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Hanle Effect
The Hanle effect, also known as zero-field level crossing, is a reduction in the polarization of light when the atoms emitting the light are subject to a magnetic field in a particular direction, and when they have themselves been excited by polarized light. Experiments which utilize the Hanle effect include measuring the lifetime of excited states, and detecting the presence of magnetic fields. History The first experimental evidence for the effect came from Robert W. Wood, and Lord Rayleigh. The effect is named after Wilhelm Hanle, who was the first to explain the effect, in terms of classical physics, in ''Zeitschrift für Physik'' in 1924. Initially, the causes of the effect were controversial, and many theorists mistakenly thought it was a version of the Faraday effect. Attempts to understand the phenomenon were important in the subsequent development of quantum physics. An early theoretical treatment of level crossing effect was given by Gregory Breit. Theory Classical model ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Excited State
In quantum mechanics Quantum mechanics is the fundamental physical Scientific theory, theory that describes the behavior of matter and of light; its unusual characteristics typically occur at and below the scale of atoms. Reprinted, Addison-Wesley, 1989, It is ..., an excited state of a system (such as an atom, molecule or Atomic nucleus, nucleus) is any quantum state of the system that has a higher energy than the ground state (that is, more energy than the absolute minimum). Excitation refers to an increase in energy level above a chosen starting point, usually the ground state, but sometimes an already excited state. The temperature of a group of particles is indicative of the level of excitation (with the notable exception of systems that exhibit negative temperature). The lifetime of a system in an excited state is usually short: Spontaneous emission, spontaneous or stimulated emission, induced emission of a quantum of energy (such as a photon or a phonon) usually ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Imaging Spectroscopy
Imaging is the representation or reproduction of an object's form; especially a visual representation (i.e., the formation of an image). Imaging technology is the application of materials and methods to create, preserve, or duplicate images. Imaging science is a multidisciplinary field concerned with the generation, collection, duplication, analysis, modification, and visualization of images,Joseph P. Hornak, ''Encyclopedia of Imaging Science and Technology'' (John Wiley & Sons, 2002) including imaging things that the human eye cannot detect. As an evolving field it includes research and researchers from physics, mathematics, electrical engineering, computer vision, computer science, and perceptual psychology. '' Imagers'' are imaging sensors. Imaging chain The foundation of imaging science as a discipline is the "imaging chain" – a conceptual model describing all of the factors which must be considered when developing a system for creating visual renderings (images). In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Magnetism
Magnetism is the class of physical attributes that occur through a magnetic field, which allows objects to attract or repel each other. Because both electric currents and magnetic moments of elementary particles give rise to a magnetic field, magnetism is one of two aspects of electromagnetism. The most familiar effects occur in ferromagnetic materials, which are strongly attracted by magnetic fields and can be magnetized to become permanent magnets, producing magnetic fields themselves. Demagnetizing a magnet is also possible. Only a few substances are ferromagnetic; the most common ones are iron, cobalt, nickel, and their alloys. All substances exhibit some type of magnetism. Magnetic materials are classified according to their bulk susceptibility. Ferromagnetism is responsible for most of the effects of magnetism encountered in everyday life, but there are actually several types of magnetism. Paramagnetic substances, such as aluminium and oxygen, are weakly attracted ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atomic Physics
Atomic physics is the field of physics that studies atoms as an isolated system of electrons and an atomic nucleus. Atomic physics typically refers to the study of atomic structure and the interaction between atoms. It is primarily concerned with the way in which electrons are arranged around the nucleus and the processes by which these arrangements change. This comprises ions, neutral atoms and, unless otherwise stated, it can be assumed that the term ''atom'' includes ions. The term ''atomic physics'' can be associated with nuclear power and nuclear weapons, due to the synonymous use of ''atomic'' and ''nuclear'' in standard English. Physicists distinguish between atomic physics—which deals with the atom as a system consisting of a nucleus and electrons—and nuclear physics, which studies nuclear reactions and special properties of atomic nuclei. As with many scientific fields, strict delineation can be highly contrived and atomic physics is often considered in the w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Optical Pumping
Optical pumping is a process in which light is used to raise (or "pump") electrons from a lower energy level in an atom or molecule to a higher one. It is commonly used in laser construction to pump the active laser medium so as to achieve population inversion. The technique was developed by the 1966 Nobel Prize winner Alfred Kastler in the early 1950s. Page 56. Optical pumping is also used to cyclically pump electrons bound within an atom or molecule to a well-defined quantum state. For the simplest case of coherent two-level optical pumping of an atomic species containing a single outer-shell electron, this means that the electron is coherently pumped to a single hyperfine sublevel (labeled m_F\!), which is defined by the polarization of the pump laser along with the quantum selection rules. Upon optical pumping, the atom is said to be ''oriented'' in a specific m_F\! sublevel, however, due to the cyclic nature of optical pumping, the bound electron will actually be unde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Resonance Fluorescence
