This section is planned to post the list of some important journals, useful site links etc. Abstract of some of the recent research articles indicating the latest research trends along with a detailed bibliography will also be posted.
Suggestions to include any other information in this section are welcome.
Medical Applications
The Latest Laser Lipo Innovation: SmartLipo Triplex, 3 Wavelengths to Melt Fat and Tighten Skin
Laser liposuction: No-surgery weight loss
New surgical technique uses laser energy to destroy brain tumors
Laser technology may soon be used for corneal transplants
NO MORE D-D-DENTIST DRILL WITH REVOLUTIONARY NEW LASER
CAN LASERS STIMULATE A HAIR-GROWTH SPURT?
PROCEDURE USES LASER TO GET RID OF FAT
Laser Treatment Offers Hope For Vitiligo Patients
HealthWatch: Radio Frequency Laser Resurfacing
Laser scalpel deployed in scar wars
Laser Technology Spots Cavities Before They Start
Laser Reduces Wrinkles
Laser Dentist Drill
Tongue Cancer Laser
Laser Brings Relief To Achy Backs
Femtosecond laser has dentistry applications
YAG laser dental procedure considered 'effective' in treating gum disease
Laser therapy option to avoid surgery
Laser Helps Smokers Kick the Habit
LASER BEST FOR EYELID SURGERY
LASER IMAGING BEATS THE BENDS
NEW LASER TREATMENT HELPS PEOPLE WITH GUM DISEASE
LASER TEETH WHITENING PROCEDURE - KEY FACTS
Eye surgery leaves many with problems
New laser treatment cures neck pain without surgery
LASER HAIR REMOVAL SYSTEM - HOW DOES IT WORK?
Laser scan of veins detects cancer
The brain dances to a laser tune
LASER HAIR REMOVAL AS HIRSUTISM TREATMENT
Lasering that enlarged prostate!
Military Applications
'Laser attacks on jets rising: Police
'City airport to get laser guns to check bird hits
'Blinding' lasers to protect superyachts from pirates
Boeing Advanced Tactical Laser Strikes Moving Target In Test
Elbit Systems unit, US Army complete helicopter tests
Pain weapon in a potable version may end up in police hands
PEW! AIRBORNE MILITARY LASER TAKES OUT TRUCK ON VIDEO
JET PILOTS BLINDED BY LASER PEN YOB
LASER ENERGETICS DEMONSTRATES DAZER LASER(TM) AT THE EMMY AWARDS
TRUCK-MOUNTED LASER RAISES HOPES OF UNMANNED MILITARY DEFENSE
U.S.- India Strategic Partnership on Laser-Based Missile Defense
BOEING: WE ZAPPED A UAV WITH A LASER
LASER 1, DRONE 0 IN BOEING TEST
Boeing Laser Avenger Shoots Down Unmanned Aerial Vehicle In Tests
Thompson Files: Fuzed weapons are good
Air Force Looks to Laser-Proof Its Weapons
'Laser jumbo' testing moves ahead
Boeing Designs Laser Weapon
COMPACT LASER DAZZLERS FOR CANADIAN FORCES SMALL ARMS
Revellers blinded by laser show in Russia
U.S. Sonic Blaster + Laser = New Weapon
Pilots dazzled by laser pointers
Taking Terror Threat Out of Flying
FERRIES TARGETED IN LASER ATTACKS
Navy Pushing Laser 'Holy Grail' to Weapons Grade
Defense officials view laser as future of anti-missile technology
X-47B manhunter drone could fly next year, to carry laser weapons and more
FRENCH CHAMPION LYON FINED AFTER FAN AIMED LASER AT CRISTIANO RONALDO
ISRAELI TOWN DEMANDS ANTI-MISSILE LASER
VIDEO: ARMY LASERS ZAP BIKERS IN AFGHANISTAN
U.S. Tests Anti-IED Laser
TESTING NEEDED ON LASER WEAPONS, MILITARY OBSERVERS SAY
Boeing Tests Avenger Solid State Laser Weapon
SKorea seen developing laser weapons
Blackwater's New Weapon: Laser Dazzlers
AIRCRAFT LASER ATTACKS ON THE INCREASE
Israel Air Force to be Equipped With Elbit Systems' Lizard Laser-Guided Bombs
LASER BLINDS COPTER PILOT CARRYING SICK PATIENT
5-mile laser rifle in the terrifying works
Portable Solid-State Pulse Laser Latest Hope for Laser Gun
