Types of Lasers

Laser technology is incredibly important to what we do at Leveltek, and the mental image that probably elicits is a red beam cutting through metal.  Lasers are a LOT more Complicated than just a glorified Star Trek phaser!  Interested to know more?  Then let’s spend a few blog entries explaining just how lasers work, starting with the various types of lasers, straight from your high school physics class!

Commercial_laser_lines.svgDanh – Wikimedia Commons

There are many types of lasers available for research, medical, industrial, and commercial uses.  Lasers are often described by the kind of lasing medium they use – solid state, gas, excimer, dye, or semiconductor.

Solid state lasers have lasing material distributed in a solid matrix, e.g., the ruby or neodymium-YAG (yttrium aluminum garnet) lasers. The neodymium-YAG laser emits infrared light at 1.064 micrometers.

Gas lasers (helium and helium-neon, HeNe, are the most common gas lasers) have a primary output of a visible red light. CO2 lasers emit energy in the far-infrared, 10.6 micrometers, and are used for cutting hard materials.

Excimer lasers (the name is derived from the terms excited and dimers) use reactive gases such as chlorine and fluorine mixed with inert gases such as argon, krypton, or xenon. When electrically stimulated, a pseudomolecule or dimer is produced and when lased, produces light in the ultraviolet range.

Dye lasers use complex organic dyes like rhodamine 6G in liquid solution or suspension as lasing media. They are tunable over a broad range of wavelengths.

Semiconductor lasers, sometimes called diode lasers, are not solid-state lasers. These electronic devices are generally very small and use low power. They may be built into larger arrays, e.g., the writing source in some laser printers or compact disk players.

Lasers are also characterized by the duration of laser emission – continuous wave or pulsed laser.  A Q-Switched laser is a pulsed laser which contains a shutter-like device that does not allow emission of laser light until opened.   Energy is built-up in a Q-Switched laser and released by opening the device to produce a single, intense laser pulse.

CONTINUOUS WAVE (CW) lasers operate with a stable average beam power. In most higher power systems, one is able to adjust the power. In low power gas lasers, such as HeNe, the power level is fixed by design and performance usually degrades with long term use.

SINGLE PULSED (normal mode) lasers generally have pulse durations of a few hundred microseconds to a few milliseconds. This mode of operation is sometimes referred to as long pulse or normal mode.

SINGLE PULSED Q-SWITCHED lasers are the result of an intracavity delay (Q-switch cell) which allows the laser media to store a maximum of potential energy. Then, under optimum gain conditions, emission occurs in single pulses; typically of 10(-8) second time domain. These pulses will have high peak powers often in the range from 10(6) to 10(9) Watts peak.

REPETITIVELY PULSED or scanning lasers generally involve the operation of pulsed laser performance operating at a fixed (or variable) pulse rates which may range from a few pulses per second to as high as 20,000 pulses per second. The direction of a CW laser can be scanned rapidly using optical scanning systems to produce the equivalent of a repetitively pulsed output at a given location.

MODE LOCKED lasers operate as a result of the resonant modes of the optical cavity which can effect the characteristics of the output beam. When the phases of different frequency modes are synchronized, i.e., “locked together,” the different modes will interfere with one another to generate a beat effect. The result is a laser output which is observed as regularly spaced pulsations. Lasers operating in this mode-locked fashion, usually produce a train of regularly spaced pulses, each having a duration of 10(-15) (femto) to 10(-12) (pico) sec. A mode-locked laser can deliver extremely high peak powers than the same laser operating in the Q-switched mode. These pulses will have enormous peak powers often in the range from 10(12) Watts peak.

  1. I am very happy to found this article. Having or adding a good knowledge about the different types of laser has a good advantage for me, that is why I really appreciate the article content. Thanks a lot for a new learning! EnwaveOpt.com

  2. Very informative article! I can say that these article are very useful for the students who are searching information about Laser technology. This is very useful to consider in your science class. Thanks for posting! EnwaveOpt.com

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