Lasers

Dr. Deblina Biswas

Assistant Professor
I&C Engineering
Dr. B. R Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar
 Introduction
 Light Amplification by Stimulated
Emission of Radiation
 Lasers are devices that produce intense beams of light which
are monochromatic, coherent, and highly collimated.
 The wavelength (color) of laser light is extremely pure
(monochromatic) when compared to other sources of light,
and all of the photons (energy) that make up the laser beam
have a fixed phase relationship (coherence) with respect to
one another. Light from a laser typically has very low
divergence.
 It can travel over great distances or can be focused to a very
small spot with a brightness which exceeds that of the sun.
Basic mechanisms: emission, absorption and
pumping
 The three different mechanisms are shown below
(Figure):
 1. Absorption: An atom in a lower level absorbs a
photon of frequency hν and moves to an upper
level.
 2. Spontaneous emission: An atom in an upper
level can decay spontaneously to the lower level
and emit a photon of frequency hν if the
transition between E2 and E1 is radiative. This
photon has a random direction and phase.
 3. Stimulated emission: An incident photon
causes an upper level atom to decay, emitting a
“stimulated” photon whose properties are
identical to those of the incident photon. The
term “stimulated” underlines the fact that this
kind of radiation only occurs if an incident photon
is present. The amplification arises due to the
similarities between the incident and emitted
photons
Differences between Stimulated and
spontaneous emission of radiation
 Population inversion and pumping
 If there are more atoms in the upper level (N2) than in the lower level (N1),
the system is not at equilibrium. In fact, at thermodynamic equilibrium, the
distribution of the atoms between the levels is given by Boltzmann's Law:

 In this case, N2 is always less than N1. A situation not at equilibrium must be
created by adding energy via a process known as “pumping” in order to raise
enough atoms to the upper level.
 This is known as population inversion and is given by 𝜵=N2−N1 . Light is
amplified when the population inversion is positive. Pumping may be
electrical, optical or chemical.
 META STABLE STATES
 An atom can be excited to a higher level by supplying energy to it.
Normally, excited atoms have short life times and release their
energy in a matter of nano seconds (10-9) through spontaneous
emission.
 It means atoms do not stay long to be stimulated. As a result, they
undergo spontaneous emission and rapidly return to the ground level;
thereby population inversion could not be established. In order to do
so, the excited atoms are required to ‘wait’ at the upper energy level
till a large number of atoms accumulate at that level.
 It is necessary that excited state have a longer lifetime.
 A Meta stable state is such a state. Metastable can be readily
obtained in a crystal system containing impurity atoms.
 These levels lie in the forbidden gap of the host crystal. There could
be no population inversion and hence no laser action, if metastable
states don’t exist
EINSTEIN’S “A & B” COEFFICIENTS - DERIVATION
 We know that, when light is absorbed by the atoms or molecules, then it goes from the lower
energy level (E1) to the higher energy level (E2) and during the transition from higher energy
level (E2) to lower energy level (E1) the light is emitted from the atoms or molecules. Fig.,
process involved in Laser
 Absorption
 An atom in the lower energy level or ground state energy level E1 absorbs the
incident photon radiation of energy h𝜸 and goes to the higher energy level or
excited level E2 as shown in figure. This process is called absorption.
 If there are many numbers of atoms in the ground state then each atom will
absorb the energy from the incident photon and goes to the excited state
then, The rate of absorption (R12) is proportional to the following

Normally, the atoms in the excited state will not stay there for a long period of
time, rather it comes to ground state by emitting a photon of energy . Such an
emission takes place by one of the following two methods.
Spontaneous emission
 The atom in the excited state returns to the ground state by emitting a
photon of energy E = (E2 – E1) = spontaneously without any external triggering
as shown in the figure. This process is known as spontaneous emission. Such
an emission is random and is independent of incident radiation. If N1 and N2
are the numbers of atoms in the ground state (E1) and excited state (E2)
respectively, then The rate of spontaneous emission is

 Where A21- is a constant which gives the probability of spontaneous emission

transitions per unit time.
 Stimulated Emission
 The atom in the excited state can also return to the ground state by external
triggering or inducement of photon thereby emitting a photon of energy equal
to the energy of the incident photon, known as stimulated emission. Thus
results in two photons of same energy, phase difference and of same
directionality as shown. Therefore, the rate of stimulated emission is given by

 Where B21- is a constant which gives the probability of stimulated emission

transitions per unit time.
Einstein’s theory
 Einstein’s theory of absorption and emission of light by an atom is based on
Planck’s theory of radiation. Also under thermal equilibrium, the population
of energy levels obeys the Maxwell Boltzmann distribution law
 Under thermal equilibrium
Cont.
 We know from the Boltzmann distribution law

 Where KB is the Boltzmann Constant, T is the absolute temperature and N0 is

the number of atoms at absolute zero. At equilibrium, we can write the ratio
of population levels as follows
 Substituting equation (8) in equation (9)

This equation has a very good agreement with Planck’s

energy distribution radiation law.

