Laser
hideA 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
Building a more versatile laser
Nov 16, 2009 |
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(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. ...
Scientists Make Ink Disappear, Make Paper Reusable
Oct 27, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Despite ongoing efforts to save the trees, many offices print high volumes of paper documents on a daily basis. Although many companies encourage paper recycling, both disposing of and recycling ...
Buffer gas cooling could open up the field of ultracold physics
Sep 17, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- "Scientists have been making Bose-Einstein Condensates [BECs] for nearly 15 years," Charlie Doret tells PhysOrg.com. "Essentially all BEC research to date, however, begins with laser cooling. Unfortunately, ...
Physicists Propose New Ultracold Scheme for Scalable Quantum Information Processing
Jun 03, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Since 1994, when Peter Shor famously showed that a quantum computer could factor large numbers exponentially faster than any current classical algorithm, physicists have been investigating ...
Rotating Space Elevator Propels its Own Load
May 21, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The idea of the space elevator just got a little crazier. While the “traditional” concept involved using rocket propulsion or laser light pressure to propel loads up a cable anchored to Earth, ...
Bouncing atoms may be the key to the future of gravimetry
Apr 27, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- When studying cold atoms, scientists often use magnetic or optical traps to keep the atoms in place. However, in some cases experimentalists want to study free atoms, avoiding the effects of a trap. "One ...
New Research Promises Better Atomic Clocks
Apr 22, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The most accurate timekeepers in the world are atomic clocks, which tell time based on the absorption of a very specific and unchanging microwave frequency, which induces electrons in an atom to “jump” from ...
'Squeezing' light into quantum dots
Apr 01, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- “Quantum wells have been instrumental in telecommunications, enabling light amplification,” Patanjali Kambhampati tells PhysOrg.com, “but theory has suggested that a very small - colloidal - quantum dot co ...
The Power of Light: Moving Macroscopic Amounts of Matter
Jan 29, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Since 1970, scientists have been working with “optical tweezers” - lasers that move microscopic amounts of matter using forces originating from the light matter interaction. Now, for the first ...
Flexible OLED display one-step closer with organic light emitting material direct writing
Oct 27, 2008 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- One of the more interesting methods of pattern transfer available for a number of applications right now is Laser Induced Forward Transfer (LIFT). However, when working with organic material, there are some ...
Creating 3D models with a simple webcam (w/ Video)
Technology / Computer Sciences
Nov 11, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Constructing virtual 3D models usually requires heavy and expensive equipment, or takes lengthy amounts of time. A group of researchers at the University of Cambridge, Qi Pan, Dr Gerhard Reitmayr ...
Vibrations key to efficiency of green fluorescent protein
Nov 11, 2009 |
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University of California, Berkeley, chemists have discovered the secret to the success of a jellyfish protein whose green glow has made it the darling of biologists and the subject of the 2008 Nobel Prize ...
Japan eyes solar station in space as new energy source
Nov 08, 2009 |
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It may sound like a sci-fi vision, but Japan's space agency is dead serious: by 2030 it wants to collect solar power in space and zap it down to Earth, using laser beams or microwaves.
Success in 'space elevator' competition (Update 3)
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Nov 05, 2009 |
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(AP) -- A robot powered by a ground-based laser beam climbed a long cable dangling from a helicopter on Wednesday to qualify for prize money in a $2 million competition to test the potential reality of the ...
Science Begins at the World's Most Powerful X-ray Laser (w/ Video)
Nov 02, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The first experiments are now underway using the world's most powerful X-ray laser, the Linac Coherent Light Source, located at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. ...
