4 ms·
they're a readily available source of coherent, monochromatic, collimated light.
by chaosmachine 18y ago
they're a readily available source of coherent, monochromatic, collimated light.
- jodrellblank 18y agoBut why is that so good for telecoms signalling, precise cutting, spaceship propulsion, measurement, teleportation experiments, holding parts of highly accurate subatomic clocks, tripwire systems, optical media drives, igniting fusion reactions, pointers and targetting systems, interferometry, eye surgery, 3d scanners.. They are like many fundamental building block componenta in one.
- derefr 18y agoTo answer your question more bluntly: they are energy waves, and [or thus] they move quickly. All of these things could be done materially (signalling with sound waves in air, record players instead of optical media, pointing with a physical pointer, etc.) but coherent light can be moved around much more quickly, due firstly to the speed of light, but also due to the wave properties of reflection, refraction and diffraction. And, despite this ease of targeting, you can "load" as much, or as little, energy into the stream as you wish, because photons have negligible mass. Finally, the "coherent" part means that you actually get to keep these advantages over a distance, instead of having them stolen by the power law.