Therefore comparing equations (6) and (7) , we can

write

The constants A and B are called as Einstein Coefficients, which accounts

for spontaneous and stimulated emission probabilities.
 3 level and 4 level laser
• In a three-level laser, the material is first excited to a short-lived
high-energy state that spontaneously drops to a somewhat lower-
energy state with an unusually long lifetime, called a metastable
state.
• The metastable state is important because it traps and holds the
excitation energy, building up a population inversion that can be
further stimulated to emit radiation, dropping the species back to
the ground state.
• the three-level laser works only if the ground state is
depopulated.
• As atoms or molecules emit light, they accumulate in the ground
state, where they can absorb the stimulated emission and shut
down laser action, so most three-level lasers can only generate
pulses.
• This difficulty is overcome in the four-level laser, where an extra
transition state is located between metastable and ground states.
• This allows many four-level lasers to emit a steady beam for days
on end.
 Amplification in Laser process

 Let as consider many number atoms in the excited state. We know the
photons emitted during stimulated emission have same frequency, energy and
are in phase as the incident photon. Thus result in 2 photons of similar
properties.

Due to stimulated emission the photons multiply in each step-giving rise to an

intense beam of photons that are coherent and moving in the same direction.
Hence the light is amplified by Stimulated Emission of the Radiation termed
LASER
 Schematic diagram of a basic laser
The three main components of a laser are:
Lasing medium
A material that amplifies light through stimulated
emission. It can be a solid, liquid, or gas, and is made
up of atoms, molecules, or ions. The type of lasing
material determines the wavelength of light emitted.
Pump
An energy source that supplies the lasing medium with
the energy it needs to amplify light. The pump can be
an electric current or light of a different wavelength.
Optical resonator
A pair of mirrors that form a cavity around the lasing
medium. Light bounces back and forth between the
mirrors, passing through the lasing medium and being
amplified each time. One of the mirrors, called the
output coupler, is partially transparent, allowing some
light to escape
PUMPING ACTION
 The process to achieve the population inversion in the medium is
called Pumping action. It is essential requirement for producing a
laser beam.
 Methods of pumping action The methods commonly used for pumping
action are:
 1. Optical pumping (Excitation by Photons)
 2. Electrical discharge method (Excitation by electrons)
 3. Direct conversion
 4. In elastic atom – atom collision between atoms
 1. Optical pumping
 When the atoms are exposed to light radiations energy, atoms in the
lower energy state absorb these radiations and they go to the excited
state. This method is called Optical pumping. It is used in solid state
lasers like ruby laser and Nd-YAG laser. In ruby laser, xenon flash lamp
is used as pumping source.
Electrical discharge method (Excitation
by electrons)
 In this method, the electrons are produced in an electrical discharge tube.
These electrons are accelerated to high velocities by a strong electrical field.
These accelerated electrons collide with the gas atoms.
 By the process, energy from the electrons is transferred to gas atoms. Some
atoms gain energy and they go to the excited state.
 This results in population inversion. This method is called Electrical discharge
method. It is represented by the equation
Direct Conversion
 In this method, due to electrical energy applied in direct band gap
semiconductor like Ga As, recombination of electrons and holes takes
place. During the recombination process, the electrical energy is
directly is converted into light energy.
 In elastic atom – atom collision
 In this method, a combination of two gases (Say A and B are used).
The excited states of A and B nearly coincides in energy. In the first
step during the electrical discharge atoms of gas A are excited to their
higher energy state A* (metastable state) due to collision with the
electrons . A + e* = A* + e Now A* atoms at higher energy state collide
with b atoms in the lower state. Due to inelastic atom - atom collision
B atoms gain energy and they are excited to a higher state B*. Hence,
A atoms lose energy and return to lower state. A* + B = A + B*
 OPTICAL RESONATOR
 An optical resonator consists of a pair of reflecting
surfaces in which one is fully reflecting (R1) and the other
is partially reflecting (R2). The active material is placed in
between these two reflecting surfaces
 The photons generated due to transitions between the
energy states of active material are bounced back and
forth between two reflecting surfaces. This will induce
more and more stimulated transition leading to laser
action.
 A laser generally requires a laser resonator (or laser
cavity), in which the laser radiation can circulate and pass
a gain medium which compensates the optical power
losses. Exceptions are a few cases (e.g. some free electron
lasers) where a medium with very high gain is used, so that
amplified spontaneous emission extracts significant power
in a single pass through the gain medium.
 A laser resonator typically contains multiple laser mirrors,
one of them being an output coupler, a laser gain medium,
