3. Pumping mechanisms
3.1 Optical pumping
Theoretically elaborated in 1950 by the team of Kastler, optical pumping was the first, in ruby, to produce the laser effect (T.H. Maiman, 1960); it is still employed today. A powerful pulsed discharge lamp delivers an intense flash of light over a wide spectrum (white light and ultraviolet). Because of conditions dictated by the operation of the lamp and by thermal phenomena the process is most often repetitive with a frequency from several hertz to several tens of hertz. The simplified mechanisms of three- or four-level systems presented above require very selective pumping to supply level E 2 (figure
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Pumping mechanisms
Optical amplification
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