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Lasers are generally considered as one of the key technologies for future optical computers as well as a wide range of other products, including military applications.
It has taken more than 50 years that the actual laser has received its counterpart, the anti-laser.
Scientists at Yale University claim they have built the first anti-laser, in which light effectively cancels out concentrated laser beams. The initial concept of such a device was developed last year, but it has not been until now that such a device was successfully tested. The demonstration included two laser beams "with a specific frequency" that were focused into a cavity containing a silicon wafer that acted as a "loss medium." According to the research group, the wafer aligned the light waves to perfectly trap them. The waves bounced back and forth until they were eventually absorbed and transformed into heat.
The scientists call their device a coherent perfect absorber (CPA), which they believe should be able to absorb 99.999% of laser light. In the experiment, the CPA reached 99.4%. "But the CPA we built is just a proof of concept," said Yale physicist Douglas Stone. "I'm confident we will start to approach the theoretical limit as we build more sophisticated CPAs." The experimental CPA has a diameter of about 1 cm, but the research team believes that the device can work down to a size of only 6 microns, which is about one twentieth of the width of a human hair.
The obvious application of this invention may be in optical computing, where CPAs could absorb light in optical switches and detectors in fiber communications. "It went from being a useful thought experiment to having me wondering whether you could really do that," Stone said. "After some research, we found that several physicists had hinted at the concept in books and scientific papers, but no one had ever developed the idea." Of course, this invention also makes you wonder what military applications can result from this idea.
source:Laser? What Laser? Here's The Anti-Laser
It has taken more than 50 years that the actual laser has received its counterpart, the anti-laser.
Scientists at Yale University claim they have built the first anti-laser, in which light effectively cancels out concentrated laser beams. The initial concept of such a device was developed last year, but it has not been until now that such a device was successfully tested. The demonstration included two laser beams "with a specific frequency" that were focused into a cavity containing a silicon wafer that acted as a "loss medium." According to the research group, the wafer aligned the light waves to perfectly trap them. The waves bounced back and forth until they were eventually absorbed and transformed into heat.
The scientists call their device a coherent perfect absorber (CPA), which they believe should be able to absorb 99.999% of laser light. In the experiment, the CPA reached 99.4%. "But the CPA we built is just a proof of concept," said Yale physicist Douglas Stone. "I'm confident we will start to approach the theoretical limit as we build more sophisticated CPAs." The experimental CPA has a diameter of about 1 cm, but the research team believes that the device can work down to a size of only 6 microns, which is about one twentieth of the width of a human hair.
The obvious application of this invention may be in optical computing, where CPAs could absorb light in optical switches and detectors in fiber communications. "It went from being a useful thought experiment to having me wondering whether you could really do that," Stone said. "After some research, we found that several physicists had hinted at the concept in books and scientific papers, but no one had ever developed the idea." Of course, this invention also makes you wonder what military applications can result from this idea.
source:Laser? What Laser? Here's The Anti-Laser
