Related topics: laser pulses , laser beam , atoms , electrons , semiconductor lasers



Laser

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A laser is a device that emits light (electromagnetic radiation) through a process called stimulated emission. The term laser is an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. Laser light is usually spatially coherent, which means that the light either is emitted in a narrow, low-divergence beam, or can be converted into one with the help of optical components such as lenses. Typically, lasers are thought of as emitting light with a narrow wavelength spectrum ("monochromatic" light). This is not true of all lasers, however: some emit light with a broad spectrum, while others emit light at multiple distinct wavelengths simultaneously. The coherence of typical laser emission is distinctive. Most other light sources emit incoherent light, which has a phase that varies randomly with time and position.

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News tagged with laser

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Steroid injections may slow diabetes-related eye disease

Medicine & Health / Research

created Dec 28, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Researchers led by specialists at the Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute have found that injecting a corticosteroid, triamcinolone, directly into the eye may slow the progression of proliferative diabetic retinopathy, a complication ...


Scientists Generate Black Hole Radiation in the Lab

Scientists Generate Black Hole Radiation in the Lab

Physics / Plasma Physics

created Dec 07, 2009 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (32) | comments 9 feature

(PhysOrg.com) -- Due to their violent nature and long distance from Earth, black holes and their surroundings are very difficult to study. Currently, the main method to observe a black hole is to use an X-ray ...


Tiny whispering gallery

Tiny whispering gallery: Sensor can detect a single nanoparticle and take its measurement

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Dec 18, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (16) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Nanotechnology has already made it to the shelves of your local pharmacy and grocery: nanoparticles are found in anti-odor socks, makeup, makeup remover, sunscreen, anti-graffiti paint, home ...


Caltech scientists film photons with electrons

Caltech scientists film photons with electrons

Physics / General Physics

created Dec 16, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (21) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Techniques recently invented by researchers at the California Institute of Technology -- which allow the real-time, real-space visualization of fleeting changes in the structure of nanoscale ...


Using lasers to cool and manipulate molecules

Using lasers to cool and manipulate molecules

Physics / General Physics

created Dec 07, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (13) | comments 0 feature

(PhysOrg.com) -- "For years, we have been using laser cooling to trap and manipulate atoms," David DeMille tells PhysOrg.com. "This has been very useful for both basic science and many applications. Recent ...


Smarter cars are gaining traction

Smarter cars are gaining traction (w/ Video)

Technology / Engineering

created Dec 21, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- Lives can depend on a vehicle's moment-by-moment traction. New European technology promises to make cars as good as experienced, alert drivers at sensing and adjusting to wet, snowy or icy ...


Accelerators and Light Sources of Tomorrow (Part 2: Accelerating with Light)

Accelerators and Light Sources of Tomorrow (Part 2: Accelerating with Light)

Physics / General Physics

created Dec 22, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (7) | comments 0

Accelerators are far from achieving the highest energies their builders aspire to, but size and cost may limit the kinds of facilities funding agencies can support. In the future, new kinds of machines will ...


Miracle light: Can lasers solve the energy crisis?

Technology / Energy

created Dec 15, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (14) | comments 4

Next year will mark the 50th birthday of the laser, one of the most productive and widely used mega-inventions of the last century. Scientists hope that 2010 also will see the launch of laser technology's greatest challenge: ...


Building a more versatile laser

Building a more versatile laser

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Nov 16, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (19) | comments 0 feature

(PhysOrg.com) -- One of the drawbacks associated with using semiconductor lasers is that many of them can only produce a beam of a single wavelength, and can only send that beam in one direction at a time. ...


Physicists lay the groundwork for cooler, faster computing

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Dec 14, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (25) | comments 5

University of Toronto quantum optics researchers Sajeev John and Xun Ma have discovered new behaviours of light within photonic crystals that could lead to faster optical information processing and compact computers that ...


Researchers find cells move in mysterious ways

Researchers find cells move in mysterious ways (w/ Video)

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Dec 16, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Our cells are more like us than we may think. They're sensitive to their environment, poking and prodding deliberately at their surroundings with hand-like feelers and chemical signals as they decide whether ...


Fine-tuned

Fine-tuned: A wholly new approach to tuning a laser's frequency

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Dec 04, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (10) | comments 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- For more than 30 years, scientists have been trying to harness the power of terahertz radiation. Tucked between microwaves and infrared rays on the electromagnetic spectrum, terahertz rays ...


New structure could produce efficient semiconductor laser sources

New structure could produce efficient semiconductor laser sources

Physics / General Physics

created Dec 14, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have achieved a nanoscale laser structure they anticipate will produce semiconductor lasers in the next two years that are more than twice as efficient ...


Lasers used to make first boron-nitride nanotube yarn

Lasers used to make first boron-nitride nanotube yarn (w/ Video)

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Dec 02, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (15) | comments 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers have used lasers to create the first practical macroscopic yarns from boron nitride fibers, opening the door for an array of applications, from radiation-shielded spacecraft to ...


Researchers create 'synthetic magnetic fields' for neutral atoms

Researchers create 'synthetic magnetic fields' for neutral atoms

Physics / Quantum Physics

created Dec 02, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (15) | comments 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- Achieving an important new capability in ultracold atomic gases, researchers at the Joint Quantum Institute, a collaboration of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University ...