Quote:
Originally Posted by wade_b
Does a laser exhibit recoil?
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Yes.
Quote:
In stimulated emission an excited state atom emits a photon in the direction of an incident photon and returns to the ground state. The incident photon causes no recoil in the atom but the emitted photon causes a recoil opposite the incident photon. Figure 1.4 shows conservation of momentum in stimulated emission. We can see that although the total momentum of the system is zero the atom has a recoil opposite the incident photon.
Section I: Theoretical Principles
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Is this what you were thinking?
~modest