Boeing's new laser pod can take out roadside bombs, UAVs
Laser pod could destroy bombs
Laser Dazzlers for the Police and Military
Indian Army to induct portable laser weapons
US Army eyes truck-mounted laser
Boeing developing truck-mounted laser cannons for US Army
Record power for military laser
Israel Defense Ministry to reexamine anti-missile laser
Lasers Over LAX (Skyguard)
High-Energy Lasers Could Defend Commercial Aircraft From MANPADs
Mid-Infrared Lasers Confuse Heat-Seeking Missiles
High Powered Laser Pointers Save U.S. Military Lives in Iraq
General Applications
Scientist shines laser light on methane in pursuit of clean fuel
'Mini lasers' illuminate dark molecules
Modeling a black hole with a 300 GigaWatt laser
Laser land-levelling project for farmers initiated
NPL Develops Femtosecond Laser Tech for Formation Space Flying
Using Lasers to Map Bird Habitat
PORT WINE STAINS NOW EASY TO WIPE OFF WITH LASER THERAPY
NSU 'S TRYING TO DEVELOP A LASER FOR WEE FRONTIERS
SMOKE AND LASERS COULD DISRUPT MICROPHONE MARKET
RESEARCHERS USE LASER-INDUCED BREAKDOWN SPECTROSCOPY TO COLLECT ELEMENTAL FINGERPRINTS
Liquid mirror shows promise for adaptive optics
BEAM COMBINING: High-power fiber-laser beams are combined incoherently
Lasers need lenses no more
Indian American bags global laser display award
Replacing Wire With Laser, Sun Tries to Speed Up Data
A High Power Laser Zap to Nanotechnology
Scientist in Texas Runs NASA's Lunar Laser Program
Laser System cuts up to 1.25 in. thick steel/.750 in. SS.
Japanese Team Invents Tiny Laser Light Powered Motor
No shooting the birds BENGALS SETTLE ON LASERS, NOT GUNS, TO SHOO PIGEONS
All that glitter is tech
Brookhaven Lab Physicist Ilan Ben-Zvi Wins Free Electron Laser Prize
NEW LASER METHOD HELPS DETECT HIDDEN LIQUID EXPLOSIVES
Solar Converted to Laser Light
JAPAN DEVELOPS NEW SPACE LASER
Laser-based analyzer gives ultra fast and accurate measurement of trace moisture
Dancing atoms hold prospect of superfast computing
LASER DETECTS DANGER LIQUIDS
Laser system offers cheaper, faster pathogen detection
Laser Based Thermometer (Red hot gadget)
Free Electron Laser Achieves 10 Kilowatts of Infrared Laser Light
What's New in Laser Optics Could Lead to "Light Bullets"
SDSU professor uses laser beam to study forest conditions (LIDAR)
Laser Sources / Materials
Pore-free Ceramics Shine New Light on Lasers, Electronics and Biomedical Implants
Lasermaterials.info
PLASTIC LASER MATERIALS
Characteristics of a continuous-wave Yb:GdVO4 laser end pumped by a high-power diode
Diode-pumped continuous-wave Nd:LuVO4 laser operating at 916nm
Concentration quenching in fine-grained ceramic Nd:YAG
Medical Applications
The Latest Laser Lipo Innovation: SmartLipo Triplex, 3 Wavelengths to Melt Fat and Tighten Skin
http://www.americanhealthandbeauty.com/articles/?article=2274
October 22, 2009: Cynosure, Inc. (Nasdaq: CYNO), an aesthetic laser manufacturer, introduced SmartLipo Triplex(TM), the first laser lipolysis technology that uses three wavelengths which are well absorbed by fat and allow for greater tissue tightening. SmartLipo Triplex will be launched at Plastic Surgery 2009, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) Annual Meeting, which starts this Friday in Seattle. SmartLipo Triplex adds a 1440 nm wavelength to the MPX generation of the laser. Through Cynosure's patented MultiPlex technology, the three wavelengths are combined in one laser output. Two wavelengths fire sequentially, liquefying the fat and tightening the skin with collagen stimulation.