Resonance fluorescence is the process in which a two-level atom system interacts with the quantum electromagnetic field if the field is driven at a frequency near to the natural frequency Natural frequency, measured in terms of '' eigenfrequency'', is the rate at which an oscillatory system tends to oscillate in the absence of disturbance. A foundational example pertains to simple harmonic oscillators, such as an idealized spring ... of the atom. General theory Typically the photon contained electromagnetic field is applied to the two-level atom through the use of a monochromatic laser. A two-level atom is a specific type of two-state system in which the atom can be found in the two possible states. The two possible states are if an electron is found in its ground state or the excited state. In many experiments an atom of lithium is used because it can be closely modeled to a two-level atom as the excited states of the singular electron are separated by large enough energy ga ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Larmor Precession
Sir Joseph Larmor (; 11 July 1857 – 19 May 1942) was an Irish mathematician and physicist who made breakthroughs in the understanding of electricity, dynamics, thermodynamics, and the electron theory of matter. His most influential work was ''Aether and Matter'', a theoretical physics book published in 1900. Biography He was born in Magheragall in County Antrim, the son of Hugh Larmor, a Belfast shopkeeper and his wife, Anna Wright. The family moved to Belfast circa 1860, and he was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, and then studied mathematics and experimental science at Queen's College, Belfast (BA 1874, MA 1875), where one of his teachers was John Purser. He subsequently studied at St John's College, Cambridge, where in 1880 he was Senior Wrangler ( J. J. Thomson was second wrangler that year) and Smith's Prizeman, getting his MA in 1883. After teaching physics for a few years at Queen's College, Galway, he accepted a lectureship in mathematics at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stark Effect
The Stark effect is the shifting and splitting of spectral lines of atoms and molecules due to the presence of an external electric field. It is the electric-field analogue of the Zeeman effect, where a spectral line is split into several components due to the presence of the magnetic field. Although initially coined for the static case, it is also used in the wider context to describe the effect of time-dependent electric fields. In particular, the Stark effect is responsible for the pressure broadening (Stark broadening) of spectral lines by charged particles in plasmas. For most spectral lines, the Stark effect is either linear (proportional to the applied electric field) or quadratic with a high accuracy. The Stark effect can be observed both for emission and absorption lines. The latter is sometimes called the inverse Stark effect, but this term is no longer used in the modern literature. History The effect is named after the German physicist Johannes Stark, who discov ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zeeman Effect
The Zeeman effect () is the splitting of a spectral line into several components in the presence of a static magnetic field. It is caused by the interaction of the magnetic field with the magnetic moment of the atomic electron associated with its Angular momentum, orbital motion and Spin (physics), spin; this interaction shifts some orbital energies more than others, resulting in the split spectrum. The effect is named after the Netherlands, Dutch physicist Pieter Zeeman, who discovered it in 1896 and received a Nobel Prize in Physics for this discovery. It is analogous to the Stark effect, the splitting of a spectral line into several components in the presence of an electric field. Also, similar to the Stark effect, transitions between different components have, in general, different intensities, with some being entirely forbidden (in the dipole approximation), as governed by the selection rules. Since the distance between the Zeeman sub-levels is a function of magnetic field ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spin Polarization
In particle physics, spin polarization is the degree to which the spin, i.e., the intrinsic angular momentum of elementary particles, is aligned with a given direction. This property may pertain to the spin, hence to the magnetic moment, of conduction electrons in ferromagnetic metals, such as iron, giving rise to spin-polarized currents. It may refer to (static) spin waves, preferential correlation of spin orientation with ordered lattices (semiconductors or insulators). It may also pertain to beams of particles, produced for particular aims, such as polarized neutron scattering or muon spin spectroscopy. Spin polarization of electrons or of nuclei, often called simply magnetization, is also produced by the application of a magnetic field. Curie law is used to produce an induction signal in electron spin resonance (ESR or EPR) and in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Spin polarization is also important for spintronics, a branch of electronics. Magnetic semiconducto ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Free Electron Model
In solid-state physics, the free electron model is a quantum mechanical model for the behaviour of charge carriers in a metallic solid. It was developed in 1927, principally by Arnold Sommerfeld, who combined the classical Drude model with quantum mechanical Fermi–Dirac statistics and hence it is also known as the Drude–Sommerfeld model. Given its simplicity, it is surprisingly successful in explaining many experimental phenomena, especially * the Wiedemann–Franz law which relates electrical conductivity and thermal conductivity; * the temperature dependence of the electron heat capacity; * the shape of the electronic density of states; * the range of binding energy values; * electrical conductivities; * the Seebeck coefficient of the thermoelectric effect; * thermal electron emission and field electron emission from bulk metals. The free electron model solved many of the inconsistencies related to the Drude model and gave insight into several other properties of me ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Solid State Physics
Solid-state physics is the study of rigid matter, or solids, through methods such as solid-state chemistry, quantum mechanics, crystallography, electromagnetism, and metallurgy. It is the largest branch of condensed matter physics. Solid-state physics studies how the large-scale properties of solid materials result from their atomic-scale properties. Thus, solid-state physics forms a theoretical basis of materials science. Along with solid-state chemistry, it also has direct applications in the technology of transistors and semiconductors. Background Solid materials are formed from densely packed atoms, which interact intensely. These interactions produce the mechanical (e.g. hardness and elasticity), thermal, electrical, magnetic and optical properties of solids. Depending on the material involved and the conditions in which it was formed, the atoms may be arranged in a regular, geometric pattern ( crystalline solids, which include metals and ordinary water ice) or irregul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
