Lesson Plan: The Components and Operation of Lasers Physics • Third Year of Secondary School
This lesson plan includes the objectives, prerequisites, and exclusions of the lesson teaching students how to describe the functions of the different components of a laser.
Objectives
Students will be able to
- describe the electron energy level structure of the active medium of a laser,
- associate the emission and absorption of photons by electrons in ground, excited, and metastable energy level states with electron transitions between these energy levels,
- define population inversion in the active medium of a laser as the state in which the medium contains more atoms in energy states higher than the ground state than atoms in the ground state,
- explain why a metastable energy level of lower energy than an accessible excited energy level is necessary for population inversion to occur.
- explain why the resonant cavity of a laser is necessary for amplification of stimulated emission.
Prerequisites
Students should already be familiar with
- spontaneous and stimulated emission.
Exclusions
Students will not cover
- properties of laser beams.
