other significant DPSS laser developments
launched into and guided in the large diameter outer cladding, and the
conclude this section.
corrugated cross-section of this fiber suppresses the helical ray modes of
The Er-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) is not a laser, but it is an optically propagation that would have poor overlap with the inner core. Over the
pumped amplifier for the 1550-nm long-wavelength long-haul fiberoptic length of the fiber, the pump light is absorbed by the single-mode core,
channels that make the worldwide web possible. Pumping an Er-doped and high- power lasing near 1.03 mm in a low- order mode is produced.
silica fiber with 980-nm diode laser light inverts the populations of energy The quantum efficiency of the Yb lasing cycle (ratio of pump wavelength
levels in the Er ions to provide gain for optical telecommunication signals to lasing wavelength) is 91 percent, which leaves little heat deposited in
run through the same fiber. This optical amplifier is much simpler than the fiber. Over 1 kW of output at 80-percent slope efficiency has been pro-
the discrete electronic repeaters it replaced. A Lucent Technologies duced in such a fiber laser. These will become important laser sources for
executive expressed the importance of this when he said: “What broke industrial applications.
[wavelength division multiplexing telecommunications] free was the
invention of the [EDFA] optical amplifier.”
SHG
IR laser nonlinear l
Crystal crystal output
pump diode coupling Nd:YVO4

LBO/KTP 532 nm
808 nm optics 1064 nm
Nd:YVO4
BBO 457 nm
914 nm
Nd:YAG
LBO 473 nm
946 nm
Nd:YAG
LBO 561 nm
1123 nm
pump diode nonlinear

488 nm
976 nm crystal
Figure 10.29 CVI Melles Griot solid-state laser optical trains for producing five different visible output wavelengths


single-mode
laser output
laser
diode array silica cladding
single-mode core:Yb+3
low-index polymer
Figure 10.30 Schematic diagram of the structure of a

double-clad fiber, and the method of pumping the inner
core by direct illumination into the large diameter of the
outer cladding
561-nm yellow diode pumped solid-state laser

Available Wavelengths
AVAILABLE LASER WAVELENGTHS (nm)

MAXIMUM POWER (mW)
10,000
1000
100
10
1
325 375 405 442 454 457 465 473 476 483 488 496 502 514 520 532 543 561 568 594 612 633 635 640 647 650 660 670 676 685 752 780 830 1310 1550
DPSS
DIODE
GAS
Technology and spectral offering


Laser Applications
Lasers have become so much a part of daily life that many people may Photolithography
not realize how ubiquitous they are. Every home with a CD player has a Lasers are used throughout the manufacture of semiconductor devices,
laser; hardware stores are now selling a wide variety of laser levels; many, but nowhere are they more important than in exposing photoresist
if not most, computers, printers, and copiers are using laser technology. through the masks used for creating the circuits themselves. Originally,
Laser applications are so numerous that it would be fruitless to try to list ultraviolet mercury lamps were used as the light sources to expose the
them all; however; one can give some illustrative examples of how lasers photoresist, but as features became smaller and more complex devices
are used today. were put on a single wafer, the mercury lamp’s wavelengths were too long
to create the features. In the 1990’s, manufacturers started to switch
to ultraviolet lasers operating at approximately 300 nm to expose the
INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS
photoresist. Manufacturers are now using wavelengths as short as
High-power lasers have long been used for cutting and welding materials. 193 nm to get the resolution needed for today’s semiconductor integrated
Today the frames of automobiles are assembled using laser welding circuit applications.
robots, complex cardboard boxes are made with laser-cut dies, and lasers
are routinely used to engrave numbers and codes on a wide variety of Marking and Scribing
products. Some less well-known applications include three-dimensional Lasers are used extensively in production to apply indelible, human
stereolithography and photolithography. and machine-readable marks and codes to a wide variety of products
and packaging. Typical applications include marking semiconductor
Three-Dimensional Stereolithography wafers for identification and lot control, removing the black overlay
Often a designer, having created a complex part on a CAD machine, on numeric display pads, engraving gift items, and scribing solar cells
needs to make a prototype component to check out the dimensions and and semiconductor wafers.
fit. In many cases, it is not necessary for the prototype to be made of the
specified (final) material for this checking step, but having a part to The basic marking system consists of a laser, a scanning head, a flat-field
check quickly is important. This is where rapid prototyping, i.e., three- focusing lens, and computer control. The computer turns the laser beam
dimensional stereolithography, comes in. The stereolithography machine on and off (either directly or through a modulator) as it is scanned over
consists of a bath of liquid photopolymer, an ultraviolet laser, beam- the surface to make the mark. Depending upon the application, scanning
handling optics, and computer control (see figure 10.31). When the laser may occur in a raster pattern (typical for making dot-matrix marks) or in
beam is absorbed in the photopolymer, the polymer solidifies at the a cursive pattern, with the beam creating letters one at a time. The mark
focal point of the beam. The component design is fed directly from the itself results either from ablation of the surface of the material, or by a
CAD program to the stereolithography computer. The laser is scanned photochemically induced change in the color of the material. Another
through the polymer, creating, layer by layer, a solid, three-dimensional marking technique, used with high-energy pulsed CO2 and excimer lasers,
model of the part. is to shine the light through a mask containing the marking pattern and
focusing the resulting image onto the marking surface.
Laser scribing is similar to laser marking, except that the scan pattern is
x-y scanning mirror
typically rectilinear, and the goal is to create microscoring along the scan
lines so that the substrate can be easily broken apart.
UV laser
A wide variety of materials, including metal, wood, glass, silicon, and
rubber, are amenable to laser marking and scribing. Each material has
flat-field
focusing lens different absorption and thermal characteristic, and some even have
directional preferences due to crystalline structure. Consequently, the
type of laser used depends, to some extent, on the material to be marked
prototype part (e.g., glass transmits the 1.06 mm output from a YAG laser but absorbs
the 10.6 mm output from a CO2 laser). Other considerations are the size
of the pattern, the speed of the scan, cosmetic quality, and cost.
chemical bath moving vertical stage Currently, most volume marking applications are performed with lamp-
pumped YAG-based pulsed or Q-switched lasers. Pulsed and cw CO2
lasers make up the bulk of the remainder. However, DPSS and fiber lasers
are encroaching on this field owing to their higher reliability and lower
Figure 10.31 A laser stereolithography system for rapid