This new generation of SmartLipo technology offers 20 times greater fat absorption than single wavelength lasers. Dr. Barry DiBernardo, Medical Director of New Jersey Plastic Surgery & MedNet Technologies, Inc. in Montclair, NJ, says "Combining the photomechanical effects of the 1440 nm with the 1064 nm wavelength results in even greater disruption of fatty tissue for faster and deeper treatments than the 1064 wavelength alone. At the same time, the Smartlipo Triplex continues to deliver unmatched tissue tightening through tissue coagulation by blending the 1064 and 1320 nm wavelengths."
http://www.txcn.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/tv/stories/wfaa091020_wz_laserlipo.2362e562f.html
October 20, 2009: A new low-level laser is on the market promising results in just two weeks without the downtime of surgery. A $2,400 Zerona treatment looks like a laser light show, but the ruby red beams are working to reduce fat in tissue under the skin.
The patient feels no heat. There's no incision, no downtime. So for two weeks (that's six visits), Cook spends 40 minutes under low-level lasers that are FDA-approved for laser-assisted liposuction.
Aqua Medical Spa laser technician Deborah Blumka uses the beams to customize treatments to the areas Cook wants to target.
Patients have to drink a lot of water during the two-week regimen while staying active and watching their diet. Otherwise, the treatment won't work. To date, there are no long-term studies to determine whether the laser treatments have any long-term side effects. But the treatment promises to break up unwanted fat, leading the body through the normal detoxification process.
http://www.kens5.com/news/health/stories/KENS20091007-BrainSurgery.1f3883350.html
October 7, 2009: For the first time in San Antonio, doctors used a new technique to kill a cancerous brain tumor. It’s a novel approach using laser energy.
In an operating room at St. Luke's Baptist Hospital, the doctor secured an anchor in the outside of the skull. Then, using what’s called neuro-navigation for precision, he slid a catheter several inches inside the head. That catheter houses a laser that can zap the cells growing out of control and threatening Perez’ life.
"What’s really nice about this technique is that the laser light being emitted from the tip of the diode is absorbed by the tumor cells,"
The device used for laser ablation of brain tumors has been FDA approved for about two years. San Antonio is one of fewer than 10 sites around the country offering this novel technique. It could help many people who have run out of other options.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1009238/1/.html
04 October 2009 SINGAPORE: In what could be a medical breakthrough in Singapore, corneal transplants may soon be carried out using laser technology instead of by hand.
You've probably heard of Lasik surgery to correct short-sightedness. That same technology could be used to perform corneal transplants.
Apart from preventing blindness through corneal transplant, doctors also want to get people off glasses, including those with presbyopia - a condition affecting older people who have problems reading fine print. The treatment involves inserting a tiny implant which sharpens vision through a pinhole effect. Patients will not be able to feel the implant in their eye nor will it block their vision, because it is only 3.8mm wide and just one-twentieth the thickness of human hair.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1217850/No-d-d-dentist-drill-revolutionary-new-laser.html
03rd October 2009 A laser that treats tooth decay using a painless beam of light is set to do away with the dental drill - as well as the anaesthetic injections needed to numb pain.
Lasers have been used in some areas of dentistry for a few years but they haven't been fast enough to replace the drill 'This has changed all that. Now a laser can be used to remove tooth decay and prepare cavities and crowns.'
The laser is gentle and precise, so no anaesthetic is needed. 'The laser is shone on to the tooth and there is a spray of water but no grinding,'
Lasers work by emitting high-speed pulsed light, and different frequency lasers will have different effects - some will burn through tissues, for example, while others will kill bacteria. 'You can use the laser to prepare a cavity and then clean a patient's gums,' The estimates show that laser treatment will cost about 15 per cent more than conventional dental work.
'It also offers the first permanent cure for sensitive teeth, by "sealing" the layer of exposed dentine that is the cause of tooth sensitivity.'
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704471504574441211355376166.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
SEPTEMBER 28, 2009 Losing your hair? Just glide a handheld laser over your scalp three times a week and you'll see a benefit, say the companies selling the products.
Many doctors are skeptical of claims made for the lasers, but a study found that one product did spur hair growth.
Hereditary hair loss is a medical condition that affects some 50 million American men, according to the American Academy of Dermatology. Medications, including the oral drug Propecia and the topical Rogaine, are often used to treat it. But the drugs don't work for everyone and can have side effects, according to dermatologists.
