Physicists are rather giddy after creating a rare type of laser using laughing gas

A team of researchers have built a terahertz laser that might one day see through clothes, book covers, and even skin, using laughing gas, according to a paper in Science. The device operates in the terahertz range - a region of the electromagnetic spectrum above microwaves and below visible light. Terahertz lasers are …

[eswan]

“Now we’re saying they can be small, tunable, and much more efficient. You could fit this in your backpack, or in your vehicle for wireless communication or high-resolution imaging. Because you don’t want a cyclotron in your car.”

I don't?

[Robert Moore]

I totally want a cyclotron in my car.

I also want an unlicensed nuclear accelerator strapped to my back.

[Mark 85]

I totally want a cyclotron in my car.

I also want an unlicensed nuclear accelerator strapped to my back

Just make you never, ever cross the beams.

[Myvekk]

That would be 'bad'.

[Evil Scot]

How Bad?

[Blackjack]

And a flying car that works as a time machine?

[Zarno]

Remember, the reactor only powers the time circuits....

Oh, wait!

If you use a Fisker Karma, or more likely a first gen Honda Insight, you'll never get stuck in the past again!

I find it amusing that the entire reason they used the DeLorean DMC-12 was it was so outlandishly nutty back when the movie was produced.

[Blackjack]

That and the fact it was the most futuristic looking car at the time.

[Zarno]

True, and I love the lines of it.

On another thought, 1955 would have been second year production of the Mercedes 300SL.

Now that would be a time machine.

[Josh 14]

I just want the Mr Fusion (and maybe the flight mode...) You can keep the time circuits, way too much trouble, there.

[Jeffrey Nonken]

My reaction exactly!

[Muscleguy]

Except you need to think carefully about orientation. If they are horizontal cyclotrons you will need two operating in different rotations or your car might be difficult to control. Do cyclotrons work in the vertical orientation like flywheels do?

Our local buses are hybrids with flywheels (lots of hills here to recover braking energy while going down them). If you concentrate you can feel it.

[Tom 7]

Is a cylotron in the rear

a back seat driver if it wont stop torqueing?

[JohnG]

I don't want a cyclotron in my car, I want a flux capacitor (I think it is known as a "flux capacitator" to some US journalists). I don't know what size EV battery will provide 1.21 GW though.

[Myvekk]

Here you go!

http://kalecoauto.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=8&products_id=21&zenid=B0RU3A5YQRjR--cKu7HVL1

[FuzzyTheBear]

I dont like to be told what i and dont want ! .. any known cyclotron dealers around ? contact me .. i wanna annoy the hell out of that boffin ! .. ill show him what i do and dont want in my car .. the nerves of him .. !

[anothercynic]

I hear Oxfordshire and the Wirral have at least one dealer each... ;-)

[John Brown (no body)]

"I don't?"

What happens when you get it up to 88mph?

[stiine]

Presumably you get a ticket...

[Blockchain commentard]

Drive-by T-raying. To see through that pretty girls clothes. Science eh.

[Mike 16]

Seeing through clothes?

This sort of apparatus has been commercially available since at least the Eisenhower administration, if the advertisements in my childhood comics are to be believed. Santa wouldn't bring me one, though, and I expect the request was part of the reason I made the "naughty" list.

[Ochib]

I am sure that many respectable physicists wouldn't stand for that sort of thing, partly because it is a debasement of science, but mostly because they dont get invited to those sort of parties.

[Stumpy]

... but can it be used to make a nice, hot, cup of tea?

[Anonymous Coward]

I expect you to die Mr Bond, laughing.

[Paul Crawford]

Because you don’t want a cyclotron in your car

Really? I do!

[Lorribot]

Pedantic time

0.251 to 0.955 terahertz is not 1 terahertz so this would be 251 to 955 GHz.

Just saying.

[Jim Mitchell]

Re: Pedantic time

GHz == Giggle Hertz, apparently.

[Tom 7]

Re: Pedantic time

A masochistic comedian likes his punch lines.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Pedantic time

Because they Hz. So Good.

https://bit.ly/2XqGzna

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Pedantic time

Figures I get a downvote, must be those evil executives from Radio Shock...

[Kernel]

Re: Pedantic time

"0.251 to 0.955 terahertz is not 1 terahertz so this would be 251 to 955 GHz."

True - and tunable lasers in the 1.9THz range have been around for years - before I retired I had boxes of them in a cupboard at work.

[aregross]

Focused energy is the first step to a Star Trek-like transporter.

[Francis Boyle]

Or

indeed a solar grill.

[CrazyOldCatMan]

Focused energy is the first step to a Star Trek-like transporter

I'll get out my magnifying glass then!

[Ugotta B. Kiddingme]

"Focused energy is the first step to a Star Trek-like transporter"

"I'll get out my magnifying glass then!"

Sure makes ants dematerialize (often in a puff of smoke), but lacks that cool "transporter" sound effect.

[A.P. Veening]

Re: "Focused energy is the first step to a Star Trek-like transporter"

Are you telling me ants are also powered by magic smoke?

[Is It Me]

Re: "Focused energy is the first step to a Star Trek-like transporter"

I want to be able to up vote this one more.

