[time-nuts] optically pumped frequency standards

Chris Caudle chris at chriscaudle.org
Fri Jan 14 22:25:23 UTC 2011


On Fri, January 14, 2011 3:44 pm, Magnus Danielson wrote:
> What they actually do is set the DC current for wavelength and AC
> modulate at 3.4 GHz for locking frequency. It's obvious if just looking
> into one of the papers I linked earlier.

Which somewhat gets back to my original question.
I thought that the bandgap of the material set the photon frequency, and
the current magnitude changed the number of photons per unit time,
basically made it brighter or dimmer.  How does changing the current
change the output wavelength of a solid state diode emitter?  Is there a
second order effect, or have I misunderstood the physics of light emission
in semiconductors?

-- 
Chris Caudle





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