RPMC Lasers Blog

Traditionally, long-wave infrared detectors have been costly, gallium arsenide- or indium phosphide-based detectors found in night vision cameras. While cheaper and easier to produce in volume, CMOS technology suffered from the so-called ‘THz gap’ or ‘far-infrared gap’ of the electromagnetic spectrum, unable to detect these long wavelengths. Today, an intriguing solution is becoming available in the form of a THz range CMOS detector for cost-effective, long-wave infrared … Read More

The University of Strathclyde has made a significant breakthrough in high-power laser technology. By creating “ghostly mirrors” utilizing plasma, the size of high-power lasers has been significantly reduced. This exciting new method points to the development of the next generation of high-power lasers, with potential to transform the way scienc… Read More

The Nanophotonics Group at Columbia has developed a high-performance, chip-scale laser platform that is tunable and offers various performance metrics. This innovative platform opens up new opportunities for various applications, such as quantum optics, atomic clocks, biosensing, laser displays for augmented and virtual reality, and underwater Li-Fi. The group’s laser platform is based on the concept of self-injection locking and provides the possibility to shrink current technologies and make them accessible to the gener… Read More

This article presents a rugged, compact, high-quality, tunable ultrafast laser system designed for nonlinear spectroscopy and imaging such as CRS, SRS, and CARS. This system provides high beam quality, extremely narrow linewidth, and high-intensity ultrafast pulses in several wavelength regions, providing a unique solution in the field of laser spectroscopy an… Read More

Scientists at the Brookhaven National Laboratory have published a study in which they demonstrate a new color-shifting strategy for lasers that uses interactions between the laser and the chemical bonds of materials called “ionic liquids.” This new method is simple, efficient, and highly customizable, and can change the color of laser light while retaining other important properties of the laser beam. Learn more about this groundbreaking method, its applications and how it could change the world … Read More

Historically, Helium-Neon (HeNe) lasers were often the first choice for precision instrumentation, measurement setups and some spectroscopy applications. It was invented in 1960 and technologically it was one of the first lasers with extraordinary good parameters. The mechanical and optical design is quite simple (apart from sophisticated glasswork to make the tube itself) but the gas lasing medium and overall construction provide some intrinsic advantages. But also a number of disadv… Read More

Scientists have successfully demonstrated that laser-induced filaments in the sky can guide lightning discharges over long distances, potentially leading to progress in lightning protection and physics. The research, conducted on a mountain in Switzerland using a high-repetition-rate terawatt laser, recorded the guidance of an upward negative lightning leader over a distance of 50m and was corroborated by other measurements. This is the first field-result to experimentally demonstrate lightning guided by lasers, opening the possibility for new atmospheric applications of ultrasho… Read More

Light contains both energy and momentum that can be used for various types of optical manipulation such as levitation and rotation. Optical tweezers, for example, are commonly used scientific instruments that use laser light to hold and manipulate tiny objects such as atoms or cells. For the last ten years, scientists have been working on a new type of optical manipulation: using laser light to create an optical tractor beam that could pul… Read More

NASA is using tabletop exercises to test how electric air taxis will fit safely into the national airspace, allowing passengers to one day hop across town or to a neighboring city. The agency partnered with industry, academia, and other government agencies in a series of 10 expert-led tabletop exercises to examine technical, operational, and regulatory gaps and define the best use of combined resources to add… Read More

The breakthrough came in an impossibly small slice of time, less than it takes a beam of light to move an inch. In that tiny moment, nuclear fusion as an energy source went from far-away dream to reality. The world is now grappling with the implications of the historic milestone. For Arthur Pak and the countless other scientists who’ve spent decades getting to this point, the work is just beginning…
We found that a typical commercial toilet generates a strong upward jet of air with velocities exceeding 6.6 feet per second (2 meters per second), rapidly carrying these particles up to 5 feet (1.5 meters) above the bowl within eight seconds of the start of th… Read More

Toilets are designed to efficiently empty the contents inside the bowl through a downward motion into the drain pipe. In the flush cycle, water comes into forceful contact with the contents inside the bowl and creates a fine spray of particles suspended in air.