and possibly additional optical elements e.g. for
wavelength tuning, Q switching or mode locking. It can be
a linear resonator, having two end mirrors, or a ring
resonator.
 The role of the optical cavity
 The previous section showed how to favour population inversion by
choosing the right spectroscopic system and energy levels.
 However, population inversion is not enough to generate a laser effect. As
stated previously, stimulated and spontaneous emissions are competing
with each other.
 Thus, before becoming an amplifying medium, a laser medium pumped by
an external energy source is first a “lamp” (spontaneous emission).
 It is the optical cavity that creates the conditions necessary for
stimulated emission to become predominant over spontaneous emission.
 The cavity or resonator is composed of several mirrors that bounce the
beam back and forth through the amplifying medium.
 There are two different types : linear cavities (light is reflected back and
forth) and ring cavities (light circulates round and round).
 The first type will be studied here.
 Cont.
 When the laser starts up, the “lamp-amplifying medium” emits spontaneously
in all directions. However, a small part of the emission occurs along the axis of
the laser cavity.
 These spontaneous photons can travel backwards and forwards. Thus, over
time, thanks to the amplifying medium, the amount of light in the cavity
increases considerably.
 The confinement of the light increases the probability of stimulated emission
rather than spontaneous emission occurring.
 At the same time, the cavity acts as a filter due to the numerous round trips:
only the wave perfectly perpendicular to the axis of the cavity will be
propagated and certain frequencies will be favoured (the resonance
frequencies of the cavity).
 In this way, the cavity produces a specific radiation.
THRESHOLD CONDITION
 Light bouncing back and forth in the optical
resonator
 Undergoes amplification as well as suffers
various losses
 Losses occur mainly due to
 (i) Transmission at the output mirror
 (ii) Scattering & Diffraction of light within
the active medium.
 For the proper build up of oscillations After a complete round trip (Reflection from M1), the
Essential is that the amplification between final Intensity will be
two consecutive reflections of light from
reflecting end mirror can balance losses.
 Determination of threshold gain by
The condition is used to determine the threshold value of
considering the change in intensity of a beam
pumping energy necessary for lasing action.
of light undergoing a round trip within the
resonator

αs includes all the distributed losses such as scattering,

diffraction and absorption occurring in the medium
 Types of resonators
 The shape of a laser beam is determined by the resonator cavity, a laser optical mirror, in
which the laser light is amplified in a gain medium. Laser resonators are typically formed by
using highly reflective dielectric mirrors or a monolithic crystal that utilizes total internal
reflection to keep light from escaping (Figure 1). Below is a list of common laser resonator
geometries1:

 Plane parallel resonator: two flat mirrors separated by a distance equal to an integral
multiple of one half of the lasing wavelength
 Concentric resonator: two spherical mirrors with the same radius of curvature and
coincident centers of curvature
 Confocal resonator: two spherical mirrors with the same radius of curvature and coincident
focal points
 Ring resonator: ring of more than two reflectors where the total closed loop path of the
reflected light is equal to an integral multiple of one half of the lasing wavelength
 Cont.
 Resonator cavities are “stable” if the reflected light stays inside the cavity, even
as the number of reflections approaches infinity.
 In this instance, the only way for light to leave the cavity is through a partially
reflective mirror.
 On the other hand, resonator cavities are considered “unstable” if the reflected
light continuously diverges as the number of reflections approaches infinity.
 When this occurs, the beam size will grow until it is larger than the reflectors and
then escape the system.
 Stable resonators are often used with lasers that have powers up to 2kW to
achieve high gain and improve directionality.
 Unstable resonators are typically used with higher power lasers to reduce the
chance of damaging the reflectors
 Laser modes
 Resonator modes are the modes of an optical
resonator (cavity), i.e. electromagnetic field
distributions which reproduce themselves after a
full resonator round trip.
 More precisely, that means that the full amplitude
profile (including the optical phase) must be
unchanged after one round trip, apart from a
possible loss of optical power.
 Such modes exist whether or not the resonator is
geometrically stable, but the mode properties of
unstable resonators are fairly complicated. In the
following, only modes of stable resonators are
considered.
 The integers n and m define the beam shape in the
x and y directions, respectively. An ideal Gaussian
beam is defined by the mode TEM00, which occurs
when n and m are both equal to 0
 Cont.
 The resonator cavity’s path length
determines the longitudinal
resonator modes, or electric field
distributions which cause a
standing wave in the cavity. The
modes of a beam give it its shape.
 In order for a resonant mode to
occur, it must also experience a
phase shift equal to an integer
multiple of 2π over one closed loop
path

