What is the importance of metastable state?
In a three-level laser, the material is first excited to a short-lived high-energy state that spontaneously drops to a somewhat lower-energy state with an unusually long lifetime, called a metastable state. The metastable state is important because it traps and holds the excitation energy, building up a…
What are examples of metastable?
A ball resting in a hollow on a slope is a simple example of metastability. If the ball is only slightly pushed, it will settle back into its hollow, but a stronger push may start the ball rolling down the slope. Bowling pins show similar metastability by either merely wobbling for a moment or tipping over completely.
What are metastable materials?
Metastable materials, or materials that transform to another state over a long period of time, are ubiquitous in both nature and technology and often have superior properties. Chocolate, for example, is metastable, with a lower melting point and better texture than stable chocolate.
What causes Metastability?
Metastability can occur when signals are transferred between circuitry in unrelated or asynchronous clock domains. The mean time between metastability failures is related to the device process technology, design specifications, and timing slack in the synchronization logic.
What is metastable equilibrium state in water system explain?
[¦med·ə′stā·bəl ‚ē·kwə′lib·rē·əm] (physics) A condition in which a system returns to equilibrium after small (but not large) displacements; it may be represented by a ball resting in a small depression on top of a hill.
How is metastable state created?
In some of these lasers, helium atoms are excited into metastable states by an electric discharge. In collisions with other atoms (e.g. neon in a helium–neon laser), they can then transfer the excitation energy to those atoms. It also occurs that after the laser transition atoms are “stuck” in a metastable state.
How metastable state is formed?
Metastable atoms can be produced in two-step “optical pumping” processes involving excitation of the ground state to an excited state by photon impact, followed either by collisional “quenching” or photon decay to a metastable level.
What is steady state equilibrium?
The key concept is that any system is most stable at its lowest free energy state under current conditions. When that state is reached the system is at equilibrium. In a steady state, energy is put into the system constantly in order to maintain a higher free energy state than at equilibrium.