Question

One of the most accurate atomic clocks is the hydrogen maser. This devise uses excited hydrogen molecules to duplicate 1.420-GHz microwave photons. In the maser, the molecules have only two states: the upper maser state and the lower maser state (which is actually the ground state). To keep the maser operating, an electromagnetic system constantly adds excited state hydrogen molecules to the maser and a pump constantly removes ground-state hydrogen molecules from the maser. Why does the maser require a steady supply of new excited state molecules?

Answer 1

we have to have many atomicen the excited state and remove all possible atoms from the base state to maintain the population difference between the states and to maintain the emission.

Step-by-step explanation:

In quantum mechanics the stable state of matter is the fundamental state (lower maser) where the molecular will accumulate, we must have a mechanism to remove the molecules from this state and raise them to the higher state. In the upper state, due to the uncertainty principle, they can only this certain time before decaying. In this process of decay we have two types of emissions: spontaneous and stimulated.

With the spontanease emission they produce the first photons, which stimulate the stimulated emission, which is proportional to the number of atoms in the excited state (higher maser) whereby the more atoms there in this state the emission stimulated in much greater than the spontaneous one that It is approximately constant. The above is the beginning of all lasers.

In summary, we have to have many atomicen the excited state and remove all possible atoms from the base state to maintain the population difference between the states and to maintain the emission.