prototyping of three-dimensional parts


operating cost. Because of their very short wavelengths (100–300 nm), phase thickness for that layer using the known index of refraction. This
excimer lasers are used in applications requiring extremely high resolution, technique can also be used with a thicker transparent media, such as
or whose materials would thermally damage at longer wavelengths. glass, where changes in the polarization and phase state of a beam
scanned across the substrate indicate variations in index of refraction due
Noncontact measurement
to inclusions or stress-induced birefringence. The most common lasers
There are many types of laser-based noncontact measurement techniques
used in these applications are violet, red and near infrared single-emitter
in use today including scatter measurement, polarimetry and ellipsometry,
laser diodes and mid-visible diode-pumped solid-state lasers owing to
and interferometric measurement.
their cw output, low noise, and compact sizes.
Scatter Measurement: In the semiconductor industry, patterns of material
Interferometric Measurement: Interferometric measurement can be used
are deposited on a wafer substrate using photolithographic processes.
for high-resolution position measurement as well as for measuring wave-
Defects on the wafer can result in poor reliability, disconnects in circuitry,
form deformation of optical beams as they pass through a component or
or complete circuit failure. Consequently manufacturers need to map the
system (see figure 10.33).
wafer to determine the defects’ location and size so that they can either
be eliminated or avoided. To do this, they scan the wafer with a laser and The technique uses the wave periodicity of the light beam as a very fine
measure backscatter with a very sensitive photodetector array. ruler. The position of an object in the path of the beam is computed from
the phase of the light reflected from it. Interference between the object
Lasers used in this application have to have excellent pointing stability,
beam and a reference beam provides measureable intensity variations
constant wavelength and power stability to calculate the correct size of
which yield this phase information. Distance and velocity measurement
the defects through complex algorithms, and low noise so the little scatter
can be performed for moving objects as long as the fringe-recording
the defect makes can be distinguished from the background laser light. Blue

