LASER QUIZ
POWER SATURATION IN QUANTUM TRANSITION
INTRODUCTION
This tutorial uses the hyperlink capabilities of the World Web Wide
to demonstrate the statistical nature of photon atom interactions.
In this particular case we examine what occurs when a strong monochromatic
electromagnetic beam of radiation falls on a resonant quantum system consisting
of two energy levels.
PURPOSE
To get a feel for what is actually happening when an intense stream of
photons irradiates a two level quantum system. How does it respond ?
What are the respective roles of the various competing quantum processes
You will have hands-on opportunity to try various scenarios to
see for yourself which one succeeds and which one is less likely to occur.
HINT
Eventually the distribution among the quantum levels must reach a steady
state equilibrium with half of the population in the ground state and the other
half are in the excited state. (this is the very definition of power saturation
of a quantum transition)
Dominant photon-atom processes
Spontaneous Emission
Absorption
Stimulated Emission
Since we are using a very powerful photon pump, spontaneous emission
can be neglected as a first approximation.
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