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A 'salty' source of coherent light
Roland Piquepaille writes "Coherent light is produced by a beam of photons that all have the same frequency and are all at the same phase. And today lasers are the only form of technology that we know able to create such light. But by sending shock waves inside a humble crystalline material -- kitchen salt -- researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have found a new way to produce coherent light for the first time in 50 years -- at least in the terahertz frequency range. This could lead to applications in optical communications, quantum computing or shock diagnostics. Read more for additional details and references about this discovery."
...if only they could find a way to attach this to a shark's head.
"Times have not become more violent. They have just become more televised."
-Marilyn Manson
Quantum mechanics shows that all objects are waves and therefore may be > coherent . Quantum coherence is usually not an event which can be macroscopicly be sensed.
We're finally about to discover how to extract sunlight out of cucumbers!
The missing step was pickles!
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So FTFA they have determined through mathematical modeling (verified by experiments with NaCl) that a piezoelectric crystal can create coherent light from the uniform motion of the atoms when the crystal is deformed by a shockwave.
Makes me wonder if sonic stimulation at the resonant frequency could be an effective low-power LASER equivalent.
What about those newfangled Semiconductor laser devices that were all the rage a few years back? Or are they still considered a plain old lasers?
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They are. Moreover, I think the press-release aspect of this report is a little overexcited. We already know you can produce coherent light by any number of stimulating mechanisms, from flashlamps to microwaves to electricity. What's new here seems only to be that a physical shock can also be the "stimulation" in the acronym ("LASER = "Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation"). Now, given that we already knew that a physical shock can stimulate incoherent light emission -- hence the phenomenon of triboluminescence, otherwise known as the crunching wintergreen LifeSavers makes sparks effect -- it doesn't seem real surprising that physical shock can stimulate coherent light emission under the right circumstances.
I can believe the simulations establish the possibility of shock-stimulated coherent light emission, but I am very doubty of the amplitude. There's no way they could do the simulation in as much detail and long enough to account for all the side-channels and decay mechanisms in a real crystal. There's a lot of experimental work ahead before this proves to be a solid discovery. But it's a neat little story, nonetheless.
I always thought that the THz band of the spectrum was a difficult place to find _any_ sort of sources, so isn't a tunable, non-lasing THz emittier a very significant discovery in and of itself, to say nothing of another source of coherent light?
I remember Reading previously that scientists were trying to develop a cheap and reliable means of producing Terahertz electromagnetic waves, as they were very useful for imaging, particularly medical. Apparently they have similar properties to x-rays without that pesky ionizing radiation problem.
Read More Here
Even people that believe in pre-destiny look both ways before crossing the street.
I tried to take it seriously, but the only thing I can think of while reading this is this article.
Well I've wrestled with reality for thirty five years doctor, and I'm happy to say I finally won out over it.