[Michael Wojcik]

Focused energy is the first step to anything besides undifferentiated heat.

[Chris G]

Penetration

With its penetrating potential this could be highly beneficial for many medical techniques but I can guarantee it gets developed into devices for military and security uses first.

[JohnG]

Re: Penetration

That they were talking about applications in secure communications and radar suggests that they expect or already receive funding from the military.

[Anonymous South African Coward]

Easy to discover if gas is leaking out - if somebody starts laughing, you'll know it's leaking gas somewhere.

Finding the leak should be a laughing matter.

[Sgt_Oddball]

Shoebox sized eh...

That sounds promising for those who like their lasers on a more mobile platform.. Say something more aquatic in nature. And ill tempered...

[Chris G]

Re: Shoebox sized eh...

I was thinking of upscaling a little, say hollowed out volcano scale, it could be interesting.

[Mark 85]

Re: Shoebox sized eh...

I suspect the mobility will be limited to the length of the power cord.

[stiine]

Re: Shoebox sized eh...

Or the size of your feet?

[CrazyOldCatMan]

Re: Shoebox sized eh...

And ill tempered..

Sharks ain't ill-tempered - they are just misunderstood.

Much like my source of all evil misunderstood senior black cat..

[Anonymous Coward]

Bwwwhaha

bwwha ha haha

haha haha haha haha haha haha

ho ho hee hee ha ha

[Tromos]

Radar

It might be able to limit who can 'see' your THz laser, but as you rely on a reflection, it can still be detected from twice as far away as its maximum range. This could limit the military potential.

[really_adf]

Re: Radar

Much more than twice the range, surely: reflection won't be perfect, and a "useful" return signal will be stronger than the minimum detectable.

[LateAgain]

Next step

Make it hand portable. With a remote that you wave around the patient :-)

[Ugotta B. Kiddingme]

Re: Next step

"Make it hand portable. With a remote that you wave around the patient :-)"

say, around the size of a salt shaker? (Dammit Jim, I'm a DOCTOR not a radiologist. Oh, wait...)

[Mage]

Laughing gas

"These molecules are excited by the laser’s energy and react by vibrating and rotating."

So that's why it's called Laughing Gas.

Also I thought we had the MASER before the LASER. Isn't this band more like microwave than infrared? Though it's too early in the morning for figures and I can't remember what frequency a MASER could do. Most MASER applications are now done by GaAs FETs, but some are still used.

[phuzz]

Re: Laughing gas

I suppose the acronym for one of these would be TASER (Terahertz Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation), but that's already taken, so they've just gone with 'terahertz laser'.

This seems to be different from existing masers because it's tunable across a relatively wide range of frequencies/wavelengths.

[MJI]

In a vehicle

The gas would not last.

Called laughing gas as squirt it in your engine with more fuel and you are laughing.

[Adrian Midgley 1]

I never did want

a cyclotron in my car, but now ...

How small can they, could they, be?

[Kubla Cant]

Show box

All the components required fit inside a shoe box and functions in room temperature.

I know this is just a Reg measure of size, but it does create the unfortunate impression that this presumably sophisticated apparatus is just a breadboard full of bits salvaged from old radio sets and housed in a shoe box.

Also can anyone suggest what dialect "functions in room temperature" is? And where is the singular subject of "functions"?

[Anonymous Coward]

I hate quantum mechanics

These molecules are excited by the laser’s energy and react by vibrating and rotating. The electrons can jump between energy levels, emitting photons in the terahertz range to create a laser.

1THz is about 30 cm^-1 or 4meV, placing these transitions firmly into the rotational (or a very soft vibration - except N₂O is a pretty rigid molecule) transition territory.

So possibly a better way to put it is to say what the electrons stay happily exactly where they were, while the madly-rotating nuclei decide to take it a little easier, and emit a soft sigh, which becomes the terahertz radiation. From the tabulated microwave transition lines, they must have rotated rather a lot - the 0.5THz lines would correspond to rotational quantum numbers of 20+. That's plenty fast.

On the other hand, that's only true if I am tumbling about with the molecule itself, where the wee lasses electrons are mostly folowing their big and positive brothers the nuclei. If I happen to lie down on the coach next to the laser to recover from all that spinning, both the electrons and the nuclei are whirling in the mad dance, and jump most synchronously together, all emiting the little screams of joy, the teraherz photons.

As I said, I hate quantum mechanics, together with their little quantum spanners and their smug little quantum grins, neither here nor there.

Yes I'll get my coat now - one with the long sleeves at the back.

[JDX]

All the components required fit inside a shoe box

Funding really is an issue these days.

[Drew Scriver]

Tin-foil hats won't be enough...

I predict that glitter jackets and pants will become all the rage (again).

[IGotOut]

Meanwhile...

There is no way I could be doing 185mph in my car, it's only a 1ltr. What....yeah these massive Nitro cylinders in my car? They are for a laser officer,honest.

[picturethis]

Tuned length laser, hmmmm

By tuning the terahertz frequency, you can choose how far the waves can travel through air before they are absorbed, from meters to kilometers

Hmmm, Now when can I order my light saber?

[BuckeyeB]

That's pretty presumptuous of him to think that I don't want a cyclotron in my car. He doesn't know me.