Theory
A krypton fluoride laser absorbs energy from a source, causing the krypton gas to react with the fluorine gas producing krypton fluoride, a temporary complex, in an excited energy state:
- 2 Kr + F2 → 2 KrF
The complex can undergo spontaneous or stimulated emission, reducing its energy state to a metastable, but highly repulsive ground state. The ground state complex quickly dissociates into unbound atoms:
- 2 KrF → 2 Kr + F2
The result is an exciplex laser that radiates energy at 248 nm, which lies in the near ultraviolet portion of the spectrum, corresponding with the energy difference between the ground state and the excited state of the complex.
Read more about this topic: Krypton Fluoride Laser
Famous quotes containing the word theory:
“Thus the theory of description matters most.
It is the theory of the word for those
For whom the word is the making of the world,
The buzzing world and lisping firmament.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“Every theory is a self-fulfilling prophecy that orders experience into the framework it provides.”
—Ruth Hubbard (b. 1924)