• Question: What are the most powerful lasers made with???? x

    Asked by penguinslikeprunesandscience to Arttu, Ceri, James_M, Monica, Philip on 15 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: James M Monk

      James M Monk answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      No idea really. I know the everyday ones in things like CD players use light emitting diodes, but I think the really powerful ones must use something else – perhaps gas discharge? Ceri or Philip should know this one though…

    • Photo: Ceri Brenner

      Ceri Brenner answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      The lasers that we have at the central laser facility rely on special types of crystals as the amplifying medium. When the low energy seed pulses (the baby laser pulses at the beginning of the chain) pass through the crystals they gain energy and come out the other end as powerful pulses ready to be sent through the rest of the laser chain to be fine tuned and contracted in space in time until they reach the experimental chamber. Check out the youtube video on my profile and you’l get to see inside the Vulcan laser system to see what i mean. or you can go to the website here:
      http://www.clf.rl.ac.uk/Facilities/Vulcan/Vulcan+laser/12250.aspx
      We’ve got one laser system that uses neodymium glass as the amplifying material and one that uses Titanium sapphire crystal. The crystal are specially made and are reaaaally expensive but very important for building a world class laser.

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