Talk:Laser
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Wiki Education assignment: Physical Chemistry I Quantum Chemistry and Spectroscopy
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 26 August 2025 and 17 December 2025. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Campbellromero (article contribs).
— Assignment last updated by Campbellromero (talk) 12:48, 27 November 2025 (UTC)
Population inversion cannot occur in a two-level energy system
We currently say
- Population inversion cannot occur in a two-level energy system: as the upper level is populated, the probability of stimulated emission increases. This prevents population inversion as the number of atoms transitioning from excited to relaxed states would be the same, deeming the process inefficient.
So which is it: "cannot" or "inefficient"? @Campbellromero Johnjbarton (talk) 17:44, 27 November 2025 (UTC)
How to resolve ambiguity
In the Design section, there is a sentence that reads "A laser consists of a gain medium, a mechanism to energize it, and something to provide optical feedback.". This sentence is ambiguous: is it referring to three different components, or is it saying that the gain medium is a mechanism to energize the laser? (It is intended to be the former).
I tried to fix it but got the meaning wrong; thanks to User:Srleffler for correcting my mistake. However, the current wording is still problematic as it is not clear which of the two meanings is intended.
I am unsure of the best way to resolve the ambiguity. I have a few ideas, including removing the serial comma, replacing the commas with semicolons, and replacing "it" in the second item with an explicit reference to the gain medium, but I'm not sure of the best way to do it. I figured I'd open this up for discussion. Feedback or suggestions would be appreciated. TypoEater (talk) 15:04, 13 January 2026 (UTC)
- Just say three: "Conceptually a laser has three elements: a source of energy, a lasing medium, and feedback optics." Johnjbarton (talk) 17:58, 13 January 2026 (UTC)
- I replaced "it" with "gain medium", which resolves the ambiguity. This is clearer about what the source of energy does (it energizes the gain medium). --Srleffler (talk) 06:16, 14 January 2026 (UTC)
Semi-protected edit request on 18 February 2026
how do i directly see the document and edit it without acculaly changing because i dont wana have to right the whole thing and then edit it — Preceding unsigned comment added by ~2025-40769-90 (talk) 19:39, 18 February 2026 (UTC)
- See Help:Edit. Johnjbarton (talk) 23:46, 18 February 2026 (UTC)
- While most articles can be directly edited by anyone, some pages that have a history of being vandalized get "protected", which prevents new users from editing them directly. If you want to make a change to a protected page, put a request on the talk page (here) that says as clearly as possible what the change is. If other editors agree, one of them will make the change for you. --Srleffler (talk) 16:58, 21 February 2026 (UTC)