When first discovered, lasers were thought to be the ‘cure all’ for modern scientific problems. Although many limitations have been realized, lasers are slowly improving many different aspects of our lives. From eye surgery to industrial precision cutting and fabrication to medical marvels like tattoo removal, surgery, and even destroying isolated cancer cells, lasers continue to be a behind-the-scenes tool for improving our lives. Many people have heard of the lasers, but few know that the term is actually an acronym for Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Even still, fewer could explain how a laser works.
To understand how a laser light is produced, we must first start with a fundamental look
at the atom. Atoms are typically considered the building blocks of life and are far smaller than the naked eye can see. Atoms consist of an electron cloud and a nucleus which contains protons and neutrons. The electrons in the cloud
circle the nucleus in various orbits particular to each type of atom. Generally speaking, the further the electron’s orbit is away from the nucleus, the higher the energy level of that electron. In reality atoms move, vibrate, and rotate, but for our understanding we will just look at the excitation levels of the electrons and their orbits. An atom is said to be at ground state when its electrons posses only their innate electrical energy. When electrons are bombarded with radiation they absorb some of the energy and move further away from the nucleus to an excited level. The atom naturally wants to return to ground state and in doing so releases the absorbed energy in the form of a photon. A photon is a light particle, perceived to act physically as both a particle (matter) and ...
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...d even entertaining. Although lasers may not be the ‘end all’ of technologies, they certainly have changed and continue to change the world around us. The next time you hear a term like laser printer, Blu-Ray, or lasik, you can rest assured that just like the small percent of non-wasted energy that actually comprises a laser beam, you too are within a select group, aimed with the knowledge of how lasers work.
Works Cited
[1] Aldrich, Robert. “Laser Fundamentals” Fas.Org. 02.27.2011 < http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/navy/docs/laser/fundamentals.htm >
[2] Optical Cavity. Wikipedia 01.08.2011, 02.27.2011
Images Cited
Gibson, D. Inside An Atom. 04.18.2000, 02.27.2011
Optical Cavity. Wikipedia 01.08.2011, 02.27.2011
In the article,"Energy Story", it tells you all about basic energy and how scientists found out how it works. It tells you about each part of an electron and what part is what. The center is called the Nucleus. Electrons and atoms move together to create what is known as electricity. Atoms and electrons flow through an object
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In "Energy Story" uses an explanation of atoms and tells us the parts of an atom and its structure. In the text it
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In the article “scientific inaccuracies,” the author states that “it is possible that light can be manipulated into a laser which can cut things but it would have to be bent in order to look the way it does in the films, and light does not bend.” Furthermore, this quote illustrates how we would need a lot of energy to power this, which would end up being to big to
Erbium or YAG laser which is of precise wave length penetrates into the skin. As the scattering of the YAG lasers are less, the normal skin is left unaffected.
The theory of quantum mechanics has divided the atom into a number of fundamental sub-atomic particles. Although the physicist has shown that the atom is not a solid indivisible object, he has not been able to find a particle which does possess those qualities. Talk of particles, though, is misleading because the word suggests a material object. This is not the intention for the use of the word in quantum physics. Quantum particles are, instead, representations of the actions and reactions of forces at the sub-atomic level. In fact, physicists are less concerned with the search for a material particle underlying all physical objects and more interested in explaining how nature works. Quantum theory is the means that enables the physicist to express those explanations in a scientific way.
Beta radiation/emission – Beta particles are electrons (0-1e) that have been released from the nucleus of a radioactive atom when a neutron decays into a proton and electron. Beta decay/emission happens when the neutron to proton ratio is too high due to excess neutrons. 10n 11p + 0-1e (mass is still conserved as well as number of protons.)
Individual atoms can emit and absorb radiation only at particular wavelengths equal to the changes between the energy levels in the atom. The spectrum of a given atom therefore consists of a series of emission or absorption lines. Inner atomic electrons g... ... middle of paper ... ... a sensitive multielement inorganic analyses.
...ration of proton is not possible with available laser intensity. Because of its heavy mass, acceleration up to MeV need more laser intensity to overcome relativistic threshold. Energetic ions observed in the laser-solid interaction have been accelerated not directly by the laser fields but by the plasma fields which are formed by the laser heated electrons formed from solid or gas. However, these plasma electrons can inter-mediate the forces of laser fields on ions by generating strong quasi-static electric fields which arises from the charge separation due to the laser propagation. To accelerate the ion or proton need strong enough static electric field which can be explained best in two scenarios. These scenarios are
states strikes an excited atom, the atom is stimulated, as it falls back to a
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