Path: ...!local-1.nntp.ord.giganews.com!Xl.tags.giganews.com!local-2.nntp.ord.giganews.com!nntp.supernews.com!news.supernews.com.POSTED!not-for-mail NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 23 Jun 2024 20:38:00 +0000 From: john larkin Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design Subject: Re: how the laser happened Date: Sun, 23 Jun 2024 13:38:00 -0700 Message-ID: <36tg7jl5i74ui7rvmqhbg1jl9pldjehmvb@4ax.com> References: <1ghb7jt3882078r19n6jjgtirv25q27805@4ax.com> User-Agent: ForteAgent/8.00.32.1272 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Lines: 93 X-Trace: sv3-lX6BuZgrd7+7chWaCt5bGQjcpNL8HdXMQE7UpwwZiOHLFDlH/rPpX1LJ3CsPHcuxvnejht8VsbIewia!14cQGXKUtdswkyyzJtR8UjNbKWr3O2aVmKLjmFxxU2Q2IcZK9LApKkieQaJ9nyhOkOd+nlxuJNB5!qw6HnA== X-Complaints-To: www.supernews.com/docs/abuse.html X-DMCA-Complaints-To: www.supernews.com/docs/dmca.html X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.3.40 Bytes: 4796 On Sun, 23 Jun 2024 18:08:52 -0000 (UTC), Phil Hobbs wrote: >john larkin wrote: >> On Sun, 23 Jun 2024 16:39:56 -0000 (UTC), Cursitor Doom >> wrote: >> >>> On Sun, 23 Jun 2024 05:03:34 GMT, Jan Panteltje wrote: >>> >>>> On a sunny day (Sat, 22 Jun 2024 17:23:40 -0000 (UTC)) it happened >>>> Cursitor Doom wrote in >>>> : >>>> >>>>> On Sat, 22 Jun 2024 06:19:49 GMT, Jan Panteltje wrote: >>>>> >>>>>> On a sunny day (Fri, 21 Jun 2024 11:32:56 -0700) it happened john >>>>>> larkin wrote in >>>>>> <1ghb7jt3882078r19n6jjgtirv25q27805@4ax.com>: >>>>>> >>>>>>> On Fri, 21 Jun 2024 17:56:36 +0100, Cursitor Doom >>>>>>> wrote: >>>>>>> >>>>>>>> On Fri, 21 Jun 2024 06:05:21 -0700, john larkin >>>>>>>> wrote: >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> There was a thread somewhere above about photon wave/particle >>>>>>>>> duality. >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> This is worth reading: >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> https://www.amazon.com/How-Laser-Happened-Adventures-Scientist/dp/ >>>>> 0195153766 >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> Einstein, in one of his fits of genius, predicted in around 1916 >>>>>>>>> that under the right conditions, a photon could pass by an excited >>>>>>>>> atom and the atom would kick in another photon, or add to the wave >>>>>>>>> amplitude, depending on how you feel about these things. He called >>>>>>>>> it stimulated emission. He also declared that the laws of >>>>>>>>> thermodynamics made this effect impossible to use in practical >>>>>>>>> situations. >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> In 1951, Charles Townes invented a work-around trick and built the >>>>>>>>> maser, a gaseous microwave oscillator. His superiors thought he was >>>>>>>>> crazy to dispute Einstein and almost threw him out of grad school, >>>>>>>>> but it worked. >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> In 1960, Theodore Maiman at HRL made the first ruby laser, and Bell >>>>>>>>> Labs soonafter made a HeNe. >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> What's interesting is that any decent neon sign shop could have >>>>>>>>> built a HeNe laser in 1920. >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> HRL sounds like a very cool place, up in the hills above Malibu. >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> Wasn't that where Jane Mansfield used to go out bathing? >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> >>>>>>> Keep your mind on electronics, young man. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> The Getty Museum is in Malibu. Go there if you can. Hearst Castle, >>>>>>> too, >>>>>>> up the road a bit. >>>>>> >>>>>> I've been to Malibu, even did some work there... >>>>>> Did not go to any museum, but did go to the beach. >>>>> >>>>> Did you see Jane? What about lobsters? Any lobsters around? >>>> >>>> Na, but some other beatiful women I met. >>>> Last time we went looking for edible seaweed ... >>> >>> Argh! Never mind. I believe Jane had terrible problems with lobsters when >>> she went out bathing in Malibu. But you don't know anything about that, >>> clearly. It obviously wasn't publicised in Holland. >> >> This thread is about lasers, not lobsters. >> >> > >Well, Schawlow famously said, “Anything will lase, if you hit it hard >enough.” > >I expect that includes lobsters. > >Cheers > >Phil Hobbs But no, seriously, there must be some laser action, or at least some sort of stimulated emission, some sort of super-fluorescence, in nature somewhere.