mechanism is paced with it.
488-nm argon ion lasers have been the laser of choice for many years.
However; as lithography has shifted to shorter and shorter ultraviolet Typical applications of this technique include positioning of masks for
wavelengths, however, we are beginning to see the metrologic techniques the lithography process, mirror distance correlation within an FTIR spec-
for wafer defect measurement also moving to shorter wavelengths. Ultra- trometer, optical feedback in many high-resolution positioning systems,
violet diode and solid-state lasers are likely to replace the ion laser in the and determining the alignment and flatness of hard disk drive heads.
next generation of instruments.
For applications requiring measurement over a long path length, lasers with
Polarimetry and Ellipsometry: The optical phase thickness of a thin film can a single longitudinal mode and long coherence length are often required.
be carefully measured using polarimetry or ellipsometry (see figure 10.32). In these cases, frequency-stabilized helium neon lasers or a solid-state lasers
A beam of known polarization and phase state enters the thin film layer with frequency selective elements are used.
at an angle. The thin film has a known index of refraction. The mea-
sured phase change in the reflected beam is then correlated to an optical
HeNe laser
Twyman-Green
HeNe interferometer
laser
receiver 2 receiver 1
surface of beamsplitter
interest
elliptically detector detector
polarized beam polarizing
beamsplitter ratio amp
surface film
Figure 10.32 Surface film thickness measurement
Figure 10.33 Interferometric measurement


SCIENTIFIC APPLICATIONS 100 to 200 nm of the sample’s surface. However, the excitation depth
Lasers are used extensively in the scientific laboratory for a wide variety of (vertical resolution) for conventional confocal spectroscopy is 1 to 1.5 mm,
spectroscopic and analytic tasks. Two interesting examples are confocal leading to low signal-to-noise ratios and diminished accuracy.
scanning microscopy and time-resolved spectroscopy. One means of reducing the excitation volume is to use total internal
Time-resolved spectroscopy reflection (TIR) techniques (see figure 10.35). If a laser beam, passing
Time-resolved spectroscopy is a technique used to observe phenomena that through a high index material (e.g., glass at n≅1.5) strikes an interface with
occur on a very short time scale. This technique has been used extensively a lower index sample material (e.g., an aqueous solution at n≅1.3) at an
to understand biological processes such a photosynthesis, which occur in oblique angle, there is an angle of incidence (the critical angle) at which
picoseconds (10412 seconds) or less. A fluorescing sample is excited by all of the light will be completely reflected at the interface, and none will
a laser whose pulse length is much shorter than the time duration of the pass into the lower-index material. The critical angle is given by
effect being observed. Then, using conventional fluorescence spectroscopy
⎛n ⎞
measurement techniques, the time domain of the fluorescence decay vc = arcsin ⎜ t ⎟ (10.26)
⎝ ni ⎠
process can be analyzed. Because of the speed of the processes, mode-
locked lasers are used as the exciting source, often with pulse compression where nt is the index of the transmitting (lower index) material and ni of
schemes, to generate pulses of the femtosecond (10415 sec) time scale, the incident material.
very much faster than can be generated by electronic circuitry.
Because the beam is completely reflected at the interface, there is no
Confocal scanning microscopy energy flux across the interface; there is, however, an electromagnetic
Scanning microscopy is used to build up a three-dimensional image of a field generated in the lower index material, determined by the boundary
biological sample. In standard light microscopy, a relatively large volume conditions on the electric and magnetic fields at the interface. This trans-
of the sample is illuminated, and the resultant light gathered by the mitted wave is evanescent, propagating along the surface of the interface,
objective lens comes not only from the plane in focus itself, but also from but decaying in intensity exponentially with depth, limiting excitation to
below and above the focal plane. This results in an image that contains not a few hundred nanometers—five to ten times better resolution than with
only the in-focus light, but also the haze or blur resulting from the light confocal techniques alone.
from the out-of-focus planes. The basic principle of confocal microscopy
is to eliminate the out-of-focus light, thus producing a very accurate, Various techniques have been used to obtain TIR. Most commonly, the
sharp, and high-resolution image. A schematic of a confocal microscope is laser beam is brought in through a prism, as shown in figure 10.35. Another
shown in figure 10.34. A visible laser is used as the light source to produce technique is to bring the beam in through the steeply curved edge of the
a distinct and spatially constrained point source of illumination. This observing microscope itself, and then filtering out the returning beam
light is then focused on the sample. A pinhole is placed in front of the with a dichroic mirror.
detector at an optical distance that is exactly the same as the optical
distance between the focus point and the illuminating source point
(the confocal condition). Consequently, only the light generated at the detector
illuminating point will, upon reflection or scattering from the sample, pass
through the pinhole in front of the detector; out-of-focus light will be confocal aperture
blocked by the pinhole. The signal from the detector is then digitized (position critical)
and passed to a computer. The complete image is digitally built up by
scanning the sample in the x and y directions. illuminating
aperture
TIR and Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy cw laser beamsplitter
Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy measures the variation in fluores-
cence emission at the molecular level as fluorochromes travel through a
scan engine
defined field. The data can then used to determine binding and fusion
constants for various molecular interactions. Because the measured in-focus light
volumes are so small, measurements are typically made using single- out-of-focus light
photon or two-photon confocal microscopy techniques. In many cases,
the region of interest for fluorescence correlation spectroscopy is the first specimen stage
CONFOCAL SETUP
Figure 10.34 Optical schematic of a confocal microscope


