Using photons to vaporize matter without creating heat

A company has developed a laser that emits ultrashort burst of photons that are so intence that it vaporizes matter without the usual heat build up in surrounding material.

The applications for this range from removal of tattos to targeting tumors etc. You also have to wonder about the weapons applications as well.

In a quiet industrial park in Petaluma, a startup called Raydiance Inc. is miniaturizing a type of laser that generates an ultrashort burst of photons so intense that it can vaporize matter without creating heat.
sfgate.com.../chronicle/archive/2007/06/18/BUGGGQGBSS1.DTL

Shades of Star Trek! I sometimes wonder if Gene Roddenberry was a time traveler.

And I'm sure that weapons will come from this, if they haven't already. This would make defense missiles a thing of the past.

Actually the article's phrasing is incorrect.

What they should have said was that it doesn't heat the substrate substantially. However, the material that's ablated is converted to a plasma.

As far as weapons applications go, you can create some nice plasma blooms with it, but probably not exactly the way they're doing it at Raydiance.

edit: Here's what it looks like when you use short but not ultrashort pulses...



Plasma bloom weapons knock electrons off the surface as the article sort of describes, then pump energy into them:





[edit on 18-6-2007 by Tom Bedlam]

I couldn't get the article to load.

But I did do a search for the raydiance website and found something there that's a little disturbing:

Raydiance awarded contract to develop high power USP technology for the Navy
Raydiance was recently awarded a multi-million dollar Research and Development contract from the U.S. Department of the Navy. Under the terms of the contract, Raydiance is developing a high power version of its commercial "desktop" USP laser for potential use in a variety of defense and homeland security applications.

www.raydiance-inc.com...

Tom perhaps you can tell me ?

I read about an experiment using lasers to cool atoms to almost absolute zero. Then the experimenter was able to teleport the atoms.

Do you or does anybody here know more about that process ?

Originally posted by sy.gunson
Tom perhaps you can tell me ?

I read about an experiment using lasers to cool atoms to almost absolute zero. Then the experimenter was able to teleport the atoms.

Do you or does anybody here know more about that process ?

well, I know about laser cooling, and I know about entanglement. I don't know about putting them together, but so much stuff goes on that it could have been.

The 1997 physics Nobel went to some laser cooling guys. There's some good info to be had, just google for "laser cooling".

I can already imagine a possible design:

There is research currently that is exploring the use of quantum well lasers (has been going on for some time) being etched into silicon micro-circuits.

Create an array of these USP beams, much like you might line up a grid of Light Emitting Diodes in a flash light, and then mount it on the end of a hand held weapon.

At first, they'll be clunky probably using batteries like the old cell phones used to...slung around the shoulder on a strap. But as they get more efficient, and the USP become more tunable and have a greater firing distance...this will replace the hand gun. No bullets can match the speed of light.

Prediction: with the proper optics and the right power source, a hand-held USP weapon could be developed in the next several years with a practical range (for disabling, possibly fatal) of...and this is my guess...approx. 100 meters.
Dazzling capabilities are also implied as a secondary use of this imaginary weapon. You think 5,000,000 candle power from a halogen light is bright...

[edit on 19-6-2007 by newtron25]

[edit on 19-6-2007 by newtron25]

is it possible this technology could make things like Toilet paper and the Bedette obsolete?