In scientific research today, lasers have a limitless application. They are allowing scientists and researchers to gain deeper insight into the tiny and the vast and giving them the ability to harvest and analyze clean, dependable data in quantities before unrealized. Here's just a quick list of applications for lasers in scientific research:
Earth Sciences:
Laser-based Light Detection And Ranging, also known as LIDAR technology, has applicability in geology, seismology, remote sensing, and meteorological research.
Laser cooling:
First theorized in 1924 by Satyendra Bose and Albert Einstein, this process involves directing particular wavelengths of laser light at atomic ions confined in a specially shaped arrangement of electric and magnetic fields. The laser light slows the ions down, continuously cooling them until absolute zero is reached. As this process is continued, the ions are all slowed and have the same energy level, forming an unusual state of matter known as photon BEC (Bose-Einstein Condensate) and first successfully observed in a laboratory in 2010.
Astronomy:
Dye lasers are used to create artificial laser guide stars, used as parallax reference objects for adaptive optics telescopes for astronomical research.
Microscopy:
Confocal laser scanning microscopy enables the reconstruction of three-dimensional structures; this method has gained attention in the science community. Typical fields include life sciences, semiconductor testing, and materials science. Two-photon excitation microscopy uses lasers to produce blur-free images of living tissue at very high depths (up to 1 mm).
Spectroscopy:
The purity of laser light can be improved upon more than the purity of any other light source, which makes techniques such as Raman spectroscopy possible. Raman spectroscopy, commonly used in chemistry, relies on inelastic scattering of laser light in the visible, near-infrared, or near-ultraviolet range. The beam interacts with molecular vibrations, phonons or other excitations, resulting in the energy of the laser photons being shifted up or down. This shift provides researchers with a fingerprint by which organic and inorganic molecules can be identified and studied.
Photochemistry:
This is very useful in biochemistry, where it is used to analyze protein folding and function. Some laser systems can produce extremely brief pulses of light - as short as Picoseconds (10−12) or Femtoseconds (10−15 seconds) to initiate and analyze chemical reactions. The short pulses are utilized to investigate reactions at a very high resolution, allowing the detection of short-lived intermediary molecules.
Space Exploration:
Lasers are useful in space exploration, such as aboard the spectrometers in the ESA Cassini probe (Saturn) and many more.
Laserod has recently been working with Stanford University to laser process a part destined for a South Pole Telescope that is exploring the origins of the universe. The telescope, called BICEP 2 (Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization), the second in the series of BICEP telescopes, is within walking distance of the geographic South Pole. The BICEP telescopes probe the origins of the universe by studying Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) light, the afterglow from the Big Bang.
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Our areas of expertise include cutting and precise drilling materials, drilling small holes, silicone wafer-coring or resizing, trimming circuits, ceramic, substrate-cutting, and viewing circuits. Dial Laserod at 1-310-340-1343 / 1-888-991-9916 for more information.
