4 ms·
This feels like lazy reporting. One beam isn't blocking the other, it's inducing a localized nonlinear process in a material which then absorbs the crossing bea
by zifk 2y ago
This feels like lazy reporting. One beam isn't blocking the other, it's inducing a localized nonlinear process in a material which then absorbs the crossing beam. This isn't a novel process.
It's like me saying if I close a door I'm casting a shadow, sure, I caused it, but it's not my shadow.
- mikewarot 2y agoI was about to say the same thing... unless they can do this in vacuum, it's a curiosity, but not something novel.
- magicalhippo 2y agoIntense laser light can cause electron-positron pair production[1], but we're not quite there yet AFAIK. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breit%E2%80%93Wheeler_process https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breit%E2%80%93Wheeler_process
- Dylan16807 2y agoNow do it without moving the door. That's what makes this interesting. It uses the crystal, but it's not changing the crystal.
- Narew 2y agoIt's changing the crystal not the structure but the state. Ruby crystal are gained medium for laser https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_laser https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_laser you can pumped them with light.
- mannykannot 2y agoI suppose one could say that opening a second path in an interferometer also 'casts a shadow', though by a different mechanism. This sort of usage does not bother me (at least at what I perceive as this benign level.) Metaphor and simile are part of the expressive power of human language, and both writing and reading would become tedious if we tried to eliminate them.