Brightest Laser Blows Up Water in Cinematic and Scientific First

Microscopic Movies of Water Vaporized by World’s Brightest X-ray Laser

The first tiny movies of water being vaporized by the world’s brightest X-ray laser have been recorded by the scientists who have captured dramatic video footage of what tends to take place when liquid droplets are hit with the beam of an X-ray laser. It is said that besides creating a sequence of enthralling videos, the data which has been gathered at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, in Menlo Park, California could provide some insight on X-ray lasers and how these tremendously bright, fast flashes of light tend to take atomic level snapshots of some of nature’s fastest progressions.

Claudiu Stan of Stanford PULSE Institute, which is a joint institute of Stanford University and SLAC, has commented in a statement, that `it could help in finding new ways of utilising explosions caused by X-rays to generate changes in samples and study matter under extreme conditions. These studies could be helpful in understanding better, an extensive range of phenomena in X-ray science as well as the other applications’. The team had inserted water in the path of the laser as successions of individual drops together with a continuous jet.

Explosive Interactions Unfolds/Delivers Clues

As each individual X-ray pulse hit the water, a single image had been recorded, timed from five billionths of a second to one ten-thousandth of a second after the pulse. Thereafter, these images were laced together creating the movies. Liquids have been usually utilised in putting scientific samples in the path of an X-ray beam for the purpose of analysis. The experiment provides in detail how the explosive interaction tends to unfold and delivers clues on how it could affect X-ray laser experiments.

 The study had been published recently in the journal Nature Physics. The video portrays the X-ray pulse ripping a drop of liquid apart that tends to create a cloud of smaller particles and vapour. When the X-ray pulse tends to hit a jet of liquid, it primarily tends to create a hole in the stream and as the gap seems to grow, the ends of the jet become like an umbrella-like shape, ultimately folding back to combine with the jet.

Mathematical Models to Describe Liquid Explosions

The researchers had developed mathematical models to describe the liquid explosions, from the data that had been collected during the experiments together with their resulting movies. These models could be helpful to researchers in tuning the lasers more accurately and would ultimately be utilised in experiments engaging very high powered X-ray lasers which could comprise the European XFEL. This laser is presently under manufacture in Germany which will fire thousands of time quicker than that of SLAC.

 Stan states that `the jets in the study took up to many millionths of a second to recover from each explosion, so if X-ray pulses come in faster than that, they may not be able to make use of every single pulse for an experiment. Fortunately, the data shows that they can tune the most commonly used jets in a way that they recover quickly and there are ways of making them recover even faster.

Boeing’s New Laser Cannon Kills Drones Mid-Flight

Boeing’s New Laser Cannon – Silent & Invisible

Boeing’s new laser cannon, though silent and invisible can slay enemy drones by taking them within a minute. The Compact Laser Weapons System – CLWS has the potential of tracking down an unmanned aerial vehicle – UAC and eradicate a threat.

 Video of its Compact Laser Weapons Systems demonstrations had been released by Boeing and the laser had taken part in ultra-cool Exercise Black Dart in August which focuses on innovative tech to tackle hostile drones. The CLWS tends to focus on the trail of the target drone for around 10 to 15 seconds, setting it on fire and destroys it.

In the video , Isaac Neal, Boeing engineer describes it as ` a welding torch being put on target from several hundreds of meters away and if one were on the receiving end of laser energy, they would have no idea from where it was coming or what could be happening’.

The CLWS is said to be a two kilowatt laser which centres a directed energy beam on a target and is so accurate that it can target a specific location on a drone where the laser beam tends to be silent as well as invisible.

Identifying & Tracking Air and Ground Targets

The system has the capabilities of identifying and tracking air and ground targets as they move around by utilising a mid-wave infrared sensor, having a range of around 40 kilometres.

In the video it indicates that the laser takes about 15 seconds to destroy a drone. The laser is said to be controlled with an Xbox 360-like controller which is connected to a laptop equipped with the targeting software and takes only two war-fighters to move the laser across the battle space to deliver focused firepower. The laser can be moved in a few boxes and set up in few minutes.

Another two main advantages of laser weapons is that they have unlimited magazines provided, power and cost for each shot seems to be a quite lower. Boeing has been having many laser systems in progress from lasers like the CLWS which tends to specifically focus on drones through lasers which aim other threats like small fast attack boats, mortar and rockets.

Protecting & Defending Sensitive Areas in U.S.

The High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator – HEL MD, Boeing’s laser mounted on a truck which can destroy mortars when they are mid-flight. This laser had been demonstrated by Boeing last year. The CLWS is much smaller and portable.

The Laser system is expected to be ready for sale in the next year or two according to Boeing. Beside the CLWS being utilised in defeating drone threats in war zones, it would also be protecting and defending sensitive areas in the U.S.

Areas such as the airports and government buildings tend to be targeted by drones. For instance, a man had been arrested for flying a drone at the White House, this year in May and the security experts are worried that a drone could probably carry threats like biological or chemical weapons. The CLWS could also be useful in protecting sensitive areas from the prying and spying views of drones.

Based on the speed and distance of the target, Boeing‘s weapon can fire its laser within an inch or more of what it intends to hit. Since the laser tends to move at the speed of light, it is easier to be accurate and there is no need to lead the target and the speed of the gimbal is the main limitation on targeting façade.

Scientists Precisely Control Gold-Coated Nanoparticles with Lasers

Undeniably humans will quite soon be considered as nano-particles making them the very first life-size nanotechnology, which has been built from the scratch. Now human seems to be looking forward to return a favour pertaining to this aspect by developing a nano-scale machinery from top to down. Even though the technological world is still waiting for this dream to become a reality, looks like a less glamorous micro and nano particle technology seems to be stealing all the limelight. Although there are many kinds of particles that are used for creating finely separated spheres and powders, gold has become come out as winner in terms of being the premier element mainly due to its properties related to opto-electronics.

Reports suggest that researchers from Munich have been able to use this, currently named as ‘plasmonic gold’ to create what they claimed to be is a micro-scale photonic elevator. They stated that a lot of experiments can be done by hitting out flecks of gold through various rays of energy. These beams of energy include fluorescence, precision thermal control, and movements in 2D plane however the researchers also added that this photonic elevator is however in control of their third axis.

The Plasmon: 

An oscillation of free electrons has been termed as the Plasmon. The electron density inside the electromagnetic radiation of wavelengths can couple with the plasmonic nano-particles making it larger than the particle itself. Researchers have been trying to find out as to what differentiates these particles created by the Plasmon over the surface of any interface unique in terms of their absorbance as well as scattering properties. The Plasmon derives these properties from their shape and sizes. In simple terms, the interaction of the Plasmon with the different radiation as well light is not only dependent on their elements but they are also affected by the geometry as well as the relative positioning of other particles inside them.

Lasertrap is one such device which has been able to capture the essence of the nano-particles technology. Using this device along with different kinds of microscope will allow anyone to feel the nano. The researcher created the so called magic by coating the half of the silica beads with a thermally collected gold vapour. They stated that due to this asymmetric gold coating, the Plasmon started showcasing scattering effects by orienting the particles inside the axis of the laser light. Using the gold coating has allowed the researchers to use the benefits of opto-genetics, without the need of any real genetics.

This is the kind of technology which is being anticipated by the scientists of the National Brain initiative to research the entire brain. The gold coating and its associated effects can be highly beneficial for conducting local calibrations and to collect feedback. Emergence of these electromagnetic technologies means using the same hardware with minimum changes and getting the best possible stimulation, images, therapeutic treatments. At the end, any equipment enabled with this technology will be the dream of any neuronaut.