The phase shift of a complete loop in an optical

resonator must be an integer multiple of 2π in order for
a resonant mode to occur
Types of laser modes
 Transverse mode
 Determines the distribution of intensity in the beam's cross-section. The Gaussian
mode is a simple transverse mode that's often the preferred output for lasers.
Gaussian beams are circularly symmetric, stable, and have a high intensity.
 Longitudinal mode
 Describes the laser's frequency and is related to the length of the laser cavity. The
only wavelengths at which a laser can emit and amplify light are the longitudinal
modes.
 Axial modes
 Represent the resonant frequencies at which there are half-wavelengths along the
resonator axis.
 Single-mode
 A laser that sustains only one specific optical mode, resulting in a focused and
coherent output beam.
 Multimode
 A laser that supports multiple optical modes, resulting in a broader and less coherent
output beam
Laser Beam Output
 Characteristics that affect laser performance are the
power output and mode of emission - continuous wave,
pulsed, Q-switched or Mode –locked lasers.
 • CW laser- emits a continuous beam of light as long as
medium is excited.
 • Pulsed laser- emit light only in pulses- from
femtoseconds to second
 • Q-switched laser-pulses from micro to nanosecond are
produced
 • Mode-Locked laser –pulses from pico (10-12s) – to
femtoseconds ( 10-15s) are produced
Laser Beam Output
 Lasers operated in Continuous Wave (CW) or Pulsed modes.
 CW lasers-energy is continuously pumped - producing a continuous laser
output.
 Pulsed lasers - the pump energy is applied in pulses usually with a flash lamp
Laser: Q-switching
 Methods of Q-switching: There are many ways to Q-switch a
laser
 • Active Q-switching
 1. Mechanical devices- shutters, chopper wheel or
 spinning mirror.
 2. Electro-optic device: Pockel cells and kerr cells.
 3. Acousto-optic device
 • Passive Q-switching
 1. Q-switch is a saturable absorber.
 Cont.
 The active medium is excited without
feedback -by blocking the reflection from
one of the end mirrors of the cavity
 The end mirror is then suddenly allowed to
reflect
 Suddenly applied feedback causes a rapid
population inversion of the lasing levels
 Results in a very high peak power output
pulse of short duration
Techniques for Q switching
 Using a mechanically driven device
 • A rotating prism or mirror
 • Rotate one of the mirrors about an axis
perpendicular to the laser
 • Rotating speed cannot be made very large
 • Q switching does not take place instantaneously
Electro-optical Switches
 Light passes through a polarizer
and an Electro-optic cell
(controlling the phase or
polarization of the laser beam)
 When appropriate voltage is
applied- the material inside the
cell becomes birefringent
 By varying the voltage – cell blocks
or transmits beam.
 Two kinds of electro-optics
switches are used-namely Kerr and
Pockels’ cell.
Pockels’ Cell
 A Pockels’ cell switches (in a few nanoseconds) from a quarter-wave plate to
nothing.
 Light becomes circular on the first pass and then horizontal on the next and is
then rejected by the polarizer.
 Light is unaffected by the Pockels’ cell and hence is passed by the polarizer.
Acousto-optic Shutter
 •Uses a quartz crystal
 •RF on- beam deflect out of the cavity yielding high loss
 •RF off-beam transits the cavity with low loss
Passive Q- switching
 Initially light output absorbed by dye-preventing reflection
 • After a particular intensity is reached- dye is bleached(allows light)
 • Now reflection from mirror is possible
 • Results in rapid increase in cavity gain
Laser: Mode-Locking
 Mode Locking is a technique to generate ultra-short pulses in the
order of picoseconds (10-12) or femtoseconds (10-15).
 Lasers that generate a train of periodic ultra-short pulses are called
mode-locked lasers.
 Laser light does not have a single, unmixed frequency or wavelength.
All lasers emit light over a natural frequency spectrum or bandwidth.
 In a laser cavity, when two light waves of the same frequency and
amplitude move in the opposite direction create a standing wave.
 These standing waves form a discrete set of frequencies called
longitudinal modes of the cavity.
 These multiple longitudinal modes of oscillation with frequencies are
separated by intermodal spacing
Cont.
 These longitudinal modes will interfere with each other. If their phases are
not having a definite relationship, they will interfere destructively causing a
fluctuation in the laser intensity irregularly with time. But if there is a fixed
phase (in-phase) relationship, they interfere constructively which causes the
generation of a series of ultrashort pulses as the laser output and it is mode-
locking. The mode-locked pulses are separated in time

