Sensible Erection | The Anti-Laser Is Here

Saturday, 19 February 2011

quote [ A. Douglas Stone, the Carl A. Morse Professor of Applied Physics and chair of applied physics at Yale, has developed the world's first "anti-laser." An anti-laser (or, in technical terms, "coherent perfect absorber") works in the reverse of a conventional laser. Instead of emitting a beam of light, it absorbs it. ]

+1 Anti-laser, or would that be -1 laser?

Much like when the laser was first invented, so far this seems to be a solution without a problem.

Here's some of the theory
http://physics.aps.org/viewpoint-for/10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.053901

And for some pro-laser news
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-02/navys-death-ray-laser-breaks-another-record-its-way-ripping-through-steel

[sci&tech] [by Anti-fuites@1:18pmGMT] [+10 Interesting]

Comments

Anti-fuites said @ 1:27pm GMT on 19th Feb
Looking around for some actual academic papers, but I'll probably get bored of it soon. Here's the closest I've come so far.

http://www.eng.yale.edu/stonegroup/cpa/cpa.html

clumsy_juggler said @ 1:29pm GMT on 19th Feb [Score:2 Funny]
Best line of the article -
"I'm a theory guy," Stone said. "I don't even know which end of the laser to look into."

Anti-fuites said @ 1:33pm GMT on 19th Feb
Heh, the engineer in me wouldn't recommend looking directly into either end. One just makes you look stupid, the other has some more lasting effects.

bluecalx said @ 1:59pm GMT on 19th Feb
A shining example of witty scientists.

ComposerNate said @ 2:26pm GMT on 19th Feb
Piercing insight.

Nostrildamus said @ 2:40pm GMT on 19th Feb
Blindingly clear.

astropig7 said @ 4:21pm GMT on 19th Feb
Radiating lucidity.

maryyugo said @ 4:50pm GMT on 19th Feb
Sheds light on the phenomenon.

valen85 said @ 5:58pm GMT on 19th Feb
Y'all seem pretty bright.

jaundice said @ 6:10pm GMT on 19th Feb
I guess all that we see or seem
Is but a beam within a beam...

Dioxin said @ 8:20pm GMT on 19th Feb
something something sharks with deathrays

eraser said @ 1:40pm GMT on 19th Feb
Well, now they have a premise for a "Real Genius" sequel, or remake, whichever you believe in.

"I want negative five megawatts by mid-May."

jaundice said @ 3:15pm GMT on 19th Feb
Uh, eraser…I think you may be getting a little obsessive about this now. I took in Mitch. He’s coming along fine. He’s working his guts out for you. So…what exactly do you want?

sacrelicious said @ 3:24pm GMT on 19th Feb
Because I'm curious. I wanna know more about what you do here! Frankly, I've heard alot of wild stories in the media and we want to assess any possibility of dangerous and possibly hazardous waste chemicals in your basement.

jaundice said @ 3:42pm GMT on 19th Feb
Holly McClane: [zaps him with stun-gun] Amen to that, Dick!

Karl Boerth said @ 9:07am GMT on 20th Feb
Excuse me, I'm just a poor gypsy.

eraser said @ 5:25pm GMT on 19th Feb
I want negative five megawatts by mid-May.

RedRiverRat said @ 5:58pm GMT on 19th Feb
If we play our cards right we'll end up with a house full of popcorn.

structured_spirits said @ 2:08pm GMT on 19th Feb
Hey, does anybody know the story of why the SE laser mod was retired anyway?

Anti-fuites said @ 2:09pm GMT on 19th Feb
Wasn't that just people messing around with the source code?

structured_spirits said @ 3:07pm GMT on 19th Feb
I don't know, thats why I ask.

sacrelicious said @ 2:47pm GMT on 19th Feb
probably a long way off from when this technology can be mobilized to prevent people from pointing green lasers at airline cockpits, but I look forward to the day when I can neutralize presentations and harsh everyone's buzz at Laser Floyd shows.

tickaz said @ 4:08pm GMT on 19th Feb [Score:1 Insightful]
I was thinking we finally have the technology that you see in retro side-scrolling games where there is a laser that hurts you and it is blocked off by another end that moves backwards and forwards, providing a gap for you to time your passage through. If we just get the anti-laser to move backwards and forwards, we can have that for real!

astropig7 said @ 4:22pm GMT on 19th Feb [Score:1 Insightful]
Do you mean a wall? We already have those.

sacrelicious said @ 8:58pm GMT on 19th Feb [Score:1 Funny]
you am play sheet-rock installer!

PottyMouth said @ 3:53pm GMT on 19th Feb
Back off! I'll whip this thing out and make things ... really dim in here!!

f00m@nB@r said @ 4:24pm GMT on 19th Feb
http://www.jamesgunn.com/2011/02/17/sexy-wonder-woman-pinup-gallery-2/

IBM said @ 5:01pm GMT on 19th Feb

f00m@nB@r said @ 5:10pm GMT on 19th Feb
+1 Laser == -1 Anti-Laser

Darren.greco said @ 5:42pm GMT on 19th Feb
Wonder how efficient it is, lots of potential here for all sorts of cool stuff.

Anti-fuites said @ 10:25pm GMT on 19th Feb
I was seeing reports their demo device can absorb over 99% of incoming light, but I think to get that efficiency the wavelength range is pretty damned narrow.

RedRiverRat said @ 5:50pm GMT on 19th Feb [Score:2]
Oh shit...

This is -_- bait. Next thing you know if will be mercury spheres full of anti-lasers. (obviously the anti-lasers will correct any effect that you science freaks have a problem with)

Quenadian said @ 6:33pm GMT on 19th Feb [Score:1 Funny]
I was wondering if anyone else had the same concern...!

==|| -_- ||==

===||*||===

=|| . . . . . ||=

Mad March Harris said @ 6:10pm GMT on 19th Feb
But can it stop the Quadlaser?

horseinsheep said @ 6:16pm GMT on 19th Feb
I'd bet this ends up in fiber optic networking - use a dozen different wavelength lasers in one end, use the perfect detectors to sort out the pulses.

RedRiverRat said @ 6:37pm GMT on 19th Feb
For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known.

RedRiverRat said @ 6:43pm GMT on 19th Feb

VictorTyne said @ 12:33am GMT on 20th Feb [Score:1 Insightful]
In America, Cthulhu is the lesser evil.

f00m@nB@r said @ 10:00pm GMT on 19th Feb [Score:1 Funny]

Chop-Logik said @ 3:53am GMT on 20th Feb [Score:1 Insightful]
+1 Apt Username

Anti-fuites said @ 7:40pm GMT on 20th Feb
Yeah, while I do find it interesting, I have to admit that was definitely a major reason I made this post