magnets?

[desubot]

i was watching tv and saw how plasma can be effected by magnets, n it got me thinking. are lasers effected in anyway by magnets?

i thought if it was u could use them to compress multiple beams togther for a more powerful laser?

im no physisit and im not taking phycics for a while (my english sux as well but owell=P)

 

[pullbangdead]

Short answer, no.

What's affected in plasma is not the light, it's the ions and electrons in the plasma. Those charged particles are moving in the plasma, and a moving charged particle in a constant magnetic field experiences a force. Since the particles are where the light in a plasma is coming from, and the particles are "moved" by the magnetic field, the source of the light moves, and the light appears to "bend".

A laser beam is just photons, though. Photons don't have net charge, so they do not experience the same force due to the presence of a magnetic field like the particles in the plasma that you saw.

Like everything at that level of physics, it's complicated, but that's the short answer.

 

[desubot]

good enough for me =P just a pipe dream hehe (could emagen a gigantic array of smaller lasers put together to put a hole in the side of a house )

 

[Cyparagon]

Ion lasers are affected (and often controlled) by magnetic fields. The lasing medium is a plasma, incidentally.

 

[pullbangdead]

^True, that is an important point; for example an argon ion laser. And it's really not even incidental that the lasing medium is a plasma, ionized gas is basically the definition of a plasma. So magnets can affect the output from the tube by influencing the ions/electrons, but once the light leaves the tube, magnets no longer have any effect because they are only affecting the ions and electrons in the tube.

 

[Benm]

Indeed. Semiconductor and solid state lasers are not affected by static magnetic fields at all, altough variating fields can obviously mess with the electronics if powerful enough.

Magnets bend light the same way non-magnets of equal mass do - not interesting unless they are the size of a planet

 

[desubot]

lol i remeber somtin like that in science class where light from a star on the other side of our sun could be seen because of gravity or sumtin cant remeber =P

 

[Hemlock_Mike]

Some early high powered HeNe lasers relied on magnets to contain the plasma arc in the tube.

Mike

 

[JLSE]

The member climbak had suggested a way to increase a He/Ne's output with this method. Here is some info from Sam's

http://members.misty.com/don/laserhen.htm#henmag1

 

[Pinged]

What about Faraday rotators?

 

[nikokapo]

we've discussed this earlier. if i recall correctly it was about light being affected by magnetic fields (general topic), i don't know in which thread it was, it is stored with older threads in this section

 

[Deleted member 8382]

I tried to focus the laser with a magnifing glass (failed ofc), at least you thought more than me hehe

 

[laser83]

I have a giant neodymium magnet the size of a brick. It's the most powerful material for a magnet. I can state safely a magnet doesn't help increase laser power from what I've seen.

 

[daguin]

I have a giant neodymium magnet the size of a brick. It's the most powerful material for a magnet. I can state safely a magnet doesn't help increase laser power from what I've seen.

I have opened many HeNe's that have magnets "strategically" placed along the tube

Peace,
dave

 

[laser83]

[quote author=laser83 link=1231895193/0#12 date=1235753461]I have a giant neodymium magnet the size of a brick. It's the most powerful material for a magnet. I can state safely a magnet doesn't help increase laser power from what I've seen.

I have opened many HeNe's that have magnets "strategically" placed along the tube

Peace,
dave[/quote]

Sorry, I just meant laser pointers not gas lasers or other types.

 

[Benm]

I have a giant neodymium magnet the size of a brick. It's the most powerful material for a magnet. I can state safely a magnet doesn't help increase laser power from what I've seen.

.. besides, prying all those laser pointers loose from that magnet must be a burden ;p