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FrozenGate by Avery

Homebrew UV "airlaser"

Benm said:
Something like that has been pursued for ages, but never found practical application.

The laser power required to cause air breakdown and the ionisation channel required is simply too great. Any laser capable of doing that would be a potent weapon in its own right, and probably not require the tazer part to be effective.

There is no need for UV lasers to do any of this - near-IR lasers like pulsed 1064 Nd:YAG units can cause air breakdown just fine - but at power levels that pose a very serious hazard... not only in terms of eye damage, but also of setting things on fire.
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Right, and these lasers can do a little bit more than just set things on fire, they can vaporize metal and cause air to superheat much the same way as a lightning bolt does and have output powers in the 100's of KW and in the case of Nd/Yag they can be pulses of several TWs. Nothing you'd ever want to mess with on a good day!
 





100's of kW CW? Not really existing yet. TW's with Nd:YAG? I'd say that doesn't exist too.
Or give an example of them, but I don't think this has ever been done.
 
The first pdf only mentiones a Ti:sapphire laser, completely different from a Nd:YAG. here at the university we have a large Ti:Sa, also giving terawats for laser wakefield experiments. Definately not Nd:YAG.

The second pdf is 96 pages long, but a search for YAG didn't bring anything, only the mention of a 10kW CW laser. 100kW only was metioned as a goal.

The closest thing is the national ignition facility, but it uses Nd:glass after an ytterbium doped fiber laser if I remember correctly. But that's Nd:glass, because Nd:YAG in the sizes that would be needed is far too expensive (if even possible).
 
Bluefan said:
The first pdf only mentiones a Ti:sapphire laser, completely different from a Nd:YAG. here at the university we have a large Ti:Sa, also giving terawats for laser wakefield experiments. Definately not Nd:YAG.

The second pdf is 96 pages long, but a search for YAG didn't bring anything, only the mention of a 10kW CW laser. 100kW only was metioned as a goal.

The closest thing is the national ignition facility, but it uses Nd:glass after an ytterbium doped fiber laser if I remember correctly. But that's Nd:glass, because Nd:YAG in the sizes that would be needed is far too expensive (if even possible).
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hmm, alright. I thought for sure Nd/yag lasers went up to the TW level. Well, from what you explained and asking the Physics dept at the local University, it seems you are quite correct about the cost issue.
I'd love to have a laser that powerful!
 
Try and start out with a small pulsed YAG of ruby laser, even the small ones can easily pop stuff if focussed.
 
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