Using Lasers to Create Super-hydrophobic Materials

Scientists at the University of Rochester have used lasers to transform metals into extremely water repellent, or super-hydrophobic, materials without the need for temporary coatings.

 

Wind lidars: using laser beams to detect wind speeds

The accurate measurement of wind speeds is critical for effective siting of wind farms. The ZephIR lidar calculates wind speed and direction by projecting a laser into the air and detecting the Doppler-shifted backscatter from tiny particles and dust in the atmosphere. The process is explained here by their team of scientists.

 

NASA | A Laser Scientist Answers 5 Questions About LVIS

With winter closing in, a new NASA airborne campaign launched October 31, 2013 in Greenland. For the first time, the Laser Vegetation Imaging Sensor, or LVIS, is flying about NASA's new C-130 aircraft to measure the island's ice following a summer's melt. This data will complement measurements the LVIS instrument has taken in previous springtime campaigns as a part of Operation IceBridge, a six-year multi-instrument survey over both Arctic and Antarctic ice.


 

Laser Cooling - Sixty Symbols

Learn how lasers can be used to cool atoms to temperatures approaching absolute zero. More physics at http://www.sixtysymbols.com/

 

NASA | Downloads the Future

LLCD will be NASA's first-step in creating a high performance space-based laser communications system.

The LLCD mission consists of space-based and ground-based components.

The Lunar Laser Space Terminal (LLST) is an optical communications test payload to fly aboard the LADEE Spacecraft and it will demonstrate laser communications from lunar orbit.

The ground segment consists of three ground terminals that will perform high-rate communication with the LLST aboard LADEE. The primary ground terminal, the Lunar Laser Ground Terminal (LLGT) is located in White Sands, NM and was developed by MIT/Lincoln Laboratory and NASA.

The ground segment also includes two secondary terminals located at NASA/JPL's Table Mountain Facility in California and the European Space Agency's El Teide Observatory in Tenerife, Spain.

The main goal of LLCD is proving fundamental concepts of laser communications and transferring data at a rate of 622 megabits per second (Mbps), which is about five times the current state-of-the-art from lunar distances. Engineers expect future space missions to benefit greatly from the use of laser communications technology.

How to find black holes with lasers: Dr Andreas Freise

In 1916, Einstein -- as a consequence of his new theory of gravity -- predicted the existence of gravitational radiation (ripples in the fabric of space--time that propagate at the speed of light).

Today, the hunt for such gravitational waves has sparked a new field of fundamental and instrumental science, using kilometre-sized telescopes that exploit laser technology. These new instruments are now in operation and close to observing Einstein's prediction for the very first time.

The observation of gravitational waves has the potential to change dramatically our understanding of the universe; we will be able to "hear" some of the most violent events in cosmic history, including black holes colliding in the centre of galaxies and the first fraction of a second after the Big Bang.

 

X-ray Laser Captures Atoms and Molecules in Action

The Linac Coherent Light Source at SLAC is the world's most powerful X-ray laser. Just two years after turning on in 2009, breakthrough science is emerging from the LCLS at a rapid pace. A recent experiment used the X-rays to create and probe a 2-million-degree piece of matter in a controlled way for the first time—a significant leap toward understanding the extreme conditions found in the hearts of stars and giant planets, and a finding which could further guide research into nuclear fusion, the mechanism that powers the sun. Upcoming experiments will investigate the fundamental, atomic-scale processes behind such phenomena as superconductivity and magnetism, as well as peering into the molecular workings of photosynthesis in plants.

 Filmed and produced by SLAC Multimedia Communications; Music ("The Dig") courtesy Dwight Chalmers @ The Listen Laboratory. Copyright 2012 SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

 

ALPHA-2 arrives at CERN

While many experiments are methodically planning for intense works over the long shutdown, there is one experiment that is already working at full steam: ALPHA-2. Its final components arrived last month and will completely replace the previous ALPHA set-up.

Unlike its predecessor, this next generation experiment has been specifically designed to measure the properties of antimatter.

Read more about ALPHA-2: http://cdsweb.cern.ch/journal/CERNBulletin/2012/47/News%20Articles/1493544?ln=en

 

The Evolution of SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Over the course of its 50 year history, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory has evolved from a groundbreaking particle physics research facility to one of the world's foremost multipurpose laboratories. Here lab director Persis Drell tells the story of how the focus of research at SLAC has grown and changed since the earliest days.

(SLAC is for Stanford Linear Accelerator Center)

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How a Laser Works

Bill shows how the three key characteristics of laser light - single wavelength, narrow beam, and high intensity - are made. He explains the operation of a ruby laser - the first laser ever made - showing how electronic transitions create stimulated emission to give coherent light, and then how the ends of the ruby cavity create a narrow wavelength highly collimated beam.

Other "Engineer Guy" videos

How lasers work (in theory)

How does a laser really work? It's Bose - Einstein statistics! (photons are bosons)

Other Minute Physics videos

Octopus Laser - Backstage Science

Octopus is a laser system at the Central Laser Facility.

Other Backstage Science videos

Holograms

From Star Wars to credit cards, a discussion and demonstration on the inner workings of lasers and 3-D holograms.

Speaker: Mr. Paul Christie, Liti Holographics
Date: February 9, 1999

Other lectures from Jefferson Lab Science Series