Monday, January 7, 2013

Physicists Demonstrate First Laser Made From a Cloud of Gas | MIT Technology Review

Physicists Demonstrate First Laser Made From a Cloud of Gas | MIT Technology Review:  In recent years, physicists have found an answer in the form of random lasers. These consist of some kind of disordered medium, such as semiconductor powder. The light that stimulates emission is not confined by mirrors but by the disordered state of the powder–the light simply bounces around inside it at random...




These guys have built their laser out of a small cloud of rubidium atoms confined in a magneto-optical trap. They excite the atoms and then zap them with a laser tuned close to the expected emission frequency of rubidium. This bounces around at random inside the cloud triggering the stimulated emission of light.

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