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Atoms

Laser

Laser, Ruby Laser, Energy Levels Finding substances in which a population inversion can be set up is central to the development of new kinds of laser. The first material used was synthetic ruby. Ruby is crystalline aluminum (Al2O3) in which a small fraction of the Al3+ ions have been replaced by chromium ions, Cr3+. It is the chromium ions that give rise to the characteristic pink or red colour of ruby and it is in these ions that a population inversion is set up in a ruby laser.

Figure 13-09 Ruby Laser
[view large image]

Figure 13-10 Laser, Energy
Levels [view large image]
In a ruby laser, a rod of ruby is irradiated with the intense flash of light from xenon-filled flashtubes. (See Figure 13-09.) Light in the green and blue regions of the spectrum is absorbed by chromium ions, raising the energy of electrons of the ions from the ground state level to the broad F bands (See Figure 13-10). Electrons in the F bands rapidly undergo non-radiative transitions to the two metastable E levels. A non-radiative transition does not result in the emission of light; the energy released in the transition is dissipated as heat in the ruby crystal. The metastable levels are unusual in that they have a relatively long lifetime of about 4 milliseconds (4 x 10-3 s), the major decay process being a transition from the metastable level to the ground state. This long lifetime allows a high proportion (more than a half) of the chromium ions to build up in the metastable levels so that a population inversion is set up between these levels and the ground state level. This population inversion is the condition required for stimulated emission to overcome absorption and so give rise to the amplification of light. Since photons are bosons, which do not obey the Pauli exclusion principle, they can occupy the same state. The stimluating photon and the stimulated photon leave the atom in the same direction, same frequency, same polarization and in phase. This light can then interact with other chromium ions that are in the metastable levels causing them to repeat the same process. As each stimulating photon leads to the emission of two photons, the intensity of the light emitted will build up quickly. This cascade process in which photons emitted from excited chromium ions cause stimulated emission from other excited ion, will create a very intense and coherent red light beam of wavelengths 694.3 and 692.7 nm.

Laser Cooling Laser cooling utilizes the collective momentum of many photons to reduce the thermal motion of an atom. Since the approaching and recessing speed of the atoms differs slightly due to the Doppler effect and the atoms can only absorb a certain frequency, the laser beam can be tuned such that it slows down only the approaching atoms. The six crossed laser beams shown in Figure 13-10a create a space in which atoms moving in this region (the bright area in the center of the picture) are trapped and cooled by absorption of photons from the crossed beams. With this technique, researchers have already reached temperatures lower than a millionth of a degree Kelvin. That's an average atomic speed on the order of a few cm/sec.

Figure 13-10a Laser Cooling

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