proteins that are part of the disease process, it may be possible to

synthesize a drug that would interact with the proteins and cure or
reduce the effect of the disease.
microscope
objective The optical system for a typical microarray scanner is shown in figure
fluorescence
10.36. The beam from a laser is focused onto a well (molecule) on the
laser molecular matrix. If the appropriate fluorescent tag is present, the resulting
beam prism fluorescence is measured by a detector. A filter in front of the detector
separates the laser wavelength from the fluorescence signal. The laser
focusing lens sample
beam is then moved to the next well.
TIR for opaque sample Today’s microarray scanner systems use two or more cw lasers, each with
a different wavelength. Output power typically ranges from 10 to 50 mW,
a power level that allows scanning without damaging or changing the
microscope material under test. Laser pointing stability is important as the microarray
objective wells are quite small and repeatability is needed to relocate cells. Power
fluorescence stability and low noise are also extremely important due to the small
sample size and the resulting weak fluorescence signal.
transmitting
sample The most common lasers in use today for excitation are the blue solid-state
(473–488 nm), green solid-state (532 nm) and red diode (650–690 nm)

laser lasers. Solid-state and semiconductor laser technology is chosen primarily
beam prism for its compact size, reliability, and power efficiency. Other wavelengths,
including violet (405 nm) and ultraviolet (375 nm) from diode lasers, are
focusing lens currently being tested for application in microarray-reading applications.
TIR for transmitting sample

red laser
Figure 10.35 An example of TIR spectroscopy
green laser
dichroic filter
Microarray scanning
blue laser
In DNA research, a microarray is a matrix of individual DNA molecules dichroic filter
attached, in ordered sets of known sequence, to a substrate which is
approximately the size of a microscope slide. A single array can contain
thousands of molecules each tagged with a specific fluorochrome. The array focusing
is then put into a microarray reader where each individual site of the objective
matrix is individually probed by a variety of laser wavelengths at, or near, lens
the excitation band of specific protein tags. The resulting fluorescence is
measured and the fluorescence, position, and sequence data are stored
in a computer database for later analysis. microarray
plate
Microarrays and microarray readers have had a dramatic impact on
the speed by which data can be taken. Previously experiments were
conducted one or two molecules at a time; preparation and setting up detection dichroic
could take hours. With microarray readers, the raw data for analysis of system filter(s)
thousands of molecules can be taken in minutes.
lens
The main driver for microarrays is the pharmaceutical industry. If one can
identify the differences in the way genes are expressed in a healthy organ laser
and in a diseased organ, and then determine the genes and associated light
Figure 10.36 Microarray scanning


CLINICAL AND MEDICAL APPLICATIONS Surgical Applications

One of the earliest applications of lasers in medicine was photocoagu- Lasers are used in a variety of surgical and dental procedures from cutting
lation, using an argon-ion laser to seal off ruptured blood vessels on the tissue, vaporizing tumors, removing tattoos, removing plaque, removing
retina of the eye. The laser beam passed through the lens and vitreous cavities, removing hair and follicles, resurfacing of skin and of course,
humor in the eye and focused on the retina, creating scar tissue that correcting vision. In many ways, medical applications are like materials
effectively sealed the rupture and staunched the bleeding. Today, lasers processing applications. In some cases material is ablated. In others
are used extensively in analytical instrumentation, ophthalmology, tissue is cut or welded, and in yet others, photochemical changes are
cellular sorting, and of course, to correct vision. caused in blood vessels to encourage shrinkage and absorption. Under-
standing tissue absorption characteristics and reaction to wavelength and
Many types of lasers are used in clinical applications including CO2 , solid power are key.
state, and diode lasers, as well as an array of gas lasers covering the
spectrum from the ultraviolet to the infrared. Ultraviolet excimer lasers are used for vision correction because they can
ablate material from the lens of the eye without causing thermal damage
Flow cytometry which could blur vision or make the lens opaque. Ruby lasers are used for
Flow cytometry is a technique used for measuring single cells. Not only is tattoo removal because many of the dyes break down when exposed to
it a key research tool for cancer and immunoassay disease research, but 694-nm radiation, yet the skin tissue is left undamaged.
it is also used in the food industry for monitoring natural beverage drinks
for bacterial content or other disease-causing microbes. Cosmetic treatment of wrinkles, moles, warts, and discolorations (birth
marks) is often accomplished with near infrared and infrared lasers. These
In a basic cytometer, the cells flow, one at a time, through a capillary or procedures are often assisted by topical or injected photosensitive
flow cell where they are exposed to a focused beam of laser light (see
chemicals that assist with selective absorption at specific sites.

