Abstract
Stimulated processes are the basic phenomena in laser devices, operating either as amplifiers or as optical oscillators. Although the laser operation is best described in the framework of a semiclassical theory, in which the electromagnetic field is not treated quantum mechanically, the basic processes are better understood if we quantize the field. When there are no photons in the final modes of the electromagnetic field, vacuum fluctuations cause an atom or a molecule in an excited level to emit spontaneously a photon in one mode. All the modes with an energy close to the transition energy are equivalent. But when one of these modes in occupied by a large number n of photons, then the cross section for the emission in that mode is greatly enhanced (by a factor n): this is what is called stimulated emission.
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© 1978 Plenum Press, New York
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Bambini, A., Renieri, A. (1978). The Free Electron Laser: A Single Particle Classical Model. In: Arecchi, F.T., Bonifacio, R., Scully, M.O. (eds) Coherence in Spectroscopy and Modern Physics. NATO Advanced Study Institutes Series, vol 37. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-2871-1_18
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-2871-1_18
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