Laser Fundamentals and Applications

Concept of stimulated emission; Einstein’s coefficients; Population inversion; Amplification of stimulated emission; Laser instrumentation fundamentals: Cavity, resonator and pumping processes; Gain medium

Coherent radiation, standing waves and modes; The kinetics of laser emission; Rate equations; Threshold conditions; Pulsed and continuous wave laser emission; Various pulsing techniques: cavity dumping, Q-switching and mode-locking

Transitions, lifetimes and linewidths: Three level laser, Four-level laser, emission linewidth; Properties of laser light: monochromaticity, spatial and temporal coherence, intensity, beam-width Similarity transforms.

Laser sources; different types of lasers; Laser instrumentation details

Applications of lasers in spectroscopy, chemistry, biology, medical sciences and other fields