Plasma pipe for intense laser pulses. (new method enables laser beams to travel long distances)

From: Science News | Date: October 2, 1993| Author: | Copyright information

When traveling through a gas, a light beam has a natural tendency to spread out. This flaring effect steadily weakens the beam as it progresses through the medium.

One way of maintaining a light beam's intensity for longer distances is to focus the beam into an optical fiber, which confines the light and keeps the beam from broadening as it travels along the glassy strand. This solution doesn't work for intense laser pulses, however, which interact so strongly with an optical fiber that they cause the fiber's destruction.

Now, researchers have demonstrated a new technique ...

Read all of this article with a FREE trial to HighBeam Research

Related newspaper, magazine, and trade journal articles from HighBeam Research

(Including press releases, facts, information, and biographies)

Nuclear Fusion Flares on a Tabletop.(process expends more energy than it creates)(Brief Article)
; ...brief but extremely powerful laser pulses. By focusing flickers of...extremely small volume, the laser beam heats atom clusters...National Laboratory. The laser pulse can strip atoms of their...the predicted energy per laser pulse. Ditmire described...invented a means to ...
Laser spotlights molecular choreography. (molecular motion)
; Laser spotlights molecular choreography...some of the world's fastest laser pulses as though they were flash...explains. Zewail's group uses laser pulses that last about 10 femtoseconds...interpretation, the first laser pulse must both excite the molecules...researchers use ...
Electron waves: interference in an atom. (University of Rochester researchers used laser pulses to control an electron)(Brief Article)
; ...used finely tuned, precisely timed laser pulses to smear a single electron within...researchers begin by using a short laser pulse to excite an electron in a potassium...orbiting the sun. A second, identical laser pulse, delayed so that the initial wave...orbit. In effect, after the ...
Increase your pulse.(METAL CUTTING)(Army Research Laboratory)(Cover Story)
; ...providing < 5-ns laser pulses with substantial...the SuperPulse laser pulse format, but using...and conventional laser pulses striking a target...quality. The primary laser pulse strikes the target...point where the laser struck the target...and the secondary ...
Surfing a laser wave; toward a tabletop particle accelerator. (new, powerful laser pulses generated)
; ...laboratory. Advances in laser technology, however...short, immensely powerful laser pulses that instantly strip...lake leaves a wake, the laser pulse would generate a disturbance...plasma could then surf the laser pulse's wake, draining energy...to generate high-power ...
Surface reaction recorded in real time. (Physics: from Seattle, at the American Physical Society's annual March meeting).
; ...visualized such ultrafast reactions with laser pulses briefer than a trillionth of a second...reaction. A reaction can get started when a laser pulse excites an electron so that it moves...University of Colorado in Boulder, used a laser pulse to excite a crowd of electrons near...
Pulsed Laser Microbeam-Induced Cell Lysis: Time-Resolved Imaging and Analysis of Hydrodynamic Effects
; ...examine the use of pulsed laser microbeam irradiation to...of 6 ns, λ = 532 nm laser pulses via a 40 , 0.8 NA objective...of 0.5 ns to 50 s after laser pulse delivery and revealed the...of cell biology, pulsed laser radiation focused at high...apertures (i.e., pulsed ...
LiDAR Services International (LSI) is the first airborne LIDAR (light detection and ranging) survey company in North America to acquire Riegl's Q-560 scanner, which incorporates full-waveform digitizing of all return laser pulses.(Around the Industry)
; ...acquire Riegl's Q-560 scanner, which incorporates full-waveform digitizing of all return laser pulses. The Q-560 digitizes the echo waveform of each laser pulse as the pulse travels from the airborne platform to the ground, yielding such information...
Superheating and repairing a metal surface. (crystalline solids)
; ...structure as lead) confirm that laser pulses can superheat a surface made...influence of a super-heating laser pulse, an initially flawed copper...111) surface to intense laser pulses. To get a better sense of...perfect crystal surface to a laser pulse and obtained ...
Selective Cell Targeting with Light-Absorbing Microparticles and Nanoparticles
; ...microparticles and nanoparticles that are heated by short laser pulses to create highly localized cell damage. The...before implantation. Subsequent irradiation with laser pulses will allow control of the implanted cells (inactivation...kills cells selectively upon exposure to short laser ...