Re: green HeNe lasers

[James McLean <jmclean@CHEM.UCSD.EDU>]

Herbert H Gottlieb wrote:
> Kathy Daniels asked how a HeNe laser can produce green light.
> ...
> In a HeNe laser the helium energizes the neon which emits photons as
> its energized electrons decay to the ground level.  These photons produce
> intense lines of infrared and red light and less intense line spectra of
> yellow, green, and blue.
> ...
>  To produce a HeNe laser that emits green light, there must be not only
> be thin film layers to cause constructive interference of the green light
>  but there must also be additional layers to cause destructive
> interference of the stronger red light .

Does the reflected green light then stimulate more green light emission,
thereby actually altering the emission spectrum of the neon somewhat?

--
--James McLean
jmclean@chem.ucsd.edu
post doc, UC San Diego, Chemistry
moving to SUNY Geneseo Physics this fall