HELIUM-NEON LASERS

A.A.REGHUNAATH : 18BCE0227
A.V.ABHISHEK ARJUN : 18BCE0232
ARJUN.S : 18BCE0236
 HELIUM NEON LASERS
• A helium–neon laser or HeNe laser, is a type of gas
laser, the first of it's kind.

• Its's gain medium consists of a mixture of 85% helium

and 15% neon inside of a small electrical discharge.

• The best-known and most widely used HeNe laser

operates at a wavelength of 632.8 nm, in the red part of
the visible spectrum.
 HISTORY
• The helium-neon laser was the first
continuous wave (CW) laser ever constructed.

• It was built in 1961 by Ali Javan, Bennett, and

Herriott at Bell Telephone Laboratories.
 HELIUM-NEON LASER
COMPONENTS

The helium-neon laser consists of three essential

components:

• Pump source (high voltage power supply)

• Gain medium (laser glass tube or discharge glass

tube)

• Resonating cavity
 HIGH VOLTAGE POWER
SUPPLY (PUMP SOURCE)
• In order to produce the laser beam, it is essential to
achieve population inversion.

• In order to achieve population inversion, we need to

supply energy to the gain medium or active medium.

• In helium-neon lasers, a high voltage DC power supply is

used as the pump source. A high voltage DC supplies
electric current through the gas mixture of helium and
neon.
 GAIN MEDIUM
(DISCHARGE GLASS TUBE
)
• The gain medium of a helium-neon laser is made
up of the mixture of helium and neon gas
contained in a glass tube at low pressure. The
partial pressure of helium is 1 mbar whereas that
of neon is 0.1 mbar.

• In order to achieve population inversion, we

need to excite primarily the lower energy state
electrons of the helium atoms.
 Resonating cavity
• The glass tube (containing a mixture of helium and neon
gas) is placed between two parallel mirrors. These two
mirrors are silvered or optically coated.

• Each mirror is silvered differently. The left side mirror is

partially silvered and is known as output coupler whereas
the right side mirror is fully silvered and is known as the
high reflector or fully reflecting mirror.

• The fully silvered mirror will completely reflect the light

whereas the partially silvered mirror will reflect most part
of the light but allows some part of the light to produce the
laser beam.
 Working
• He gas mixture in helium-neon laser is mostly comprised of helium
atoms. Therefore, helium atoms absorb most of the energy supplied
by the high voltage DC.

• When the power is switched on, a high voltage of about 10 kV is

applied across the gas mixture. This power is enough to excite the
electrons in the gas mixture. The electrons produced in the process of
discharge are accelerated between the electrodes (cathode and anode)
through the gas mixture.

• In the process of flowing through the gas, the energetic electrons

transfer some of their energy to the helium atoms in the gas. As a
result, the lower energy state electrons of the helium atoms gain
enough energy and jumps into the excited states or metastable states.
Let us assume that these metastable states are F3 and F5.
 Working
• Unlike the solid, a gas can move or flow between the electrodes. Hence, when the excited electrons of the
helium atoms collide with the lower energy state electrons of the neon atoms, they transfer their energy to the
neon atoms. As a result, the lower energy state electrons of the neon atoms gain enough energy from the helium
atoms and jumps into the higher energy states or metastable states (E3 and E5) whereas the excited electrons of
the helium atoms will fall into the ground state. Thus, helium atoms help neon atoms in achieving population
inversion.

• Likewise, millions of ground state electrons of neon atoms are excited to the metastable states. The metastable
states have the longer lifetime. Therefore, a large number of electrons will remain in the metastable states and
hence population inversion is achieved.

• After some period, the metastable states electrons (E3 and E5) of the neon atoms will spontaneously fall into the
next lower energy states (E2 and E4) by releasing photons or red light. This is called spontaneous emission.

• The neon excited electrons continue on to the ground state through radiative and nonradiative transitions. It is
important for the continuous wave (CW) operation.

• The light or photons emitted from the neon atoms will moves back and forth between two mirrors until it
stimulates other excited electrons of the neon atoms and causes them to emit light. Thus, optical gain is
achieved. This process of photon emission is called stimulated emission of radiation.

• The light or photons emitted due to stimulated emission will escape through the partially reflecting mirror or
output coupler to produce laser light.
WORKING
 Advantages Disadvantages

Helium-neon laser emits laser

light in the visible portion of the Low efficiency
spectrum.

High stability Low gain

Helium-neon lasers are

Low cost
limited to low power tasks
Operates without damage at
higher temperatures
 Advantages Disadvantages
He-Ne laser has very good coherence
property.

He-Ne laser tube has very small

length approximately from 10 to
100cm and has a life time of upto High voltage requirement.
20,000 hours.

Construction of He-Ne laser is also Escaping of gas from the

not very complex.
discharge tube.
They are safe compared to other
types of lasers.
 Application of
Helium-Neon lasers
• He-Ne lasers has been produced in large
quantities since many years

• Helium-neon lasers are used in various

industries.

