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Chemistry LibreTexts

Lasers

  • Page ID
    317
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    LASER is an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Laser is a type of light source which has the unique characteristics of directionality, brightness, and monochromaticity. The goal of this module is to explain how a laser operates (stimulated or spontaneous emission), describe important components, and give some examples of types of lasers and their applications.

    • Gas Lasers
      Gas lasers have lasing media that are made-up of one or a mixture of gases or vapors. Gas lasers can be classified in terms of the type of transitions that lead to their operation: atomic or molecular. The most common of all gas lasers is the helium-neon (He-Ne) laser.
    • Laser Theory
      There are four laser demands: population inversion, laser threshold, energy source and active medium.
    • Overview of Lasers
      LASER is an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Laser is a type of light source which has the unique characteristics of directionality, brightness, and monochromaticity. The goal of this module is to explain how a laser operates (stimulated or spontaneous emission), describe important components, and give some examples of types of lasers and their applications.
    • Semiconductor and Solid-state lasers
      In both solid-state and semiconductor lasers the lasing medium is a solid. Aside from this similarity, however, these two laser types are very different from each other. In the case of the solid-state lasers the lasing species is typically an impurity that resides in a solid host, a crystal of some sort. The crystal modifies some of the quantized energy levels of the impurity, but still the lasing is almost atomic - similar to gas lasers.


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