Alchemy with light shocks physicists

New Scientist ^ |  21 May 03 | Charles Choi

[Bigg Red]

Wow!

[aruanan]

This is no big deal. I made blue paint by mixing yellow and green in kindergarten.

You made green paint by mixing blue and yellow in kindergaren. You can't get a primary color (blue) from mixing a primary (yellow) and a secondary (green) color.

[LittleJoe]

Ok Gary, you hooked me.
Does this imply that cosmology has just taken a big hit, and dimensionality a big boost?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a scientist...Just interested.

[Redcloak]

Where do I get one? I could use one of these puppies! I have an application that requires a broad 1.5µ source, but most of the sources available are made with Erbium. Erbium has an annoying double-hump pattern to its spectrum. With a tool like this, I could take a source at another wavelength, such as the 1.3µ sources I use now, and simply shift it out to 1.5µ. Their crystal might aslo work to broaden the spectrum which would help me too.

[VOA]

The researchers document the ultimate control over light: a way to shift the frequency
of light beams to any desired colour, with near 100 per cent efficiency.

But will it really have any signifigance?
Like, will this mean laser light shows will be a lot cooler?

(sorry folks, I think I just had a drug-free flash-back to some concerts I went
to years ago!)

[RightWhale]

The cosmological redshift

Good point. This one has potential.

[Junior]

Gives them an excuse to shoot guns.

I'm waiting for the New Age crowd to latch onto this research as some sort of vindication of their "crystal-power" beliefs.

[lafroste]

Stupid question department:

What is a photonic crystal? Composition? Are they exotically rare, or are they easy to obtain? I have never heard of them.

[Chem_Engineer]

It's hard to believe that this works, because it seems to be creating energy from nothing. The energy of a light wave is planck's constant times its frequency, so you can't just change the frequency without adding energy. To make terahertz waves you'd have to put a lot of energy into the wave. In other words, it would have to have a very large shock or sound wave.

[M Kehoe]

Any commercial applications for this?

5.56mm

[Physicist]

Any commercial applications for this?

A photon transistor springs immediately to mind.

[corkoman]

Big deal LOOK GUYS - my grandma had one of these - see over there in the right corner?!

[DPB101]

the team found that shock waves passing through a crystal alter its properties as they compress it. For example, a crystal that normally allows red light through but reflects green light might become transparent to green light and reflect red light instead.

This have anything to do with the properties of Alexandrite. Or is that another phenomemon?

[Phsstpok]

It's good that they are actually trying to produce this effect in the lab. Because sometimes those computer simulations are not as accurate as the real thing ...

It's called the scientific method. You postulate a hypothesis (a guess) and you perform experiments based on predictions derived from the hypothesis to see if they pan out. A computer simulation, by definition, only simulates what we already know, so it can't go very far in dealing with what we don't know. Therefore you actually have to do the experiment to see the result.

Unless of course you're a government funded ecologist, in which case you can manipulate the simulation until you get the results that conform with the orthodoxy which you have been funded to "prove." Never mind that real world observation conflicts with your model. Those must be faked by the EVIL RIGHT WING who want to destroy mother Gaia.

[Ken H]

Bookmarking for later read.

[M Kehoe]

A photon transistor springs immediately to mind.

No wires, no heat, all at the speed of light. Cool.

8^)

5.56mm

[theFIRMbss]

>You can't get a primary color (blue) from mixing a primary (yellow) and a secondary (green) color.

This is just a myth.
You can test it yourself with
modern, intense paints.

I always mix my
"primaries" because I get
richer, controlled hues.

For pigment mixing
explanations, please check out
Michael Wilcox stuff.

[aruanan]

You can test it yourself with modern, intense paints.

It's not a myth when we're talking about paints in kindergarten. You cannot mix yellow and green Prang water colors or tempera paint and get blue.

[gcruse]

If radio waves were visible, the signal coming off an AM antenna would look like a sparkler, as the amplitude is the variant. On an FM station, the tower would put out a kaleidescopic rainbow of colors, because frequency is being modulated. If the station is broadcasting NPR, the signal would look hallucinogenic, because your mind is being manipulated.