in the definition of radiative lifetime below. what do they meanby depopulation. do they mean for 1 given energy state the amountof time until the electron gives off enough photons to be at thelowest state? or just the electron moves down 1 state? or thelifetime of a collection of mass unti all electrons in that masshave reached the ground state?
The radiative lifetime of an excited electronic state e.g. in alaser gain medium is the lifetime which would be obtained ifradiative decay via the unavoidable spontaneous emission were theonly mechanism for depopulating this state. It is given by theequation
