A typical light source emits light that radiates in all directions and decreases with increasing distance. This attenuation occurs mainly because the light from such sources is the result of a multitude of molecules or atoms within the source emitting photons independently during spontaneous radiation. In contrast, lasers amplify incident photons through stimulated emission.
Due to the different mechanisms behind laser generation compared to common light sources, lasers exhibit unique characteristics not shared with conventional light, which can generally be summarized into four aspects: directionality, monochromaticity, coherence, and high intensity.
Laser Directionality
Lasers emit light through stimulated radiation; each photon maintains the same frequency, phase and polarization state as the incident light, all under the control of an optical resonator. This control allows the laser beam to propagate strictly along the resonator axis with a very small divergence angle, approaching that of parallel light.
The high directionality of lasers is determined by the stimulated emission mechanism and the restraining influence of the optical resonator on the direction of the oscillating light beam. Precise data has shown that a laser beam emitted from Earth to the Moon, over a distance covering approximately 380,000 kilometers, results in a beam spot on the Moon less than 1,000 meters in diameter.
This excellent directionality has led to the widespread use of lasers in ranging, communication, and positioning. The high directionality of lasers allows for effective transmission over long distances and focusing at very high power densities, both of which are crucial for laser processing.
Monochromaticity of Lasers
The color of light is determined by its wavelength. The width between the two wavelengths at which the intensity is half maximum is normally defined as the spectral line width. The narrower the spectral line width, the better the monochromaticity of the light. Visible light consists of seven colors, each with a spectral line width of 40 to 50 nanometers.
The monochromaticity of lasers far exceeds that of ordinary light sources. For example, the spectral line width of red laser light emitted by a helium-neon laser is only 10 -8 nanometers, which is significantly more monochromatic than a krypton lamp. Some special lasers have even greater monochromaticity.
The extremely high monochromaticity of lasers virtually eliminates chromatic dispersion (the variation in refractive index with wavelength) of focusing lenses, allowing the light beam to be precisely focused on the focal point, achieving high power density. The excellent monochromaticity of lasers provides an advantageous tool for precision instrument measurements and for stimulating certain chemical reactions in scientific experiments.
Laser Coherence
Coherence mainly describes the phase relationships between different parts of a light wave, covering two aspects: temporal coherence and spatial coherence. For lasers, the spatial distribution of the light field is typically decomposed into a distribution along the propagation direction (cavity axis). E(z) and a distribution in the cross section perpendicular to the propagation direction E(x, y) .
Thus, laser cavity modes can be divided into longitudinal and transverse modes, representing the longitudinal and transverse light field distributions of cavity modes, respectively.
(1) Temporal Coherence
The temporal coherence of a laser refers to the phase relationships between points along the direction of beam propagation. In practical applications, coherence time is often used to describe the temporal coherence of a laser. The narrower the width of the spectral line, that is, the greater the monochromaticity, the greater the coherence time.
Single-mode frequency-stabilized gas lasers have the best monochromaticity, typically reaching 10 6 to 10 13 Hz; solid-state lasers have poorer monochromaticity, mainly because their gain curve is wide, making operation in a single longitudinal mode difficult; Semiconductor lasers have the worst monochromaticity.
Single-mode operation (mode selection technology) and frequency stabilization are crucial to increasing coherence. A frequency-stabilized single transverse mode laser emits light close to an ideal monochromatic plane wave, i.e. fully coherent.
(2) Spatial Coherence
The spatial coherence of a laser is the phase relationship between points in a plane perpendicular to the direction of beam propagation. It refers to the scale at which the light emitted by the beam can converge at a point in space to form interference patterns, and spatial coherence is related to the size of the light source.
An ideal plane wave is fully spatially coherent and has a zero divergence angle. However, in practice, due to diffraction effects, the smallest beam emission angle achievable by a laser cannot be less than the diffraction limiting angle when passing through the exit aperture.
To improve the spatial coherence of a laser, it is essential to first constrain the laser to operate in a single transverse mode; second, appropriately select the optical cavity type and increase the cavity length to improve beam directivity. Furthermore, inhomogeneity in the active medium, errors in machining and cavity adjustment, and other factors can also degrade beam directivity.
High Intensity Lasers
Due to the excellent directivity of laser beams, the emitted energy is confined within a very narrow solid angle and the energy is concentrated within a narrow spectral linewidth. This significantly increases the spectral brightness of lasers compared to conventional light sources. In pulsed lasers, where the energy emission is further compressed into a very short time interval, the spectral brightness can be further increased.
Currently, increasing output power and efficiency is an important direction in laser development. Gas lasers such as CO 2 can produce the highest continuous power, while solid-state lasers can produce the highest pulse power.
Especially with the use of optical cavity modulation techniques and laser amplifiers, the laser oscillation time can be compressed to very small values (of the order of 10). -9 seconds), and the output energy can be amplified, resulting in extremely high pulse power. With mode-locking and pulse width compression techniques, laser pulse widths can be further compressed to 10 -15 seconds.
Most importantly, laser power (energy) can be concentrated into a single (or few) modes, thus achieving a very high degree of photon degeneration. When a laser beam is focused through a lens, it can generate temperatures of several thousand, even tens of thousands of degrees Celsius, near the focal point, allowing the processing of all materials.
For example, high-power CO2 laser cutting machines commonly used in industry adopt focal lengths of 127 to 190 mm, with focal spot diameters ranging from 0.1 to 0.4 mm, and its energy density can reach 10 W/ cm2 .
