A 'salty' source of coherent light

Posted by Hemos on Monday January 16, 2006 @01:31AM from the new-ways-of-doing-things dept.

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."

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Now.... by Randolpho · 2006-01-16 01:48 · Score: 2, Funny

...if only they could find a way to attach this to a shark's head.

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"Times have not become more violent. They have just become more televised."
-Marilyn Manson
1. Re:Now.... by sydbarrett74 · 2006-01-16 02:00 · Score: 1, Funny
  
  Or some ill-tempered sea bass...
  
  --
  'He who has to break a thing to find out what it is, has left the path of wisdom.' -- Gandalf to Saruman
Re:Photon Shockwave by NanoGator · 2006-01-16 12:01 · Score: 2, Funny

"Makes me wonder if sonic stimulation at the resonant frequency could be an effective low-power LASER equivalent."

Well, I could route it through one of the EPS taps, but it may cause the intertial dampners to destabilize. Damn I wish we had seatbelts.

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"Derp de derp."