Laserful

Jeff, an electronics technologist, has posted an instruction for building a laser guitar!

The Prism is, quite simply, the best laser guitar on the Internet. At least I think so. I hope that you take these instructions and not only make your own, but improve on my design!

I suppose I should clarify what the Prism is: It's a bit like a guitar with some synthesizer mashed in. It has aspects of a theremin and a laser harp thrown in to boot. In short, it's not like anything else, and you can use it to make some really neat sounds. Anything from cold Sine and harsh square waves to heavily distorted noise.

At its heart the Prism features a VCO (Voltage Controlled Oscillator), based around the very shiny XR2206 monolithic function generator. The octave range is selected by blocking one of four laser "strings," and the pitch is controlled by the position of the musician's hand on the fretboard. The musician has the option of selecting a sine, triangle or square wave. The sine and triangle waves can be skewed using a separate Skew control.

OSA will start a service called "Spotlight on Optics", which is officially coming on July 20, 2009. But there are already some content on the website. Basically, Spotlight on Optics will highlight select articles from the OSA journals and make them freely accessable through Optics InfoBase.

* Spotlight articles will be selected by OSA Topical and Associate Editors to show the breadth and quality of OSA content.
* Each Spotlight article will be made open access and be accompanied by original summaries written in plain English.
* Journal Editors will be encouraged to identify articles for Spotlight that have excellent scientific quality, are representative of the level of work taking place in a specific area, and put other work in perspective.
* Readers will be able to post comments to the Spotlight website, creating the potential for dialogue between author and reader (and among readers).

It will be a great source for finding interesting research works.

author: Vladilen Letokhov Sveneric Johansson rating: ASIN or ISBN-10: 0199548277 binding: Hardcover list price: $110.00 USD amazon price: $139.13 USD

Progress in modern radio astronomy led to the discovery of space masers in the microwave range, and it became a powerful tool for studies of interstellar star-forming molecular clouds. Progress in observational astronomy, particularly with ground-based huge telescopes and the space-based Hubble Space Telescope, has led to recent discoveries of space lasers in the optical range. These operate in gas condensations in the vicinity of the mysterious star Eta Carinae (one of the most luminous and massive stars of our Galaxy). Both maser and laser effects, first demonstrated under laboratory conditions, have now been discovered to occur under natural conditions in space, too. This book describes consistently the elements of laser science, astrophysical plasmas, modern astronomical observation techniques, and the fundamentals and properties of astrophysical lasers. A book with such an interdisciplinary scope has not been available to date. The book will also be useful for a wider audience interested in modern developments of the natural sciences and technology.

Virtual Journal of Laser is a web tool to help laser researchers follow publications from major academic journals. It automatically aggregate updates from Physics or Optics journals. Only abstracts of articles that are directly related to laser are imported into the system. By voting, commenting and simply visiting, interesting papers will be promoted and become more visible and easy to find.

It has been rebuilt, now one can vote on papers to promote them. It can sort popularity of papers with an algorithm similar to "radioactivity". I use it for checking new papersr and see what other people are interested in.

Chunlei Guo, an associate professor of optics at the University of Rochester, had use ultrafast laser to turn any metal pitch black. Now he has successfuly demonstrate a reverse process, make metal radiate light more effectively!

An ultra-powerful laser can turn regular incandescent light bulbs into power-sippers, say optics researchers at the University of Rochester. The process could make a light as bright as a 100-watt bulb consume less electricity than a 60-watt bulb while remaining far cheaper and radiating a more pleasant light than a fluorescent bulb can.

The laser process creates a unique array of nano- and micro-scale structures on the surface of a regular tungsten filament—the tiny wire inside a light bulb—and theses structures make the tungsten become far more effective at radiating light.

The findings will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Physical Review Letters.

More from University of Rochester

As reported by Optics.org, Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology (ILT) in Aachen, Germany, will unveil a femtosecond laser of a world-beating power output of 400 W at LASER World of Photonics in Munich, Germany, next month.

That's a monumental improvement on most commercial femtosecond lasers, which produce an average output power around the single-watt level, while even high-end models are limited to the 50-100 W range.

"The Fraunhofer ILT is introducing a paradigm shift in the design of commercial femtosecond lasers," claimed Axel Bauer, head of the institute's marketing and communications group. "Our laser module holds the world record for average output power among lasers with pulse durations of less than one picosecond."

Scientists for decades have been hunting for ways to harness the enormous force of the sun and stars to supply energy here on Earth. The National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory may spark the light at the end of the tunnel.

An openning ceramony of the facility is held today. via: UC

Laser targeting aircraft and helicopters has become a serious issue in last few years. Now polices in UK start equipping hand-held Laser Event Recorders (LER) to locate attackers.

Officers are now using hand-held Laser Event Recorders (LER) to gather evidence when they are "attacked" from the ground. The LER is held up to the helicopter's window when the laser is first spotted.

The device, first adopted by the US Air Force, is a sophisticated digital camera which can detect laser radiation and take a picture of the attack.

It can also warn the police if the laser is powerful enough or close enough to cause physical damage to the eyes. There is a GPS receiver to record the location of the helicopter when attacked.

watch the video report:

...... Mr. Gates said he would cut from programs for defense against missiles, including halting the increase in the numbers of defensive missiles deployed in Alaska. Defense experts were also expecting that Boeing’s airborne laser system, which would equip a modified 747 jetliner with a laser to shoot down missiles, might be killed.......

via Gates Budget Plan Reshapes Pentagon’s Priorities - NYTimes.com.

It has been reported that construction of the National Ignition Facility (NIF) was ready earlier this year. Now its completion is offically certificated by Department of Energy.

The Department of Energy today announced that the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has certified the completion of the historic effort to build the world’s largest laser. Housed at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the National Ignition Facility (NIF) is expected to allow scientists to achieve fusion ignition in the laboratory, obtaining more energy from the target than is provided by the laser. The completion of NIF opens the door to scientific advancement and discovery that promises to enhance our national security, could help break America’s dependence on foreign oil, and will lead to new breakthroughs in the worlds of astrophysics, materials science and many other scientific disciplines.

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