5.

3 The Three-Level Laser System 101

5.3 The Three-Level Laser System

In the last section we saw that one cannot create a steady-state population inversion
between two levels just by using pumping between these levels. Thus in order to
produce a steady-state population inversion, one makes use of either a three-level or
a four-level system. In this section we shall discuss a three-level system.
We consider a three-level system consisting of energy levels E1 , E2 , and E3 all of
which are assumed to be nondegenerate. Let N1 , N2 , and N3 represent the population
densities of the three levels [see (Fig. 5.2)]. The pump is assumed to lift atoms from
level 1 to level 3 from which they decay rapidly to level 2 through some nonradiative
process. Thus the pump effectively transfers atoms from the ground level 1 to the
excited level 2 which is now the upper laser level; the lower laser level being the
ground state 1. If the relaxation from level 3 to level 2 is very fast, then the atoms
will relax down to level 2 rather than to level 1. Since the upper level 3 is not a laser
level, it can be a broad level (or a group of broad levels) so that a broadband light
source may be efficiently used as a pump source (see, e.g., the ruby laser discussed
in Chapter 11).

E3 N3
Rapid decay

E2
Pump N2

Laser

hνp

E1 N1 hνl

Fig. 5.2 A three-level system. The pump excites the atoms from level E1 to level E3 from where
the atoms undergo a fast decay to level E2 . The laser action takes place between levels E2 and E1

If we assume that transitions take place only between these three levels then we
may write
N = N1 + N2 + N3 (5.17)

where N represents the total number of atoms per unit volume.

We may now write the rate equations describing the rate of change of N1 , N2 and
N3 . For example, the rate of change of N3 may be written as

dN3
= Wp (N1 − N3 ) − T32 N3 (5.18)
dt

where Wp is the rate of pumping per atom from level 1 to level 3 which depends
on the pump intensity. The first term in Eq. (5.18) represents stimulated transitions
102 5 Laser Rate Equations

between levels 1 and 3 and T32 N3 represents the spontaneous transition from level
3 to level 2:
T32 = A32 + S32 (5.19)

A32 and S32 correspond, respectively, to the radiative and nonradiative transition
rates between levels 3 and 2. In writing Eq. (5.18) we have neglected T31 N3 which
corresponds to spontaneous transitions between levels 3 and 1 since most atoms
raised to level 3 are assumed to make transitions to level 2 rather than to level 1.
In a similar manner, we may write

dN2
= W1 (N1 − N2 ) + N3 T32 − N2 T21 (5.20)
dt
and
dN1
= Wp (N3 − N1 ) + Wl (N2 − N1 ) + N2 T21 (5.21)
dt
where

π 2 c2
Wl = A21 g(ω)Il (5.22)
ω3 n20

represents the stimulated transition rate per atom between levels 1 and 2, I1 is the
intensity of the radiation in the 2 → 1 transition and g(ω) represents the lineshape
function describing the transitions between levels 1 and 2. Further,

T21 = A21 + S21 (5.23)

with A21 and S21 representing the radiative and nonradiative relaxation rates between
levels 1 and 2. For efficient laser action since the transition must be mostly radiative,
we shall assume A21 >> S21 .
At steady state we must have

dN1 dN2 dN3

=0= = (5.24)
dt dt dt
From Eq. (5.18) we obtain

Wp
N3 = N1 (5.25)
Wp + T32

Using Eqs. (5.20), (5.21), and (5.25) we get

Wl (T32 + Wp ) + Wp T32
N2 = N1 (5.26)
(Wp + T32 )(Wl + T21 )
5.3 The Three-Level Laser System 103

Thus from Eqs. (5.17), (5.25), and (5.26) we get

N2 − N1 [Wp (T32 − T21 ) − T32 T21 ]

= (5.27)
N [3Wp Wl + 2Wp T21 + 2T32 Wl + T32 Wp + T32 T21 ]

From the above equation, one may see that in order to obtain population inver-
sion between levels 2 and 1, i.e., for (N2 − N1 ) to be positive, a necessary (but not
sufficient) condition is that
T32 > T21 (5.28)

Since the lifetimes of levels 3 and 2 are inversely proportional to the relaxation rates,
according to Eq. (5.28), the lifetime of level 3 must be smaller than that of level 2
for attainment of population inversion between levels 1 and 2. If this condition is
satisfied then according to Eq. (5.27), there is a minimum pumping rate required to
achieve population inversion which is given by
T32 T21
Wpt = (5.29)
T32 − T21
If T32  T21 ,
Wpt ≈ T21 (5.30)

and under the same approximation, Eq. (5.27) becomes

N2 − N1 (Wp − T21 )/(Wp + T21 )

=  3Wp +2T32
 (5.31)
N 1 + T32 (W W
p +T 21 ) 1

Below the threshold for laser oscillation, W1 is very small and hence we may write

