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 the ground state to transition into the excited state, then what is called a population inversion is created. When light of the appropriate frequency passes through the inverted medium, the photons are either absorbed by the atoms that remain in the ground state or the photons stimulate the excited atoms to emit additional photons of the same frequency, phase, and direction. Since more atoms are in the excited state than in the ground state then an amplification of the input intensity results. The population inversion, in units of atoms per cubic meter, is where "g" and "g" are the degeneracies