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I am currently learning about lasers and of course one huge topic is stimulated emission. I know what stimulated emission is, but not why it works the way it does. I am aware of the fact that bosons 'want' to be in the same quantum state, but how can one photon induce the emission of another?

Note that I have read several answers on stackexchange such as this, this or this.

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Christian
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  • Ultimately, the true reason is "because quantum mechanics", and any answers that skirt around that fact are limited to being analogies at best. As such, without knowing how much formal QM you know, this is very hard to answer. – Emilio Pisanty Dec 15 '16 at 11:32
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    Perhaps you'll find the answers in [http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/282238/what-causes-a-simultaneous-transition-of-an-electron-from-a-higher-orbit-to-a-lo/283030#283030] useful. – flippiefanus Dec 15 '16 at 12:02
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    One can say a bit more if one does not try to understand everything in the image of light corpuscules. Light is an electromagnetic wave. The oscillating electric field affects the electrons. And then you can gain a classical understanding in terms of Lorentz oscillators or a semiclassical understanding in terms of mixing of stationairy states. –  Dec 15 '16 at 12:14
  • See https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/430268/stimulated-emission-how-can-giving-energy-to-electrons-make-them-decay-to-a-low/445342#445342 –  Dec 07 '18 at 05:24

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