Laser diffraction limit. All such devices are classified as "lasers" based on their method of producing light, i.e., stimulated emission. Lasers are employed where light of the required spatial or temporal coherence can not be produced using simpler technologies. The word "laser" started as an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". In this usage, the term "light" includes electromagnetic radiation of any frequency, not only visible light, hence the terms "infrared laser", "ultraviolet laser", "X-ray laser" and "gamma-ray laser". Because the microwave predecessor of the laser, the maser, was developed first, devices of this sort operating at microwave
Stimulated emission difference in energies between the two states as a photon. The photon will have frequency "ν" and energy "hν", given by: where "h" is Planck's constant. Alternatively, if the excited-state atom is perturbed by an electric field of frequency "ν", it may emit an additional photon of the same frequency and in phase, thus augmenting the external field, leaving the atom in the lower energy state. This process is known as stimulated emission. In a group of such atoms, if the number of atoms in the excited state is given by "N", the rate at which stimulated emission occurs is