Cma Phy

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Laser action occurs when electrons are excited to assume closer positions to their parent nucleus and then

lose that excitement and drop back out to their normal expected distances from the core. When they drop back, they emit photons (laser light) as the energy lost when returning to their normal expected positions around the atom. If we know the excited energy (E) and the normal energy (e), we can find the photon frequencies and, therefore, their wavelengths. That comes from the lost energy hf = E - e and f = (E - e)/h; where h is Planck's constant. From fL = c for photons, we find the wavelength L = c/f. The photons produced when the electrons return to their normal energy states are monochromatic and coherent. That means they consist of a single fundamental frequency and its harmonics. And that's why a beam of focused laser light can travel for very long distances... it does not spread out. There are specific elements or mixes of elements that can effect these excitations better than others. And those are what we find in the commercial devices. Check this out... " Better than 99.997% pure yttrium and aluminum oxides, and 99.99% pure neodymium oxide are used." [See source.] This form is crystalline. The crystals are grown slowly within an inert gas that will not contaminate the crystal as it assembles and grows. Now specifically to your question... we use laser beams at room temperature all the time. Those neat little light pointers professors sometimes use to point to things on the white board are lasers. Some are green; some are red... depends on the mix of elements producing the light. The AA batteries in the light pens provide the energy to excite the electrons. If you are asking if laser action can come about from the heat energy of a room alone; then no. The answer is simple, it takes more energy to cause electrons to jump to a higher energy state than is available in the room temperature heat. If you solve delE = hf for a red frequency, for example, you will find the minimum amount of energy needed to boost one electron to its excited state... just one electron. Remember, we are talking about only a very very tiny bit of that room's heat, the part that comes into contact with that one electron. Multiply that by the billions of electrons in your laser device and I think you'll discover the heat of a room falls well short of being able to boost electrons.

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