Breakthrough Brings Laser Light To New Regions Of The Spectrum

Science Daily | National Science Foundation ^ | 2 Jan 2003

[sourcery]

FYI

[Benrand]

But I wanna know when the Pink Floydian application is ready...see you on the dark side of the moon.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[AdamSelene235]

The achievement is based on a new structure called a "waveguide,"

Sigh.....

[Dan Day]

"The achievement is based on a new structure called a 'waveguide,'"

Sigh.....

If something first discovered in 1894 qualifies as "new", I wonder how far back we'd have to go before the reporter would describe it as "old".

[aruanan]

The Colorado group hopes to extend the beam's range into what scientists call the "water-window" -- the region of the spectrum below 4 nanometers where the light is perfect for imaging biological structures. Producing a beam in this region would allow the researchers to build a small microscope for imaging living tissues on a desktop or for viewing objects at the nanoscale.

Although it's not like this, we're getting a new Leitz confocal microscope that will be able to use 10 fluors simultaneously and be able to distinguish between the overlapping wavelengths of FITC, GFP, and YFP in the same sample. It'll be so cool to tag more than three proteins in a cell at a time.

[PatrickHenry]

Laser breakthrough ping.

[This ping list for the evolution -- not creationism -- side of evolution threads, and sometimes for other science topics. To be included, or dropped, let me know via freepmail.]

[null and void]

If something first discovered in 1894 qualifies as "new", I wonder how far back we'd have to go before the reporter would describe it as "old".

Fire?

[clamper1797]

Ask any microwave technician about tuning wave guides

[Chemist_Geek]

If something first discovered in 1894 qualifies as "new", I wonder how far back we'd have to go before the reporter would describe it as "old".

Fuel cells are reported about as "new" technology, even though they were also invented in the mid 1800s. As someone else pointed out, we may have to go back to fire to get them to call it an old technology.

I was apprehensive, that the thread would already be full of the anti-government types whining about this "waste of our tax dollars." The research was NSF funded. Oh the unConstituitional horror. (/sarcasm)

[Kozak]

The new beam has peak powers approaching a megawatt and produces nanometer-scale light waves, yet the entire apparatus fits on a moderately sized table.

Weapons potential? sounds like an awful lot of power in a little package....

[Yeti]

a new structure called a "waveguide,"

LOL!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Whatcha mean there?

I suppose this would help with smaller circuits too, right?

[Yeti]

ok, I guess i should have read the rest of the article and the other replies before posting.

[BMCDA]

Photonic Bandgap Placemarker

[Faraday]

Weapons potential?

Not likely based on the information here. The key is the phrase "peak power." Since this is a pulsed laser on a femtosecond time scale, it is possible to have enormous peak power but very low average power. How long is the pulse and what is the pulse frequency? One must answer these questions to know how effective it might be as a weapon. I've worked with a "nitrogen laser" pumped tunable dye laser. The pulse durations were on the nanosecond time scale, and peak powers of 100's of kilowatts could be achieved. Average power, however, was in milliwatts, as the laser was "off" most of the time. Very good for doing careful spectroscopy, chemistry, or microscopy, not good for bringing down ICBM's.

[AndrewC]

Sigh.....

Well, maybe they cater to those who might confuse the following text with the image.

beams by firing a femtosecond laser through the gas-filled waveguide.

It is a gas-filled guide of some sort.

[BMCDA]

Actually photonic bandgap structures aren't that old.
If you want you can do a web search for "Eli Yablonovitch" and "PBG".

Also, you may have a look at these links:
http://www.fibre-optics.hw.ac.uk/Projects/mat16.htm
http://www.el.utwente.nl/tdm/ldg/research/pc_dev/pc_dev.htm

[Atlas Sneezed]

Moore's Law marches on as always.

(Cole's Law drips on your shirtfront.)