 which is the round-trip time TR for a laser light beam. This time corresponds
to a frequency equal to the laser’s mode spacing given by

 The number of modes that are oscillating in phase determines the length of
each light pulse. If there are N number of modes separated by a frequency
∆ν, then the overall mode-locked bandwidth is N∆ν.
 Types of mode locking
 There are mainly two types of mode-locking in lasers:
 Active mode locking
 Passive mode locking
 Active mode locking is mainly performed on continuous wave
lasers like Nd:YAG laser, Nd:YVO4 laser, DPSS lasers, etc.
 They generate equal pulses with a repetition rate in the
range of 80-250 MHz having nanojoules pulse energy range.
 Figure shows active mode locking in a laser. The resonant
cavity of the laser contains a gain medium and an optical loss
modulator which changes the resonant cavity loss with time.
 When an external signal is applied to the optical modulator,
amplitude or phase modulation takes place inside the cavity
which causes the mode-locking of the laser.
 An acousto-optic (AO) or electro-optic (EO) effect is used to
introduce a periodic modulation of the loss in the laser cavity.
 The optical modulator blocks the passage except when the
pulse is about to pass. It will be open only during the pulse
durations thus creating a giant narrow pulse.
 Passive mode locking
 Passive mode locking is a method of generating ultra-short
pulses in a laser using non-electronic means.
 This is achieved with a saturable absorber.
 A saturable absorber is an optical component whose
absorption coefficient decreases with an increase in the
intensity of incident light.
 It absorbs weak pulses while transmitting strong ones with
comparatively little absorption.
 A saturable absorber is made from organic dyes that have
the ability to absorb light at the specific wavelength of the
laser.
 Liquid organic dyes are commonly used for saturable
absorbers. At higher pulse intensities, the ground state of
the dye gets depleted, which decreases resonator losses.
 The saturable absorber is kept inside the optical resonator
cavity next to the gain medium. They do not require an
external signal for this type of mode-locking.
 The laser light within the cavity itself will make changes in
the intracavity elements.
Types of Laser
 Lasers are usually classified in terms of their active (lasing)
medium. Major types are:
 • Solid-state lasers
 • Semiconductor Lasers
 • Dye Lasers
 • Gas Lasers
 • Excimer Lasers
 Types of Lasers
 Solid-state lasers are lasers based on solid-state gain
media such as crystals or glasses doped with rare earth
or transition metal ions.
 Semiconductor lasers are also solid-state lasers, but
they are not always meant with that term.
 Ion-doped solid-state lasers (also sometimes called
doped insulator lasers) can be made in the form of bulk
lasers, fiber lasers, or other types of waveguide lasers.
 Solid-state lasers may generate output powers between
a few milliwatts and (in high-power versions) many
kilowatts.
 The first solid-state laser – and in fact the first of all
lasers – was a pulsed ruby laser, demonstrated by
Maiman in 1960.
 Later on, however, other solid-state gain media were
preferred because of their superior performance.
 A major problem with ruby is its pronounced three-level
nature.
 Semiconductor lasers
 Semiconductor lasers are solid-state lasers based on semiconductor gain
media, where optical amplification is usually achieved by stimulated
emission at an interband transition under conditions of a high carrier
density in the conduction band.
 The physical origin of gain in an optically pumped semiconductor (for
the usual case of an interband transition) is illustrated in Figure.
 Without pumping, most of the electrons are in the valence band.
 A pump beam with a photon energy slightly above the band gap energy
can excite electrons into a higher state in the conduction band, from
where they quickly decay to states near the bottom of the conduction
band.
 At the same time, the holes generated in the valence band move to the
top of the valence band.
 Electrons in the conduction band can then recombine with these holes,
emitting photons with an energy near the bandgap energy.
 This process can also be stimulated by incoming photons with suitable
energy.
 A quantitative description can be based on the Fermi–Dirac distributions
for electrons in both bands.
 Liquid laser
 Liquid lasers are optically pumped lasers in which the gain medium is a
liquid at room temperature. And the most successful of all liquid lasers
