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A laser generates amplified light through stimulated emission. Its name abbreviates “light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation”. Lasers supply the intense beams used in optical tweezers; optical coherence also makes them useful for wave interference measurements. ^[ref].

In the usual material picture, a gain medium stores energy supplied by pumping, for example by incident light or an electric current. Stimulated emission transfers that stored energy to a selected optical normal mode, while competing photon absorption removes light. Producing net optical gain requires a suitable population distribution, such as population inversion in the simple model below.

A familiar laser oscillator uses mirrors to return light through the gain medium. This optical feedback favours resonant normal modes; a partly transmitting mirror lets useful power escape. Feedback and mode selection have different implementations, including ring arrangements: every laser need not resemble the same two-mirror device. The laser threshold example treats just that device. ^{[ref] [ref]}.

The useful combination is concentrated power and controlled optical normal modes. It gives optical tweezers a localized source of force and wave interference measurements a source with useful optical coherence. A laser can nevertheless emit several frequencies; “laser” alone does not guarantee a single frequency. ^[ref].

An original experimental landmark is T. H. Maiman's 1960 report of stimulated optical radiation from optically pumped ruby at about $694.3\mathrm{nm}$. His paper describes both the pumping path and the observed emission, connecting stored material energy with amplified light. ^[ref].

In a simple two-mirror oscillator, laser threshold is the small-signal optical gain at which a resonant optical normal mode exactly replaces its round-trip intensity loss. Assume constant intensity coefficients $g$ and $\alpha$ throughout a one-way distance $L$, and mirror intensity reflectivities $0<R_1,R_2\le 1$. One round trip has multiplierTwo traversals give the distance $2L$; multiplying the two mirror factors completes the bookkeeping. Setting $M=1$ and taking a logarithm givesThe reflectivities here are intensity fractions, not field-amplitude reflectivities. A shorter gain region or nonuniform loss requires replacing the path exponent by the appropriate path integral. The balance also presumes a permitted resonant optical normal mode. ^[ref].

For $L=0.50\mathrm{m}$, $R_1=1$, $R_2=0.90$ and $\alpha =0.10{\mathrm{m}}^{-1}$, the threshold is $g_{\mathrm{th}}\approx 0.2053605{\mathrm{m}}^{-1}$. At $g=0.15{\mathrm{m}}^{-1}$, $M\approx 0.946144$: a small circulating signal decays even though the material has positive optical gain. At $g=0.30{\mathrm{m}}^{-1}$, $M\approx 1.099262$: the signal initially grows. Raising passive loss or lowering mirror reflectivity raises laser threshold.

For $M>1$, the fixed-gain recurrence predicts startup amplification, not infinite actual output. Growing light intensity depletes the available population inversion, reducing optical gain through saturation. In the simplest steady oscillator, the saturated round-trip gain balances loss and pumping supplies the outgoing power and dissipated energy. The small-signal model locates the onset; it does not determine the final output power. ^[ref].

Optical gain is amplification of light by a medium. Here the small-signal intensity gain coefficient $g$ has units ${\mathrm{m}}^{-1}$: for fixed populations, a weak beam obeysin the nondegenerate resonant two-level model, with common transition cross-section $\sigma$. Thus $g$ includes the competition between stimulated emission and photon absorption on that transition. Separate passive intensity loss $\alpha$ gives $I(z)=I(0)e^{(g-\alpha )z}$. Both coefficients describe light intensity, not wave amplitude; the corresponding field-amplitude exponent is half as large. ^[ref].

For $g=0.30{\mathrm{m}}^{-1}$, $\alpha =0.10{\mathrm{m}}^{-1}$ and $z=0.50\mathrm{m}$, the single-pass intensity multiplier is $e^{0.10}\approx 1.10517$. This is amplification during one passage, before mirror losses. Population inversion can therefore yield positive optical gain while the complete oscillator remains below laser threshold.

A population inversion puts more emitters in the upper than in the lower quantum state of a transition in the nondegenerate two-level model. Let $N_2,N_1$ be their number densities. Equal stimulated-transition strengths make the emission rate proportional to $N_2$ and the competing photon absorption rate proportional to $N_1$, so net optical gain is proportional to $N_2-N_1$. For $N_2=6\times 10^{20}{\mathrm{m}}^{-3}$ and $N_1=4\times 10^{20}{\mathrm{m}}^{-3}$, the difference is positive; swapping them makes the medium absorb. Equal populations give zero net stimulated contribution. With degenerate levels, the relevant comparison uses populations per statistical weight of an atomic level, rather than simply $N_2>N_1$.

Why pump through extra levels? Ordinary steady resonant pumping of a nondegenerate two-level system drives both photon absorption and stimulated emission. With equal induced rate $W$ and upper-state decay rate $\Gamma$, its elementary population equation isat a stationary population. Increasing this pump saturates towards $N_2=N_1$; it cannot sustain population inversion in this model. This is a steady rate-equation conclusion, not a universal prohibition on all driven two-level dynamics or all possible laser gain mechanisms. ^[ref].

In a familiar three-level path, pumping excites a higher level which relaxes into the upper lasing level; the lower lasing level is the ground state, so substantial ground-state depletion is needed. A four-level path also provides rapid emptying of the lower lasing level into a separate ground state. Suitable lifetimes then allow accumulation above and depletion below the lasing transition. Pumping still supplies the energy: extra levels provide a route to population inversion, not free energy. ^[ref].