I cannot work out a way to explain light amplification in a super simple way (doesn’t help that I barely understand it myself!). My aim is to be equipped with a simple explanation of this process that I can share with others. Understanding it more in depth myself would be a wonderful bonus!
I would love to be able to draw parallels with “real-world” things – for example, if parallels can be drawn to an amp can make an electric guitar much louder. Any thoughts?
In: Physics
Population inversion is the key. A non-excited atom will absorb a photon and get excited, but an already excited atom will release another photon without absorbing the first. So you get most of the atoms excited by using some non-laser energy source, and then they’ll amplify your laser light.
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