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Laser Blast Makes Regular Light Bulbs Super-Efficient
guruevi writes with news that a process using an ultra-powerful laser can crank up the efficiency of everyday incandescent light bulbs. Using the same laser process covered several years ago, the tungsten filament has an array of nano- and micro-scale structures formed on the surface making the resulting light as bright as a 100-watt bulb while consuming less electricity than a 60-watt bulb and remaining much cheaper to produce. "The key to creating the super-filament is an ultra-brief, ultra-intense beam of light called a femtosecond laser pulse. The laser burst lasts only a few quadrillionths of a second. To get a grasp of that kind of speed, consider that a femtosecond is to a second what a second is to about 32 million years. During its brief burst, Guo's laser unleashes as much power as the entire grid of North America onto a spot the size of a needle point. That intense blast forces the surface of the metal to form nanostructures and microstructures that dramatically alter how efficiently light can radiate from the filament."
Laser Blast Makes Regular Light Bulbs Super-Efficient
So that whole time in Star Wars, they were just trying to make each other Super-Efficient? That's a whole lot nicer than what I was led to believe was initially going on.
LASIK makes a lot more sense now too.
I'm learning!
My work here is dung.
So, considering they are as cheap to produce as normal lightbulbs, we can expect to see these on the shelves in...2050?
and it only takes 11 years of operating the more efficient bulb to compensate for the energy consumed during the laser burst
There's an app for that.
So does this mean every evil genius lair is now only complete with sharks with freekin' light bulbs on their heads?
--- Users are like bacteria -> Each one causing a thousand tiny crises until the host finally gives up and dies.
But... with LEDs you don't get to shoot a powerful laser at a tungsten filament!
The "power [of] the entire grid of North America" is insignificant compared to the output of thousands of Slashdot nerds scattering Cheetos everywhere as their sweaty, pudgy fingers hammer out "Only for a femtosecond FRIST POST!!!!"
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Fermentosecond?
Is that the time it takes for me to down a beer?
Or is that the time it takes for hot dogs, baked beans, and doritos to produce their, um, 'gastrointestinal distress signal'?
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
How many lightbulbs would they need to convert from 100W to 60W usage (over time) to equal the energy cost of 1 femto second laser blast
Dunno, but my guess is that for each lightbulb, it will take at least 3 Slashdotters to screw it in. One to hold the ladder, one to screw it in, and one to explain the significance of a femtosecond.
That's not including the dozen or so other Slashdotters who will want to attend and debate the relative merits of CFLs and LEDs, another dozen who insist they're wrong, a few older Slashdotters who moan about the old lightbulb working just fine, and one guy standing in a corner mumbling something about a government conspiracy while rolling out tinfoil to fashion a head covering.
You dont have to dispose of it from coal though, the wind does it for you!
The rest goes to feed the sharks.
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