• Helium-neon lasers are used in scientific

instruments.

• Helium-neon lasers are used in school and

college laboratories.
 Application of
Helium-Neon lasers
• He-Ne lasers are used in super market billing counters to read bar
codes and QR codes.

• He-Ne lasers can be use as an alignment tool.

• It is also used in scopes of guns.

CO2 LASER
 CO2 LASERS

• The carbon dioxide laser (CO2 laser) was one

of the earliest gas lasers to be developed.

• Carbon dioxide lasers are the highest-power

continuous wave lasers that are currently
available.

• They are also quite efficient: the ratio of

output power to pump power can be as large
as 20%.

• The CO2 laser produces a beam of infrared

light with the principal wavelength bands
centering on 9.4 and 10.6 micrometers (μm).
 History

• It was invented by Kumar Patel of Bell Labs in

1964

• It is still one of the most useful laser.

• In 1970's Early surgical CO2 lasers were

pioneered in the USA and in the USSR and used
articulated arms for laser beam delivery to the
target tissue
 Construction

Carbon dioxide laser consists of a discharge tube having a diameter

of 2.5cm and a length of about 5m. The discharge tube is filled with
a mixture of carbon dioxide, nitrogen and helium gases in the ratio
of 1:2:3 with water vapors. Pressures maintained are about P (for
He)= 7 Torr, P (for N2)= 1.2 Torr and P (for CO2 = 0.33 Torr).

• Active medium and active centres

• Pumping source

• Optical resonator system

• Active medium and active centers= The active medium
is the CO2, N2 and He in the ratio of 1:2:3. The active
centers are the carbon dioxide molecules because laser will
be achieved due to these molecules.

• Pumping source= Electric discharge method is used for

pumping and achieving population inversion. In this
method, electrons will collide with CO2 molecules and
pump them to excited states.

• The purpose of N2 is to help in excitation of CO2 molecules

by colliding with CO2 molecules and transferring the energy
to them. So N2 molecules increases the pumping efficiency.

• Optical resonator system= All the gas mixtures is

enclosed between a set of mirrors which forms the optical
resonator system. One of mirrors is completely reflecting
and the other is partially reflecting.
 Working
• This laser is similar to that of HeNe laser,but here it is N2 insteadof
helium

• When an electric discharge occurs in the gas, the electrons collide with
nitrogen molecules and they are raised to excited states. This process is
represented by the equation

• N2 + e* = N2* + e
• Now N2 molecules in the excited state collide with CO2 atoms in ground
state and excite to higher electronic, vibrational and rotational levels.

• This process is represented by the equation N2* + CO2 = CO2* + N2

• Since the excited level of nitrogen is very close to the E5 level of
CO2 atom, population in E5 level increases.
As soon as population inversion is reached, any of the
spontaneously emitted photon will trigger laser action in the
tube. There are two types of laser transition possible.

1.Transition E5 to E4 :

This will produce a laser beam of wavelength 10.6μm

2.Transition E5 to E3

This transition will produce a laser beam of wavelength 9.6

μm. Normally 10.6μm transition is more intense than 9.6μm
transition. The power output from this laser is 10kW.
 Applications
• High power CO2 lasers are frequently used in industrial applications for
cutting and welding, while lower power level lasers are used for
engraving.

• Carbon dioxide lasers have become useful in surgical procedures because

water (which makes up most biological tissue) absorbs this frequency of
light very well.

• Because the atmosphere is quite transparent to infrared light, CO2 lasers

are also used for military range finding using LIDAR techniques.

• CO2 lasers are used in spectroscopy and the Silex process to enrich
uranium.

• The Soviet Polyus was designed to use a megawatt carbon-dioxide laser

as an in-orbit weapon to destroy SDI satellites
 Disadvantages
• Divergence of CO2 lasers approximately in all cases is greater than He-Ne
and Argon laser.

• Usually the divergence is ranges from 1 to 10 milli radians.

• Beam width varies from 3mm to 100mm.

• Some CO2 lasers have the disadvantage

• of a short and thick optical cavity.

• Cooling system requirement in some configurations also a disadvantage.

• Its cost is comparatively high.

• In TEA design of CO2 laser it is verydifficult to maintain ionization in the

gas.
 Advantages
• In CO2 laser high power levels are obtained ranges from few watts to 15000 watts.
• The CO2 gas lasers are more versatile lasers.
• The efficiency of CO2 gas lasers (1.e. 10% or higher) is best than He-Ne and argon
lasers.

• CO2 lasers have become the workhorse of the material processing industry because of
their low cost (below $100 per watt).

• In some cases its divergence is small but is not true always.

• Pulsed output can be obtained from TEA CO2 lasers, making them more efficient
• Long sealed-off lifetime of greater than 20,000 hours.
• Wide variety of output waveformformats.
• High absorption of its output wavelengths by many materials.