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Demonstration of Ruby Laser: Ranjith R

The ruby laser was the first laser demonstrated in 1960. [1] It is a solid state laser that operates on chromium ions doped within a synthetic ruby crystal, lasing at 694 nm in the deep red part of the visible spectrum. [2] The ruby crystal acts as the active medium and is pumped by a helically shaped xenon flash lamp to achieve population inversion between energy levels. [3] The ends of the ruby rod are polished and coated to form an optical resonator cavity to stimulate laser emission.

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Ranjith R Menon
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116 views10 pages

Demonstration of Ruby Laser: Ranjith R

The ruby laser was the first laser demonstrated in 1960. [1] It is a solid state laser that operates on chromium ions doped within a synthetic ruby crystal, lasing at 694 nm in the deep red part of the visible spectrum. [2] The ruby crystal acts as the active medium and is pumped by a helically shaped xenon flash lamp to achieve population inversion between energy levels. [3] The ends of the ruby rod are polished and coated to form an optical resonator cavity to stimulate laser emission.

Uploaded by

Ranjith R Menon
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© © All Rights Reserved
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DEMONSTRATION OF RUBY LASER

Name: Ranjith R

PHOTONICS I
Department Of Physics ,School Of Applied Sciences
Date: 22/05/2021
#RUBY LASER

The ruby laser, is a solid state laser which lases at the extreme red end of the visible
spectrum at 694 nm.

It was the very first laser demonstrated (1960 by Maiman ).

It is a three level laser.

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#COMPONENTS OF A RUBY LASER AND CONSTRUCTION

1. Active medium (active centres Cr3+)


2. Pumping source (energy source helically shaped xenon flash lamp)
3. Optical resonator (ends of the rod are silvered)

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1. Active medium:

 A rod of a synthetic ruby crystal is used as an active medium.

 The ruby crystal is obtained by doping a small amount (about 0.05% by weight) of
chromium oxide (Cr2O3) in Aluminum oxide (Al2O3), so that some of the aluminum ions
(Al3+) are replaced by chromium ions (Cr3+).

 These chromium ions give the crystal a pink or red color depending upon the doping
concentration. Al2O3 only acts as the host while the chromium ions act as active centers in
ruby crystal and responsible for the laser action. The length of the ruby rod is usually 2 cm
to 30 cm and the diameter is 0.5 cm to 2 cm. 

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2.PUMPING SOURCE

 The ruby rod is placed inside a helically shaped xenon flash lamp to
excite the Cr3+ ions. Thus, in ruby laser population inversion is
achieved by using optical pumping.

3.OPTICAL RESONATOR

 To construct the optical resonator cavity, the ends of the rods are
polished such that they become flat and parallel to each other. Now one
of the ends is coated with silver completely while the other one is
partially silvered. Thus, the two silver-coated ends of the rod act as an
optical resonator system.

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#WORKING OF RUBY LASER
 Ruby is a three energy level laser system.

 After absorbing light photons of wavelength 5500 Å from xenon flash lamp, some
of the Cr3+ ions at ground energy level E1 get excited to higher energy level E3. At
this energy level, they are unstable and by losing a part of their energy to the
crystal lattice, they fall to the metastable energy level E2, whose lifetime is much
longer (about 10-3 s). Therefore, the number of Cr3+ ions goes on increasing in
E2 state while the number of these ions in ground state E2 goes on decreasing
due to pumping by the flash lamp and soon the population inversion is achieved
between states E2 and E1.

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 Spontaneous emission: some of the Cr3+ ions will decay spontaneously to the ground state E1
by emitting photons of wavelength 6943 Å.

 Stimulated emission: The photons that are moving parallel to the axis of the rod will reflect back
and forth by the silvered ends of the rod and stimulate other excited Cr3+ ions to radiate
another photon with the same phase. Thus, due to successive reflections of these photons at the
ends of the rod, the number of photons multiplies.

 After a few microseconds, a monochromatic, intense, and collimated beam of red light of
wavelength 6943 Å emerges through the partially silvered end of the rod. The Ruby laser is a
pulsed laser that emits light in the form of very short pulses.

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DRAWBACKS

 As the laser action involves ground state ,it is difficult to maintain the population
inversion which results to low efficiency.

 Requires high power pumping source.

 The laser output is not continuous but occurs in the form of pulses of microsecond
duration.

 Crystalline imperfections hinders laser action.


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Thank you for
your time and
participation

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