The Ammonia Maser 9-1 The states of an ammonia molecule In this chapter we are going to discuss the application of quantum mechanics to-a practical device, the ammonia maser, You may wonder why we stop our formal development of quantum mechanies to do a special problem, but you will find that many of the features of this special problem are quite common in the general theory of quantum mechanics, and you will learn a great deal by considering this one problem in detail. The ammonia maser is a device for generating electeo- magnetic waves, whose operation is based on the properties of the ammonia molecule which we discussed briefly in the last chapter. We begin by summarizing what we found there ‘The ammonia molecule has many states, but we are considering it as a two- state system, thinking now only about what happens when the molecule isin any specific state of rotation or translation. A physical model for the two states cat be visualized as follows. If the ammonia molecule is considered to be rotating bout an axis passing through the nitrogen atom and perpendicular to the plane of the hydrogen atoms, as shown in Fig. 91, there are stil two possible conditions —the nitrogen may be on one side of the plane of hydrogen atoms or on the other. We call these two states |) and | 2). They are taken as a set of buse states for our analysis of the behavior of the ammonia molecule, 9-1 ‘The states of an ammonia molecule 9-2 The molecule in a static electric field 9-3 ‘Transitions in a time-dependent ld 9-4 ‘Transitions at resonance 9-5 ‘Transitions off resonance 9-6 The absorption of light MASER = Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation Fig. 9-1. A physical model of two bose states for the ammonia molecule Those sates have the electric dipole 1 Ip moments i Ina system with (wo base states, any state |y) of the system can always, be deseribed as a linear combination of the two base states: that is, there is a certain amplitude C, to be in one base state and an amplitude Cy to be in the other, We can write its state vector as (WD = [CL + 121Cy ey where Credle) and C= Qiy) ‘These two amplitudes change with time according to the Hamiltonian equa- tions, Eq, (8.43), Making use of the symmetry of the two states of the ammonia molecule, we set My; = May = Eo, and Hyy = My, ~ —A, and get the onsolution [see Eqs. (8.50) and (8.51)] C= Ferenttonn Beton, 2) C= Seremsenan 8 gear 03) We want now to take a closer look at these general solutions. Suppose that the molecule was initially pat into a state | fy) for which the coefficient was equal tozero. Then at = Othe amplitudes to be in the states | 1) and | 2) are identical, and they stay that way for al ime. Their phases both vary with tine in the same ‘way—with the frequency (Ey — 4)/A. Similarly, if we were to put the molecule into a state | ys) for which a'~ 0, the amplitude C: isthe negative of Cy, and this relationship would stay that way Torever. Both amplitudes would now vary with time withthe frequency (Ey + A)/h. These are the only two possiblities of states for which the relation between Cy and Cy is independent of time. ‘We have found two special solutions in which the two amplitudes do not vary in magnitude and, furthermore, bave phases which vary at the same feequencies. ‘These are staionary sates as we defined then in Seetion 7-1, which means that they are nutes of definite energy. The state | Yi) has the energy Ez = Ey ~ A, and the state | Yr) has the energy Ei = Eo + A. They are the only two stationary states that exist, so we find thatthe molecule has two energy levels, with the energy difference 24. ‘(We mean, of cours, two energy levels forthe assumed state of rotation and vibration which we refered to in our initial assumptions.)t IF we hadn't allowed for the possiblity of the nitrogen flipping back and forth, wwe would have taken equal to Zero and the two eneray levels would be on top of each other at energy Ey. The actual levels ae not this way; their average energy 4s Ey, but they are split apart by A, giving a separation of 24 between the energies of the two sates. Since is in fac, very smal, the difference in energy is also very small In order to excite an elecirom inside an atom, the energies involved are rela- tively very high—requiting photons in the optical or ultraviolet range. To excite the vibrations of the molecules involves photons inthe infrared. If you talk about exciting rorrions, the energy differences of the slates correspond to photons in the far infrared. But the energy dierence 24 js lower than any of those and is, in fact, below the infrared and wel into the microwave region. Experimentally, it hhas been found that there is a pair of energy levels with a separation of 10~* electron volt~corresponding to a frequency 24000 megacycles. Evident this ‘means that 24 = i, with / = 24,000 megacyeles (corresponding o a wavelength of 1} em). So here we have a molecule that has a transition which does not emit light in the ordinary sense, but emits microwaves. For the work that follows we need to describe these two states of definite energy a litle bit better. Suppose we were to construct an amplitude Cy, by taking the sum of the two numbers Cy and C3: Crr= Cy + Co = 1/8) + 2/4) e4) ‘What would that mean? Well, this is just the amplitude to find the state | ) in a ew state |) in which the amplitudes ofthe orginal base states are equal. That is, writing Cyy = (| ®), we can abstract the , +b) away from Eq. (4.4}—because itis tue for any &and get d= die bh Which means the sane as (I) = | 1+ 12). 5) + In what follows tis helpful eating to youre orn taking 1 someone ese 10 haves handy vay of diinglshing hetween the Arabic I and 2 and the Roman | and Ml ‘We find it eomvenent to reserve the mes “one” and "forthe Arable numbers, 46 {oll Tand I'by the names “eins and “we” (although “ones” and “duo” might be more logical. 92‘The amplitude for the state | 11) to be in the state | /) is (|) = U1) + U2) Which s, of course, just I, since | 7} and | 2) ate base states. The amplitude for the state | 7} to bein the state | 2) is also I, so the state | 1) s one which has equal amplitudes to be in the two base states | 1) and | 2). We are, however, in a bit of trouble. The state | 7) has a total probability areater than one of being in some base state or ovher. That simply means, however, that the state vector is not properly “normalized.” We can take care of that by remembering that we should have (| 7) = 1, which must be so for any state Using the general relation that x) = DY el ML), letting both # and x be the state /7, and taking the sum over the base states | 1) and | 2), we get that (U| Mt) = (UE AXE | + (a1 2402 |. This wil be equal to one as it should if we change our definition of Cy—in Eq Ga)—to read Cu 1 C1 + Ga). v2 In the same way we can construct an amplitude 1 r= FtCs ~ Ca L Gr = Ws) ~ @1e 0.6) ‘This amplitude is the projection of the state |) into a new state |Z) which has ‘opposite amplitudes to be in the states | 7) and | 2). Namely, Eq. (9.6) means the same as, L Wl l= ehh D=SUn-12 en from which it follows that ay =2\n Now the reason we have done all this is that the states |) and | 1) can be taken as a new set of base states which are especially convenient for describing the stationary states of the ammonia molecule, You remember that the requirement for a set of base states is that an) ‘We have already fixed things so that ain = aim = You can easily show from Eqs. (9.5) and (9.7) that (IM) = (1) = 0. ‘The amplitudes Cy = (F| ®) and Cry = (|) for any state # to be in our new base states | 7) and | 11) must also satisfy 2 Hamiltonian equation with the 33