N2 − N1 (Wp − T21 )
= (5.32)
N (Wp + T21 )

Thus when W1 is small, i.e., when the intensity of the radiation corresponding to the
laser transition is small [see Eq. (5.22)], then the population inversion is independent
of I1 and there is an exponential amplification of the beam. As the laser starts oscil-
lating, W1 becomes large and from Eq. (5.31) we see that this reduces the inversion
N2 − N1 which in turn reduces the amplification. When the laser oscillates under
steady-state conditions, the intensity of the radiation at the laser transition increases
to such a value that the value of N2 − N1 is the same as the threshold value.
Recalling Eq. (5.31), we see that for a population inversion N2 − N1 , the gain
coefficient of the laser medium is
π 2 c2
γ = g(ω)(N2 − N1 )
ω2 tsp n20
(5.33)
γ0
= 3Wp +2T32
1+ T32 (Wp +T21 ) W1
104 5 Laser Rate Equations

where

π 2 c2 Wp − T21
γ0 = g(ω)N (5.34)
ω2 tsp n20 Wp + T21

is the small signal gain coefficient. If we now carry out a similar analysis to that in
Section 5.2, we may write
γ0
γ = (5.35)
1 + (I/Is )g̃(ω)
where
g̃(ω) = g(ω)/g(ω0 )

ω3 n20 T32 (Wp + T21 ) (5.36)

Is =
π c2 A21 g(ω0 ) (3Wp + 2T32 )
2

Is being the saturation intensity [see the discussion following Eq. (5.16)].
If T32 is very large then there will be very few atoms residing in level 3.
Consequently, we may write
N = N1 + N2 + N3 ≈ N1 + N2 (5.37)

Substituting in Eq. (5.32), we get

N2 − N1 Wp − T21
=
N2 + N1 Wp + T21
or
Wp N1 = T21 N2 (5.38)

The left-hand side of the above equation represents the number of atoms being lifted
(by the pump) per unit volume per unit time from level 1 to level 2 via level 3 and
the right-hand side corresponds to the spontaneous emission rate per unit volume
from level 2 to level 1. These rates must be equal under steady-state conditions for
W1 ≈ 0, i.e., below the threshold.
We shall now estimate the threshold pumping power required to start laser oscil-
lation. In order to do this, we first observe that the threshold inversion required is
usually very small compared to N (i.e., N2 − N1  N – see the example of the ruby
laser discussed in Chapter 11). Thus from Eq. (5.38), we see that the threshold value
of Wp required to start laser oscillation is also approximately equal to T21 Now the
number of atoms being pumped per unit time per unit volume from level 1 to level
3 is Wp N1 . If vp represents the average pump frequency corresponding to excitation
to E3 from E1 , then the power required per unit volume will be

P = Wp N1 hvp (5.39)

Thus the threshold pump power for laser oscillation is given by

Pt = T21 N1 hvp (5.40)

5.4 The Four-Level Laser System 105

Since N2 − N1  N and N3 ≈ 0, N1 ≈ N2 ≈ N/2. Also assuming the transition

from level 2 to level 1 to be mainly radiative (i.e., A21 >>S21 ), we have

Pt ≈ Nhvp /2tsp (5.41)

where we have used A21 = 1/tsp .

As an example, we consider the ruby laser for which we have the following values
of the various parameters:

N ≈ 1.6 × 1019 cm−3 tsp ≈ 3 × 10−3 s vp ≈ 6.25 × 1014 Hz (5.42)

Substitution in Eq. (5.41) gives us

Pt ≈ 1100 W/cm3 (5.43)

If we assume that the efficiency of the pumping source to be 25% and also that
only 25% of the pump light is absorbed on passage through the ruby rod, then the
electrical threshold power comes out to be about 18 kW/cm3 of the active medium.
This is consistent with the threshold powers obtained experimentally.
Under pulsed operation if we assume that the pumping pulse is much shorter
than the lifetime of level 2, then the atoms excited to the upper laser level do not
appreciably decay during the duration of the pulse and the threshold pump energy
would be
N
Upt = hνp
2
per unit volume of the active medium. For the case of ruby laser, with the above
efficiencies of pumping and absorption, one obtains

Upt ≈ 54 J/cm3

It may be noted here that even though ruby laser is a three-level laser system,
because of various other factors mentioned below it does operate with not too large
a pumping power. Thus, for example, the absorption band of ruby crystal is very
well matched to the emission spectrum of available pump lamps so that the pump-
ing efficiency is quite high. Also most of the atoms pumped to level 3 drop down to
level 2 which has a very long lifetime which is nearly radiative. In addition the line
width of laser transition is also very narrow.

5.4 The Four-Level Laser System

In the last section we found that since the lower laser was the ground level, one has
to lift more than 50% of the atoms in the ground level in order to obtain population
inversion. This problem can be overcome by using another level of the atomic sys-
tem and having the lower laser level also as an excited level. The four-level laser