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After 60 Years, a Room-Temperature Maser

Posted by Soulskill on from the cool-and-yet-not-cool dept.

gbrumfiel writes "Before there were lasers, there were masers: systems that amplified microwaves instead of light. Solid state masers are used in a variety of applications, including deep space communication, but they've never been as popular as lasers, in part because they have to be cooled to near absolute zero in order to work. Now a team of British physicists have built a room-temperature maser using some spare chemicals and a laser they bought off of eBay. The new device is 100 million times as powerful as existing masers and might revolutionize telecommunications."

1 of 102 comments (clear)

  1. I want diagrams, temperatures, power figures, etc. by Wierdy1024 · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Considering this is Nature, the lack of any numbers, or even a link to a paper are very disappointing. The writing style itself makes it sound like they've just turned lead into gold as well...

    I want diagrams, temperatures, power figures, etc. Not waffle. I expect better.