Einstein and stimulated emission: A completely corpuscular treatment of momentum balance
Abstract
The famous ``1917 paper'' of Einstein on the Quantum Theory of Radiation is revisited. Emphasis is placed on the little-known bulk of the paper dealing with momentum balance. The most difficult part of the calculation is here simplified by regarding the ``drag force'' on a body moving within a blackbody cavity as due to the same quantized impulses that give rise to random recoil.
- Publication:
-
American Journal of Physics
- Pub Date:
- January 1994
- DOI:
- 10.1119/1.17737
- Bibcode:
- 1994AmJPh..62...26F
- Keywords:
-
- 01.65.+g;
- 78.45.+h;
- History of science;
- Stimulated emission