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Inscribedon side of base: TRIGGER / SETTING-20
FunctionThe material that produces laser light are most commonly based on a crystal or a gas. When this medium is stimulated by an electrical current, for instance, it starts absorbing energy, exciting the states of the particles composing the medium. This all happens within what is called a resonant optical cavity, a specially designed chamber made with a mirror at one end and a semi-silvered mirror at the other. The photons, produced by the excited particles, are trapped inside this cavity, reflected back and forth by the two mirrors. Each pass they do creates more photon, hence the energy of the light increases. When the energy peak is reached (or saturated), that light becomes a laser of a specific wavelength. It goes out from the side of the semi-silvered mirror.
Historical AttributesNicolaas Bloembergen shared the 1981 Nobel Prize in physics for the development of laser spectroscopy. He also developed the theory of non-linear optics to help explain how the intensity of laser light affects matter.
See the Nobel Prize website for more information on Bloembergen and his work.
An interview of him can be seen here.
ProvenanceFrom the Department of Physics, Harvard University.