Gain Medium Helium Neon

gain medium of the laser, as suggested by its name, is a mixture of helium and neon gases, in

approximately a 10:1 ratio, contained at low pressure in a glass envelope. The gas mixture is mostly
helium, so that helium atoms can be excited. The excited helium atoms collide with neon atoms,
exciting some of them to the state that radiates 632.8 nm. Without helium, the neon atoms would be
excited mostly to lower excited states, responsible for non-laser lines.
A neon laser with no helium can be constructed, but it is much more difficult without this means of
energy coupling. Therefore, a He-Ne laser that has lost enough of its helium (e.g., due to diffusion
through the seals or glass) will lose its laser functionality because the pumping efficiency will be too
low.[5] The energy or pump source of the laser is provided by a high-voltage electrical
discharge passed through the gas between electrodes (anode and cathode) within the tube. A DC
current of 3 to 20 mA is typically required for CW operation. The optical cavity of the laser usually
consists of two concave mirrors or one plane and one concave mirror: one having very high (typically
99.9%) reflectance, and the output coupler mirror allowing approximately 1% transmission.
Schematic diagram of a helium–neon laser
Commercial He-Ne lasers are relatively small devices, among gas lasers, having cavity lengths
usually ranging from 15 to 50 cm (but sometimes up to about 1 meter to achieve the highest
powers), and optical output power levels ranging from 0.5 to 50 mW.
The red He-Ne laser wavelength of 633 nm has an actual vacuum wavelength of 632.991 nm, or
about 632.816 nm in air. The wavelengths of the stimulated emission modes lie within about
0.001 nm above or below this value, and the wavelengths of those modes shift within this range due
to thermal expansion and contraction of the cavity. Frequency-stabilized versions enable the
wavelength of a single mode to be specified to within 1 part in 108 by the technique of comparing the
powers of two longitudinal modes in opposite polarizations.[6] Absolute stabilization of the laser's
frequency (or wavelength) as fine as 2.5 parts in 1011 can be obtained through use of an iodine
absorption cell.[7]
Energy levels in a He-Ne Laser
The mechanism producing population inversion and light amplification in a He-Ne laser

plasma[4] originates with inelastic collision of energetic electrons with ground-state helium atoms in
the gas mixture. As shown in the accompanying energy-level diagram, these collisions excite helium
atoms from the ground state to higher energy excited states, among them the 23S1 and 21S0 (LS, or
Russell–Saunders coupling, front number 2 indicates that an excited electron is n = 2 state) are
long-lived metastable states. Because of a fortuitous near-coincidence between the energy levels of
the two He metastable states and the 5s2 and 4s2 ( Paschen notation[8]) levels of neon, collisions
between these helium metastable atoms and ground-state neon atoms results in a selective and
efficient transfer of excitation energy from the helium to neon. This excitation energy transfer
process is given by the reaction equations
He*(23S1) + Ne1S0 → He(1S0) + Ne*4s2 + ΔE,
He*(21S) + Ne1S0 + ΔE → He(1S0) + Ne*5s2,
where * represents an excited state, and ΔE is the small energy difference between the
energy states of the two atoms, of the order of 0.05 eV, or 387 cm−1, which is supplied by
kinetic energy. Excitation-energy transfer increases the population of the neon 4s2 and
5s2 levels manyfold. When the population of these two upper levels exceeds that of the
corresponding lower level, 3p4, to which they are optically connected, population inversion is
present. The medium becomes capable of amplifying light in a narrow band at 1.15 μm
(corresponding to the 4s2 to 3p4 transition) and in a narrow band at 632.8 nm (corresponding
to the 5s2 to 3p4 transition). The 3p4 level is efficiently emptied by fast radiative decay to the
3s state, eventually reaching the ground state.

Gain Medium Helium Neon

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gain medium of the laser, as suggested by its name, is a mixture of helium and neon gases, in

Schematic diagram of a helium–neon laser

The mechanism producing population inversion and light amplification in a He-Ne laser

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