figure 10.37). The cell then scatters the light energy onto a detector or array
of detectors. The pattern and intensity of the scattered energy helps to Lasers are also used to treat macular degeneration, an overgrowth of
determine the cell size, and shape. In many cases the cells are tagged veins and scar tissue in the retinal region, a condition associated with
with a variety of fluorochromes designed to selectively adhere to cells or advancing age. In this procedure, the patient is injected with a selective
cell components with specific characteristics. When exposed to the laser dye, which enhances the absorption of laser light by the blood in the blood
light, only those with the tag fluoresce. This is used in many systems to assist vessels. When the blood vessels absorb laser energy, they wither in size,
with separation or sorting of cells or cellular components. uncovering the active retina. A multiwatt green DPSS laser is most
commonly used for this application because the green wavelength is not
The most popular lasers used in flow cytometry are the 488-nm (blue) absorbed by the lens or aqueous portion of the eye, which allows the laser
argon-ion laser and the 632-nm (red) and 594-nm (yellow) HeNe lasers. to affect only the targeted veins.
However, new violet, blue and red diode lasers and a variety of new DPSS
lasers are entering the field.
fluorescence
from marked cell
laser
blocking focusing
filter lens
detector
laser
128
counter 1353
separation field
marked unmarked
cells cells
Figure 10.37 Schematic of a laser cell sorter

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10ch_LaserGuide_Final.qxd 6/23/2009 3:34 PM Page 10.

Introduction to Laser Technology

Introduction to Laser Technology

Propagation Characteristics of Laser Beams 10.6

Transverse Modes and Mode Control 10.10

Single Axial Longitudinal Mode Operation 10.11

Frequency and Amplitude Fluctuations 10.13

Tunable Operation 10.15

Types of Lasers 10.16

Laser Applications 10.28

Introduction to Laser Technology 10.1

Introduction to Laser Technology

Basic Laser Principles

THE BOHR ATOM

10 1st excited state n=2

10.2 Introduction to Laser Technology

Introduction to Laser Technology

Introduction to Laser Technology

In general, when an electron is in an excited energy state, it must even-

Introduction to Laser Technology 10.3

Introduction to Laser Technology

Of course, in any real population of atoms, the probability for stimu-

quantum energy levels

an excited atom to emit a photon via stimulated emission, the collection

(for example, a collision with another atom or absorption of high-energy

10.4 Introduction to Laser Technology

Introduction to Laser Technology

Introduction to Laser Technology

The critical factors for a mirror, other than transmission and

The equipment used for both substrate polishing and optical

Introduction to Laser Technology 10.5

Introduction to Laser Technology

10.6 Introduction to Laser Technology

Introduction to Laser Technology

Introduction to Laser Technology

Introduction to Laser Technology 10.7

Introduction to Laser Technology

divergence, which is also M times larger. The waist radius–divergence

10.8 Introduction to Laser Technology

Introduction to Laser Technology

Now consider the consequences in coupling a high M2 beam into a fiber.

Introduction to Laser Technology

Unstable Resonator Design

Introduction to Laser Technology 10.9

Introduction to Laser Technology

Transverse Modes and

TEM00 TEM01 TEM10 TEM11 TEM02

Figure 10.9 Low-order Hermite-Gaussian resonator modes

10.10 Introduction to Laser Technology

Introduction to Laser Technology

Single Axial Longitudinal

Introduction to Laser Technology

Introduction to Laser Technology 10.11

Introduction to Laser Technology

Figure 10.11 Laser frequency stabilization scheme

adjustable cavity spacer output coupler

Figure 10.12 Frequency stabilization for a helium neon laser

10.12 Introduction to Laser Technology

Introduction to Laser Technology