lasing water

is it possible to laser water?(water as a lasing medium)

Probably not, or they haven't discovered with what to pump it yet.... :-/

how would that be even possible :S?

nikokapo said:

how would that be even possible :S?

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I dunno....but since there's an air laser, why not a water laser? Wouldn't be as simple though.Feeding massive charges of electricity into water would just cause it to turn into hydrogen and oxygen...But who knows....with the right pump it may be possible :-/

Switch said:

[quote author=nikokapo link=1218511135/0#2 date=1218562820]how would that be even possible :S?

Click to expand...

I dunno....but since there's an air laser, why not a water laser? Wouldn't be as simple though.Feeding massive charges of electricity into water would just cause it to turn into hydrogen and oxygen...But who knows....with the right pump it may be possible :-/[/quote]
Yes, when the scientists invent magic...

Hey, how do you know that pumping water with gamma rays or something doesn't cause it to lase? :

Why not try it

Things said:

Why not try it  

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Cause we don't have a gamma ray bulb nor the means to protect against it? :-/

Yes water vapor can lase and rather strongly so. It is one of the few types of electrically excited far infrared gas lasers. Most are excited by a co2 laser.

It has a tunable output at several lines from about 14 to 118um with highest gain at 28um. They look rather cool, bright pink plasma discharge, maximum power is typically a few hundred mW at 28um, most efficient mode of excitation is microwave or Rf excitation.

Since microwave ovens work by vibrating the water mollicules, that might make a good driver for a H2O laser tube.

Mike

Impressive! I can't think of one instance where water gives off light of it's own, coherent or otherwise.

Wow, that sounds awesome. I wonder how hard it would be to DIY :-/ I'm guessing pretty hard, since no one is doing it.Would be cool if you could do it with an oven magnetron and boiling water (in a tube, with mirrors ofcourse)
Would regular ZnSe mirrors work? :-/

what?


i have a terrible misconception then.

yes, there are gas lasers


air is a type of gas, but it is conformed of different kinds of gases.

i've NEVER seen an Air LASER.

thus i cant understand how you can use water vapor as a lasing medium

can somebody please explain?

nikokapo said:

what?


i have a terrible misconception then.

yes, there are gas lasers


air is a type of gas, but it is conformed of different kinds of gases.

i've NEVER seen an Air LASER.

thus i cant understand how you can use water vapor as a lasing medium

can somebody please explain?

Click to expand...

You explained it yourself, air is composed of gases.  Those gases can "lase".

http://spt06.chez-alice.fr/00/air.htm  Here's a nice, cheap, simple one I found on the web.


Really, you need electrons in excited energy states so that they can fall in energy and emit photons. All atoms have energy states higher than the ground configuration, so you can imagine that any element can have its electrons forced into a higher energy level. With things like gases, crystals, thin semiconductor films, these things are transparent and light already emitted can cause that stimulated emission, rather than what normally happens when an electron is excited (spontaneous emission or non-radiative recombination.

So, the basic requirements for an electrically-pumped laser: A medium that light can travel through. Air: check. The ability to conduct electrons, to get them to where they can be stimulated to emit light. Air: check (in plasma form). Energy states for electrons to go up into and to fall down from. Air: check.

So yeah, it can be a laser. It's really probably more like an impure nitrogen laser, since it's 80% nitrogen, but that's the idea.

awesome, thanks for the link!

Check out Cerenkov radiation.... ever wonder why pictures of nuclear reactors always have pits of glowing blue water?