Amplification, photonics

The acronym LASER (Light Amplification via tire Stimulated Emission of Radiation) defines the process of amplification. For all intents and purjDoses tliis metliod was elegantly outlined by Einstein in 1917 [H] wherein he derived a treatment of the dynamic equilibrium of a material in a electromagnetic field absorbing and emitting photons. Key here is tire insight tliat, in addition to absorjDtion and spontaneous emission processes, in an excited system one can stimulate tire emission of a photon by interaction witli tire electromagnetic field. It is tliis stimulated emission process which lays tire conceptual foundation of tire laser. 

Dry-Film Resists Based on Radical Photopolymerization. Photoinitiated polymerization (PIP) is widely practiced ia bulk systems, but special measures must be taken to apply the chemistry ia Hthographic appHcations. The attractive aspect of PIP is that each initiator species produced by photolysis launches a cascade of chemical events, effectively forming multiple chemical bonds for each photon absorbed. The gain that results constitutes a form of "chemical amplification" analogous to that observed ia silver hahde photography, and illustrates a path for achieving very high photosensitivities. 

Secondary Emission - Electrons striking the surface of a cathode could cause the release of some electrons and, hence, a net amplification in the number of electrons. This principle is used in the construction of photomultipliers where light photons strike a photoemitting cathode releasing photoelectrons. These electrons are subsequently amplified striking a number of electrodes (called dynodes) before they are finally collected by the anode. 

DC amplification and pulse counting (often inaccurately called photon counting ) are two types of signal amplifications often used. 

Fig. 3a, b. Schematic representation of (a) conventional fluorescent sensor and (b) fluorescent sensor with signal amplification. Open rhombi indicate coordination sites and black rhombi indicate metal ions. The curved arrows represent quenching processes. In the case of a den-drimer, the absorbed photon excites a single fluorophore component, which is quenched by the metal ion regardless of its position... 

Based on the photoelectric effect, electrons in evacuated tubes (photoelectrons) are released from a metal surface if it is irradiated with photons of sufficient quantum energy. These are simple photocells. Photomultipliers are more sophisticated and used in modem spectrophotometers where, via high voltage, the photoelectrons are accelerated to another electrode (dynode) where one electron releases several electrons more, and by repetition up to more than ten times a signal amplification on the order of 10 can be obtained. This means that one photon finally achieves the release of 10 electrons from the anode, which easily can be measured as an electric current. The sensitivity of such a photomultiplier resembles the sensitivity of the human eye adapted to darkness. The devices described are mainly used in laboratory-bound spectrophotometers. 

However, as Raman scattering is a two-photon process, the probability of the Raman scattering process is lower than that of fluorescence and IR absorption processes. The cross section of Raman scattering is 10 cm, which is much smaller than that of fluorescence ( 10 cm ) and IR absorption ( 10 °cm ). When we detect Raman scattering at the nanoscale, the number of photons obtained is less than with the usual micro-Raman spectroscopy due to reduction in the detection area or the number of molecules. To overcome this problem, we need to devise a method for amplification of Raman scattering. 

Several other principles have been used to build X-ray detectors. For instance, ID detectors have been realized by diode arrays. 2D detectors have been realized by conversion of X-rays to visible light, photon amplification, and a television camera (VIDICON). CCD detectors have outperformed both diode arrays and the VIDI-CON. 

Another important property of PMTs is the pulse height distribution. The amplification of individual photoelectrons by the PMT is a stochastic process that causes variations in the gain of individual photoelectrons. As a result significant jitter in the amplitude of the output pulses is observed, see Fig. 3.6. These pulse height variations can be more than a factor of 10. The lowest pulse heights mainly consist of (thermal) noise, indicated by the dashed line in Fig. 3.6. The pulse height distribution exhibits a peak corresponding to detected photons. The threshold level of the... 

The word LASER is an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. The physical process upon which lasers depend, stimulated emission, was first elucidated by Einstein in 1917 (1). Einstein showed that in quantized systems three processes involving photons must exist absorption, spontaneous emission, and stimulated emission. These may be represented as follows ... 

Shyh Wang, Principles and Characteristics of Integratable Active and Passive Optical Devices Shlomo Margalit and Amnon Yariv, Integrated Electronic and Photonic Devices Takaaki Mukai, Yoshihisa Yamamoto, and Tatsuya Kimura, Optical Amplification by Semiconductor Lasers... 

Other detection modes in bright CL or BL reactions are multichannel detectors, which provide simultaneous detection of the dispersed radiation and produce a permanent image of a wide area. Photographic films or plates are emulsions that contain silver halide crystals in which incident photons produce stable clusters of silver atoms within the crystals. Internal amplification is provided in the development process by an electron donor that reduces the remaining silver ions to silver atoms within the exposed crystals. A complexing agent is used to remove the... 

The AG molecule is converted to a strong acid (AH) upon absorption of a photon and the rate of this reaction is fast, with the extent of reaction being governed by the quantum effeciency of the particular acid generator and flux. The acid proton affects the desired deprotection reaction (4) with a finite rate constant. This rate is a function of the acid concentration, [H4-], the temperature and most importantly, the diffusion rate of the acid in the polymer matrix. The diffusion rate in turn, depends on the temperature and the polarity of the polymer matirx. At room temperature, the rate of this reaction is typically slow and it is generally necessary to heat the film to well above room temperature to increase reaction rates and/or diffusion to acceptable levels. The acid (H+) is regenerated (reaction 4) and continues to be available for subsequent reaction, hence the amplification nature of the system. 

In contrast to spontaneous emission, induced emission (also called stimulated emission) is coherent, i.e. all emitted photons have the same physical characteristics - they have the same direction, the same phase and the same polarization. These properties are characteristic of laser emission (L.A.S.E.R. = Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation). The term induced emission comes from the fact that de-excitation is triggered by the interaction of an incident photon with an excited atom or molecule, which induces emission of photons having the same characteristics as those of the incident photon. 

The key prerequisite for optical amplification via stimulated emission is that the emitted photons propagate through the gain medium long enough to initiate further stimulated transitions. This condition can be expressed as... 

Other near-IR techniques that have been used to measure lifetimes, though not to the same extent as the aforementioned methods, include fluorescence up-conversion,(19 21) parametric amplification, 22 streak camera detection,(23) and two-photon excitation,1(24) The latter technique is particularly useful as it enables the greater penetration depth of near-IR radiation in organic matter to be used to obtain a well-defined region of excitation, e.g., in single cells or mammalian tissue. 

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