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Concept

Population inversion

A central sphere emits radiating lines in various colors, symbolizing population inversion in a conceptual representation of laser action.

The condition required for laser action: more atoms in an excited state than in the ground state, so that a passing photon is more likely to provoke another emission than to be absorbed. Achieving and sustaining inversion is the hard engineering problem behind every laser. It is forbidden in simple two-level systems at thermal equilibrium, which is why working lasers use three or four energy levels and an external pump.

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