A number of companies sell handheld, low-intensity lasers for home use that are intended to stimulate hair follicles, typically three times a week for 10 to 15 minutes. The lasers, which aren't covered by insurance, are available online, at some doctors offices and at some retailers.
Scientists say that low-level lasers are safe and likely do act on cellular compounds that can spur hair growth. One major published study showed an average 7% increase in hair density with the HairMax after 26 weeks.
http://www.wcpo.com/news/local/story/Procedure-Uses-Laser-To-Get-Rid-Of-Fat/CakyeDiuk0GV-AEIQEf4ZQ.cspx
26 Sep 2009 : A doctor in Central Indiana is one of the first in the state to offer a laser treatment to get rid of fat. Doctor Randy Shoup is trained to use a Zerona laser. He aims the laser where the patient wants to lose fat. The laser puts a hole in fat cells, which leak, and the body's lymphatic system drains away the fat.
It takes six treatments in all, and costs several thousand dollars, but doctors say there is a big benefit for patients.
"No, there's no heat, there's no pain, there's no nothing, you can't feel anything," says Dr. Shoup.
The doctor says he's seen patients lose from three to nine inches. The FDA has approved the procedure.
http://wcbstv.com/topstories/vitiligo.laser.treatment.2.919425.html
: Jan 27, 2009-- NEW YORK (CBS) Imagine developing a condition where you start to lose the color in your skin. It's called "vitiligo" and it affects millions of people in this country. If you remember the King of Pop from his "Thriller" days, you might notice that his skin tone was what you would expect for an African-American. Today? Michael Jackson is as pale and milky white as a ghost. What happened is he developed the skin condition vitiligo.
http://wcbstv.com/seenat11/radio.frequency.laser.2.918406.html
: Jan 26, 2009-- Dr. Susan Tanne is an aesthetic physician using the Matrix RF for skin resurfacing. She says it costs her less to acquire and operate, patients need fewer treatments and this means everybody wins.
"It's tunable fractional resurfacing which means I can simulate the results of many different laser devices in one treatment by pressing a button," Dr. Tanne said. "A device that is using radio frequency, which means we're not using laser, it is safe. It is good for all skin types. It requires minimal down time."
And it targets sun damage, texture and wrinkles. The radio frequency penetrates the skin leaving a pattern of micro-sized dots -- sparing the skin from extensive damage -- but stimulating the growth of new collagen, improving texture and appearance.
http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080821/LIFE/808210308
: August 21, 2008-- Andrew Sifflard refers to his hometown of Teaneck, N.J., as "sinus valley." Sifflard once blamed the area's abundance of allergy-causing pollen and dry winter air for his frequent nosebleeds. Sifflard, however, kept experiencing the problem after his move to Chatham in 1981. The nosebleeds even worsened during recent years. "It was getting to the point where I'd have trouble breathing," he says. "I wouldn't go anyplace without putting cotton balls in my pocket." Sifflard, 73, finally went to his family doctor, who noticed an abnormal mass in his left nostril. The doctor referred him to an ear, nose and throat specialist who diagnosed him with a benign glomus tumor - an extremely rare tumor fed by blood vessels.
Surgeons have been using CO2 lasers for decades because they allow more precise cutting than traditional scalpels. However, these lasers could transmit light only in a straight line to places surgeons could easily see, which limited their access. The lasers could not be used for surgeries that involved long, winding distances into the nose or certain parts of the throat
The BeamPath fiber got clearance from the Food and Drug Administration in 2006, for use in surgeries. "It's the world's most precise flexible scalpel," The laser fibers are manufactured in Cambridge by OmniGuide Inc., . The company reports that the scalpels have been used in more than 4,000 procedures to date. In Sifflard's case, the CO2 laser scalpel allowed Doctor to remove the entire tumor with just one operation. Without this tool, surgeons might have needed to destroy the blood supply feeding the tumor a few days before actually removing the tumor to prevent excessive bleeding,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/22/AR2008082202436.html
: August 22, 2008 -- The technology, called "Raman spectroscopy" (RS), is not brand new. In fact, scientists in other fields have long been using it to distinguish between various chemicals, based on their unique molecular fingerprints.
