Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Laser Blast Makes Regular Light Bulbs Super-Efficient

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the bright-ideas dept.

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."

9 of 559 comments (clear)

  1. Now I Understand Lasers by eldavojohn · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.
    1. Re:Now I Understand Lasers by gnick · · Score: 4, Funny

      I think you just redefined "learning". But, it is in line with a lot of the "facts" I've picked up on /.

      --
      He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
    2. Re:Now I Understand Lasers by sesshomaru · · Score: 5, Funny

      James Bond: Do you expect me to talk?

      Auric Goldfinger: No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to be more efficient!

      --
      "MIT betrayed all of its basic principles."
    3. Re:Now I Understand Lasers by bugnuts · · Score: 4, Funny

      Couple this thing with a few femtosharks, and my high-efficiency evil lair will be complete.

    4. Re:Now I Understand Lasers by cheftw · · Score: 5, Funny

      Well I just learned how femtoseconds work. Thanks to TFS.

      Though it might have been more helpfully put if they said that a car travelling at 40 furlongs per fortnight goes 6.652x10^-8 Angstroms in a femtosecond.

      --
      Always back up, never back down. ---- Think you're cool 'cos your uid is prime? Take mine, modulo the one digit integers
  2. And they will hit the shelves in... by pandymen · · Score: 5, Funny

    So, considering they are as cheap to produce as normal lightbulbs, we can expect to see these on the shelves in...2050?

  3. Re:This just in... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    There's an app for that.

  4. Re:Too late by b4dc0d3r · · Score: 4, Funny

    But... with LEDs you don't get to shoot a powerful laser at a tungsten filament!

  5. Re:This just in... by someone1234 · · Score: 4, Funny

    The rest goes to feed the sharks.

    --
    Patents Drive Free Software as Hurricanes Drive Construction Industry