We found that a typical commercial toilet generates a strong upward jet of air with velocities exceeding 6.6 feet per second (2 meters per second), rapidly carrying these particles up to 5 feet (1.5 meters) above the bowl within eight seconds of the start of th… Read More

The AC-130 is one of the US military’s most capable aircraft. Ground troops love the gunship and the capabilities it brings to the fight, but it can be effective even without deploying its large arsenal. During the chaotic evacuation of Kabul, Afghanistan, in August 2021, two AC-130J Ghostrider crews used a little-known laser sensor on their planes to help control the situation around the airport and keep enemy forces at bay as friendly troops carried out the e… Read More

At a range in southern England, researchers tested a new laser, making it one step closer to military use. Developed for the Ministry of Defence, DragonFire is intended to be a long-range answer to incoming threats, a way to defeat projectiles in mid-air through the concentrated power of intense light. On November 8, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) announced it had conducted long-range laser trials at the Porton Down site. During the live fire test, the laser hit and neutralized a small drone at a range o… Read More

In an effort to learn more about the effects of drugs on the brain and develop treatments for neurodegenerative conditions like epilepsy and dementia, scientists have grown human and mouse brain cells on a microelectrode array in a Petri dish. This living model, layered with 800,000 living brain cells, is currently playing the classic Atari video game ‘Pong.’ Next, the scientists plan to get the… Read More

Scientists are breaking optical data transmission records at record pace (see what I did there). The newest transmission record is quite staggering. Average broadband download speeds in the US come in at around 167 megabits per second. This new optical data transfer record multiplies that rate by approximately… 10.8 million… Read More

Controlling insect pests still relies on the extensive usage of generic and established methods, such as pesticides, which utilize broad spectrum chemicals or toxins persisting in the environment and targeting non-pest insect species. Therefore, more effective and environmental friendly approaches are needed to counteract these damagin… Read More

Physicists at the Australian National University say that optical microscopes should get a huge boost in magnification, after their discovery of a new high harmonic laser illumination technique, using a tiny cylinder 1/50th the width of a h… Read More

“One of the most fascinating predictions of quantum mechanics is entanglement, where widely separated particles can be prepared so that they behave as a single unit,” Ulf Danielsson, secretary of the Nobel Committee for Physics, tells Popular Mechanics. “The groundbreaking experiments of Clauser, Aspect, and Zeilinger show that this mind-boggling phenomenon persists at macroscopic distances, demonstrating the deficiency of our classical int… Read More

Called ZEUS, the Zetawatt-Equivalent Ultrashort pulse laser System, it will explore the physics of the quantum universe as well as outer space, and it is expected to contribute to new technologies in medicine, electronics and national… Read More

Lockheed Martin has delivered its most powerful laser to date to the US military’s Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research & Engineering OUSD (R&E) ahead of schedule for installation in new laser weapon demonstrators designed to engage a variety o… Read More

When squeezed to about a million times Earth’s atmospheric pressure and heated to thousands of degrees Celsius, polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, forms nanodiamonds, physicist Dominik Kraus and colleagues report September 2 in Science… Read More

For the first time, astronomers have used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to take a direct image of a planet outside our solar system. The exoplanet is a gas giant, meaning it has no rocky surface and could not be … Read More

Imagine walking into an airport or grocery store and your smartphone automatically starts charging. This could be a reality one day, thanks to a new wireless laser charging system that overcomes some of the challenges that have hindered previous attempts to develop safe and convenient on-the-go chargin… Read More

Finding water on the moon could be easier with a Goddard technology that uses an effect called quantum tunneling to generate a high-powered terahertz laser, filling a gap in existing laser t… Read More

Laser communications systems provide missions with increased data rates, meaning they can send and receive more information in a single transmission compared to traditional radio waves. Additionally, the systems are lighter, more flexible, and more secure. Laser communications can supplement radio frequency communications, which most NASA missions us… Read More