"The technique we are working with can tell the difference between [healthy] enamel and decaying enamel, and so in the future, if this technology is further developed, a dentist could identify early decay using it," explained study co-author Frances Downey, a graduate student with the Biomaterials, Biomimetics & Biophotonics Research Group operating out of the Dental Institute of King's College London.
By focusing RS optical fibers on individual teeth, the authors were able to track the unique light patterns that emanate from chemical compositions on either healthy or decaying enamel.
http://www.ivanhoe.com/channels/p_channelstory.cfm?storyid=19275
: July 25, 2008 (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Looking for a new way to reduce wrinkles? Carbon dioxide may be the answer. According to new research, a carbon dioxide laser can rejuvenate the skin. It vaporizes water molecules inside and outside of the cells, causing thermal damage to the surrounding tissue. The skin then produces more of the protein collagen, which fills in wrinkles.
A scale measuring facial wrinkles showed those who received the Carbon diaoxide laser improved by 45 percent. The results were consistent over all areas of the face. The study from the University of Michigan also showed 45 percent of patients had no complications following the procedure. Complications that did occur are mila (small, white cysts), acne, hyperpigmentation (darkening of the skin), hypopigmentation (lighting of the skin), infection or sagging of the eyelids. However, those who did experience complications averaged 2.3 years of follow-up, until problems resolved
"In addition to structural changes, the healing process frequently leads to pigmentary (coloring) changes," the study authors write. "These changes in the skin pigmentation may be desirable, such as when patients wish to remove solar evidence of aging; however, changes in pigmentation after treatment can often be a troubling adverse effect." From their findings, researchers say hypopigmentation was the only long-term adverse effect and those patients were more likely to have a greater response to treatment.
http://www.photonics.com/content/news/2008/July/21/92542.aspx
: July 21, 2008 (LONDON, England) -- Raman spectroscopy is most commonly used to distinguish between different chemicals by identifying each molecule’s unique fingerprint. In dentistry, this technology can be used to detect the first signs of decay simply and painlessly by pointing an optical fiber at the tooth to detect chemical changes within.
Researchers were able to tell healthy teeth from decaying teeth because light from the laser scatters differently due to bacteria. This new technology, which may be available in dental surgeries in five years from now, could greatly reduce the need for drilling and filling simply by way of early detection.
According to Dr. Frederic Festy, who is supervising the project, decaying teeth are currently uncovered either by visual examination or the use of x-rays, but usually by then, the damage has been done and the decayed area must be drilled out. However, Dr. Steven Hogg, a microbiologist at Newcastle University's dental school, confirms that it is possible to repair teeth with a special mouthwash or fluoride varnish if dental decay is caught early enough.
http://www.kimt.com/medical/17105381.html
: Chicago, IL - A patient with a hard to reach tumor inside their throat can be a challenging problem for a surgeon.
But a new laser technology makes removing these tumors easier for everyone.
This woman had a sore throat and acid indigestion before her tongue tumor was discovered
Traditionally, doctors would remove these hard-to-reach tumors with surgery through the patient's neck or jaw.
Now doctors can remove the tumors through the mouth, with a flexible fiber, that delivers CO2 or carbon dioxide laser energy.
http://www.theindychannel.com/health/15735628/detail.html
March 28, 2008 : INDIANAPOLIS -- Amy Jones is an active mother of five who enjoys skiing, but back pain began keeping her off the slopes.
"I had pain that went down my leg and into my foot," Jones said.
Jones said she finally found relief when she was treated with Echronia, a cool or low-level laser that doctors say is an effective alternative to prescription drugs for back-pain treatment. The laser stimulates damaged cells through the skin. Dr. Steve Mangas is an Indianapolis chiropractor who offers the tool to patients.
"After tissue damage has occurred, the laser will accelerate the repair process by decreasing the amount of enzymes that cause swelling," Mangas said. "It improves the rate that the tissue heals."
He said this improves circulation to decrease pain and inflammation by 70 percent. Treatments take a few minutes and inflict no pain.
"You'll feel a gradual lessening of pressure and discomfort," Mangus said.
