Quantum Theory of an Optical Maser

Bell Telephone Laboratories, Henry E. Breed

R. L. Fork, M. Sargent

H. Iwasawa, Kuniaki Matsuo

J. E. Geusic, H. E. D. Scovil

The subject of masers is introduced by giving an historical account of events which led to the amplification of microwave radiation by an inverted population in a system of weakly interacting ammonia molecules. The introduction also outlines the development of masers up to the present. Sections 2 and 3 are concerned with maser fundamentals. Methods for obtaining inverted populations are discussed in § 2. Section 3 is devoted to the theory of maser gain and noise. This is followed by a discussion of microwave solid state masers. Microwave maser materials and the development of unidirectional travelling wave maser amplifiers are emphasized. Optical masers are treated in § 5. In this section the theory of optical amplifiers and oscillators is outlined. Also included in the theoretical discussion is a rather lengthy consideration of pump power requirements in optically pumped masers. This is followed by a survey of solid state, semiconductor and gaseous optical masers. The review ends with some comments on the extension of masers to new wavelength regions.

P. Grivet, N. Bloembergen

Contents: Theory of coherence and noise; Optical pumping and magnetometers; Molecular beam masers; Gas lasers; Spectroscopy of solid state maser materials; Solid state masers.