Title: population inversion Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - population inversion DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.P04759 Status: current Definition A situation in which a higher energy state is more populated than a lower energy state. Source - PAC, 1996, 68, 2223. 'Glossary of terms used in photochemistry (IUPAC Recommendations 1996)' on page 2266 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac199668122223) Other Outputs - html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/P04759/html - json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/P04759/json - xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/P04759/xml Citation: Citation: 'population inversion' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.P04759 License: The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms. Collection: If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org . Disclaimer: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using. Accessed: 2026-05-12T18:01:40+00:00