Within months of her Echronia treatment, Jones was able to enjoy her 20th anniversary in Hawaii without medication.
http://www.dentalplans.com/articles/31422/
March 20,2008 : A group of researchers at the University of Missouri has been developing what they call the UUL or ultra-fast, ultra-intense laser with possible uses in medical fields including dentistry, cancer treatments and joint implant surgeries.
The devices have a laser pulse that lasts one quadrillionth of a second, also called a femtosecond, which enables the laser to focus its point on its target at such a precise speed and level of efficiency that surrounding areas are not affected.
In dentistry, the laser could treat tooth decay without compromising the tooth's structure and provide a much more efficient and harmless method of treatment for patients.
According to Robert Tzou, James C. Dowell professor and chairman of the institution's department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, the laser is capable of destroying targets as small as cancer cells without injury to surrounding cells, with special relevance to cancer treatment patients who could hopefully experience no side effects or down time after treatment.
http://www.dentalplans.com/articles/31429/
March 20, 2008 : The Laser Assisted New Attachment Procedure (LANAP) from Millennium Dental Technologies has been proven an effective treatment of moderate to severe gum disease, including gingivitis and periondontitis in a peer-reviewed study.
The PerioLase MVP-7 variable pulsed Nd:YAG dental laser was shown to be FDA-approved and showed a 100 percent success rate after three months in achieving new connective tissue attachment (CTA) and regeneration of root surface, or cementum, in the subjects studied.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080310/jsp/calcutta/story_8996516.jsp
March 10 , 2008 : Thulium laser, recently installed in some city hospitals, is being used to treat a variety of problems, from tonsillitis to enlarged prostate
Thulium targets only affected tissues, making the treatment safer than the therapy with older types of laser, like Holmium. Side-effects of Thulium therapy are also less severe.
"Earlier, lasers had deeper penetrations and hence, affected more tissues than were necessary," said Thorsten Bach, an urologist from Hamburg in Germany. He was in the city to take part in a workshop at Calcutta Medical Research Institute (CMRI).
http://www.wtoctv.com/Global/story.asp?S=7410596&nav=menu89_2
Nov, 26, 2007 : It's not the first time James tried to quit. He chewed gum, quit cold turkey and even underwent hypnosis to kick the habit. Nothing worked. So when he saw an advertisement for Laser Health of Savannah, he knew he had to try it.
The new technology is a 3B laser, usually used on people with persistent knee pain. The procedure is almost like acupuncture, without the needles. Technician Tracy Walsh applies the laser to 28 different points on James' face, neck and hands. Walsh says the procedure is totally painless and helps curb a smoker's cravings. "Certain cell functions are stimulated with the laser. And it will release endorphins, so those endorphins will help you so you're not actually feeling those cravings," she explained.
The laser treatment has a 65 percent success rate. The use of the 3B laser has not been approved by the Federal Drug Administration for either of these programs. Laser Health of Savannah is conducting a study under an independent institutional review board.
http://www.carefair.com/html/Laser_Best_for_Eyelid_Surgery_3697.html
Nov 26, 2007 : According to Dr. Warren Lent, a plastic surgeon based in Los Angeles, eyelid surgery is best and faster when done using lasers. He said in a recent interview that "The CO2 laser offers patients the highest level of safety while at the same time offering the fastest return to work."
The press release further notes that CO2 laser immediately "welds or seals the blood vessels" when used as a surgical tool, and reduces the risk of excess bleeding during the procedure. Dr. Lent’s research and work has also shown that using the laser also effectively minimizes both bruising and swelling hence hastening the healing process for patients, and patients did not need sedation.
In the press release, it was also noted that the "CO2 laser greatly reduces the risks in undergoing eyelid surgery."
http://optics.org/cws/article/research/31877;jsessionid=71538DB750292886AA0181EBAC24BCFB
Nov 21, 2007 : Decompression sickness is a well-documented risk for divers and other people who experience sudden changes in pressure, but it's usually not detected until clinical symptoms appear. The new device could allow advance warning of the sickness by spotting microbubbles of nitrogen as small as 6 µm across in blood and tissues.
