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Laser produces brightest light ever

CAPSLOCKSTUCK

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Scientists at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln fired an ultra high-intensity laser known as 'Diocles' at electrons suspended in helium.
http://www.unl.edu/diocles/diocles.shtml

The aim was to study how photons from the laser scattered from single electrons. It is the scattering of light from a surface that makes vision possible.

But in this case the high number of scattered photons, almost 1,000 at a time, produced results that turned nature on its head.

Professor Donald Umstadter, from the university's Extreme Light Laboratory, said: 'When we have this unimaginably bright light, it turns out that the scattering - this fundamental thing that makes everything visible - fundamentally changes in nature.'

Above a certain threshold, the laser's brightness altered the angle, shape and wavelength of scattered light.

'It's as if things appear differently as you turn up the brightness of light, which is not something you normally would experience,' said Prof Umstadter.

'An object normally becomes brighter, but otherwise it looks just like it did with a lower light level.

'But here the light is changing the object's appearance. The light's coming off at different angles, with different colours, depending on how bright it is.'

Another effect of so many scattered photons was the creation of X-rays with unique properties, said the scientists writing in the journal Nature Photonics.



Using the brightest light ever produced, University of Nebraska-Lincoln physicists obtained this high-resolution X-ray of a USB drive. The image reveals details not visible with ordinary X-ray imaging


The X-rays generated by the laser beam hitting the electrons were powerful but lasted an incredibly short length of time and were held within a narrow energy range.The researchers would bombard a single electron with roughly 1,000 photons during each laser pulse, which last for about 30 billionths of one millionth of a second.

They could form the basis of low-dose but highly sensitive 3D X-ray scans for tracking down elusive tumours or mapping the molecular landscape of nanoscale materials, said the scientists.

Physicists could also employ the X-rays as an ultra-fast 'camera' to capture snapshots of electron motion or chemical reactions.

Another potential application was the detection of increasingly sophisticated threats at security checkpoints.

Professor Umstadter added: 'There were many theories, for many years, that had never been tested in the lab, because we never had a bright-enough light source to actually do the experiment.

'There were various predictions for what would happen, and we have confirmed some of those predictions.

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/3kz3nb/physicists-made-the-brightest-light-ever
 

Frick

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Sooooo... Taking shots of chemical reactioms and security checkpoints. That's quite thr application gap. :roll:
 
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A cascade of photons forced all the other matter in the area to oscillate at the same time at the same frequency resulting in cleaner images, almost like electro-magnetisim was involved..... whoda thunk it.


But in all reality its the same phenomenon as scintillation.
 
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