are dye lasers.
 These lasers generate broadband laser light from the excited energy
states of organic dyes dissolved in liquid solvents.
 Output can be either pulsed or CW and spans the spectrum from the
near-UV to the near-IR, depending on the dye used.
 The large organic molecules of the dye are excited to higher energy
states by arc lamps, flashlamps, or other lasers such as frequency-
doubled Nd:YAG, copper-vapor, argon-ion, nitrogen, and even excimer.
 The dye solution is usually pumped transversely through the laser cavity
and contained by a transparent chamber called a flow cell.
 Broadband laser emission originates from interactions between the
vibrational and electronic states of dye molecules that split the
electronic energy levels into broad energy bands similar to those of
vibronic lasers.
 Wavelength-selective cavity optics such as a prism or diffraction grating
can be used to tune to a desired frequency.
 The efficiency, tunability, and high coherence of dye lasers make them
ideal for scientific, medical, and spectroscopic research.
 In addition, their broadband emission makes them particularly well
suited for generating ultrashort laser pulses.
 Gas Laser
 A gas laser is a type of laser that uses a gas-filled medium to produce coherent and
amplified light.
 Gas lasers operate based on the principles of stimulated emission and optical amplification.
 These lasers are excited by different pumping mechanisms such as electrical discharge,
chemical reactions, or optical pumping.
 The gas atoms, ions, or molecules interact with energetic electrons, leading to their
excitation. This method of electrical excitation is preferred over optical excitation because
gases have narrow absorption lines, unlike solids.
 This excitation energizes the gas atoms or molecules, causing them to transition from lower
energy states to higher energy states.
 As they return to lower energy states, they emit photons, which are then reflected and
amplified within an optical resonator formed by two mirrors.
 The partially reflective mirror allows a portion of the light to escape as a coherent laser
beam.
 Excimer laser
 An excimer laser is a powerful kind of laser which is nearly always operated in
the ultraviolet (UV) spectral region (→ ultraviolet lasers) and generates
nanosecond pulses (→ nanosecond lasers).
 The excimer gain medium is a gas mixture, typically containing a noble gas
(rare gas) (e.g. argon, krypton, or xenon) and a halogen (e.g. fluorine or
chlorine, e.g. as HCl), apart from helium and/or neon as buffer gas.
 An excimer gain medium is typically pumped with short (nanosecond) current
pulses in a high-voltage electric discharge (or sometimes with an electron
beam), which create so-called excimers (excited dimers) – molecules which
represent a bound state of their constituents only in the excited electronic
state, but not in the electronic ground state.
 A dimer is a molecule consisting of two equal atoms, but the term excimer is
normally understood to include asymmetric molecules such as XeCl as well.
 A key point is that after stimulated or spontaneous emission, the excimers
rapidly dissociate, so that reabsorption of the generated laser radiation is
avoided.
 This makes it possible to achieve a fairly high gain even for a moderate
concentration of excimers.
Different applications of laser

• Scientific Applications.
• Commercial Applications.
• Medical Applications
Scientific Applications
 Laser Spectroscopy: atmospheric physics - pollution
monitoring-cancer detection
 Optical metrology: optical distance measurement- optical
temperature measurements etc.,
 Optical frequency metrology: for precise position
measurements
 Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy: Solid materials can
be analyzed
 Laser cooling: makes it possible to bring clouds of atoms or
ions to extremely low temperatures
 Optical tweezers: used for trapping and manipulating small
particles- such as bacteria or parts of living cells.
 Laser microscopes: provide images of, e.g., biological samples
with very high resolution - often in three dimensions
 Communication and computing
Commercial Applications
 Cutting, welding, marking,
 Rangefinder / surveying,
 LIDAR / pollution monitoring,
 CD/DVD player,
 Laser printing,
 Laser engraving of printing
 plates,
 Laser pointers,
 holography, laser
 light displays
 Optical communications.
Medical Applications
 Cosmetic surgery
 Dentistry
 Dermatology
 Eye surgery
 Cardiology
 Neurology
 Optical Imaging
 Optical biosensors