Quantum concepts

Quantum mechanics includes such concepts as “allowed states”—i.e., stationary states of energy content exactly stipulated by its laws. The energy states shown in Figure 1 are of that kind. A transition between such states depends not only on the availability (e.g., as radiation) of the precise amount of energy required but also on the quantum-mechanical probability of such a transition. That probability, the oscillator strength, involves so-called selection rules that, in general terms, state the degree to which a transition between two states (which are described in quantum-mechanical terms) is allowed. As an illustration of allowed transition in Figure 1, the only electronic transitions permitted are those in which the change in vibrational quantum number accompanying a change in electronic excitation is plus or minus one or zero, except that a 0 ↔ 0 (zero-to-zero) change is not permitted. All electronic states include vibrational and rotational levels, so that the probability of a specific electronic transition includes the probabilities of transition between all the vibrational and rotational states that can conceivably be involved. Figure 1 is, of course, a simplified picture of a compendium of energy states available to a molecule (polyatomic structure)—and the selection rules are accordingly more involved in such a case. The selection rules are worked out by scientists in a process of discovery; the attempt is to state them systematically so that the applicable rules in an experimentally unstudied case may be stated on the basis of general principle.

Absorption and emission

In transit through matter, the intensity of light decreases exponentially with distance; in effect, the fractional loss is the same for equal distances of penetration. The energy loss from the light appears as energy added to the medium, or what is known as absorption. A medium can be weakly absorbing at one region of the electromagnetic spectrum and strongly absorbing at another. If a medium is weakly absorbing, its dispersion and absorption can be measured directly from the intensity of refracted or transmitted light. If it is strongly absorbing, on the other hand, the light does not survive even a few wavelengths of penetration. The refracted or transmitted light is then so weak that measurements are at best difficult. The absorption and dispersion in such cases, nevertheless, may still be determined by studying the reflected light only. This procedure is possible because the intensity of the reflected light has a refractive index that separates mathematically into contributions from dispersion and absorption. In the far ultraviolet it is the only practical means of studying absorption, a study that has revealed valuable information about electronic energy levels and collective energy losses (see below Molecular activation) in condensed material.

Experimental studies of the chemical effects of radiation on matter can be greatly forwarded by the use of beams of high intensity and very short duration. Such studies are made possible by employment of the laser, a light source developed by the American physicists Arthur L. Schawlow and Charles H. Townes (1958) from the application of one of the Einstein equations. Einstein suggested (on the basis of a principle of detailed balancing, or microscopic reversibility) that, just as the amount of light absorbed by a molecular system in a light field must depend on the intensity of the light, the amount of light emitted from excited states of the same system must also exhibit such dependency. In this fundamentally important idea of microscopic reversibility can be seen one of the most dramatic illustrations of the physical effects of radiation.

Under any circumstance, the absorption probability in the ground state is given by the number of molecules (or atoms), N_i, in that state multiplied both by the probability, B_ij, for transition from state i to state j and by the light intensity, I(ν), at frequency symbolized by the Greek letter nu, ν; i.e., N_i B_ij I(ν). Light emission from an excited state to the ground state depends on the number of molecules (or atoms) in the upper state, N_j, multiplied by the probability of spontaneous emission, A_ji, to the ground state plus the additional induced emission term, N_j B_ji I(ν), in which B_ji is a term that Einstein showed to be equal to B_ij and that relates the probability of such induced emission, so that in the general case in any steady-state situation (in which light absorption and emission are occurring at equal rates):

There is a well-developed theoretical relationship (not here presented) of a quantum-mechanical nature between A_ji and B_ij. Ordinarily, the light intensity, I(ν), is so low that the second term on the right can be neglected. At sufficiently high light intensities, however, that term can become important. In fact, if the light intensity is high, as in a laser, the induced-emission probability can easily exceed that of spontaneous emission.

Spontaneous emission of light is random in direction and phase. Induced emission has the same direction of polarization and propagation as that of the incident light. If by some means a greater population is created in the upper level than in the lower one, then, under the stimulus of an incident light of appropriate frequency, the light intensity actually increases with path length provided that there is enough stimulated emission to compensate for absorption and scattering. Such stimulated emission is the basis of laser light. Practical lasers such as the ruby or the helium-neon lasers work, however, on a three-level principle.