Most microbubbles in the blood stream of people suffering from decompression sickness are between 5 and 15 µm, about the size of a red blood cell, and readily spotted by the technique
The system uses optical coherence tomography (OCT), an interferometric technique that uses lasers to build up images of tissue just below the skin. In Larin's current prototype, a 1330 nm laser source with a spectral width of 110 nm and a power of 10 mW scans the subject at a scanning rate of 15 kHz. The light is delivered to an interferometer, one arm of which includes the test sample. The resulting interferogram is digitized using 14-bit analog-to-digital conversion, and the machine produces a 2D OCT image of the microbubbles present along with a graphical read out.
http://www.local10.com/health/14263131/detail.html
October 3, 2007 : An estimated 80 percent of adults in the United States currently have some form of gum disease. Fortunately Spitzer found Dr. Jason Luchtefeld, a Pompano Beach dentist working with a new FDA approved laser designed specifically for patients with gum disease.
"This laser, called the Perio-Lase, works in two ways," said Luchtefeld. "The light energy from the laser gently removes a tiny amount of diseased tissue and kills bacteria at the same time," he said. Once the treatment is complete, Luchtefeld said the body works to heal the area naturally. "Patients typically recover from this procedure faster than traditional surgery and have less pain," said Luchtefeld
http://pr-gb.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=25588&Itemid=9
02 October 2007 : Laser teeth whitening is also known as power bleaching or whitening. Even though it seems to be a little expensive, lots of people who are very concerned about their smile, especially actors, artists and those in the media prefer it to other teeth whitening procedures, as the results are faster and for the excellent.
Laser teeth whitening technology is the latest and superior tooth whitening systems are available today. It takes just an hour to undergo this kind of treatment. The treatment is very simple and painless when laser teeth whitening system is used. The procedure starts with a little preparation before getting into it actually. The dentist first cleans the teeth and it is very important because if the germs and plaque are present, it will hinder the whitening process. The lips and the gums are isolated before the procedure and a whitening gel is applied on the teeth by activating a specially designed light on it. The results are amazing as the teeth will be six to ten times whiter than the previous color and sometimes more than that can also happen. For people with extreme discoloration, one session may not be enough to achieve desired results and hence the treatment might be repeated until the white coloration is noticeable
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/721249.html
Sep 30, 2007 : Millions of Americans have undergone laser eye surgery to correct bad vision, and along with the procedure's popularity something else is coming into focus: its hazards.
Advertising stresses the surgery's safety, and most procedures are successful. Tiger Woods, who relies on keen eyesight as the world's best golfer, pitches it as a quick and painless way to restore sharp vision. Even the U.S. Air Force, long skeptical of the surgery, changed its policy in May to let people who had LASIK apply for pilot training. But every year thousands of Americans who undergo LASIK are left with chronic pain, dryness of the eyes, distorted night vision and even blindness, according to Food and Drug Administration statistics.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/302213/1/.html
SINGAPORE : A treatment without surgery is now available for those who suffer from neck pain due to a slipped disc.
The S$7000 treatment, which has been around for one year, uses a laser to vaporise part of the tissue surrounding the disk.
This reduces the pressure on the disc thereby alleviating the pain felt by the patient.
http://pr-gb.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=21318&Itemid=9
24 September 2007 : Historically, hair removal has been one of the most painful tasks that a person must undertake. Think about all of the pain and trauma you go through every time you pluck a nose hair, cut yourself while shaving, or rip the hairs out of their follicles with a waxing. It makes many cringe just to think about pulling out one of their hairs.
But what if you didn’t have to deal with all of that pain anymore? What if there was a better way to remove your hair?
Well, there is and it’s called a laser hair removal system. The newly invented laser hair removal process is a technology that removes hair in a completely painless fashion through the use of lasers. No more pulling, no more waxing. Those days are done, thanks to the new laser hair removal systems that have been developed by doctors and health professionals from around the country.
However, with the laser hair removal process, you don’t need to worry about your hair growing back immediately. The laser focuses its light directly into the hair follicle without causing any damage or pain to your skin. Essentially, the laser vaporizes the follicle, allowing the hair to simply fall out without allowing it to return for weeks, months, or even years on end. The ultra high tech laser hair removal system is a great way to get rid of those bothersome hairs that have been pestering you for far too long.
http://www.mtbeurope.info/news/2007/709023.htm
20 September 2007 : Technology that can detect tumour cells by scanning surface veins with a laser, eliminating the need for drawing blood, has been developed by Purdue University researchers.
By shining a laser on surface veins, such as those on the wrist and inside the cheek, researchers are able to reveal and count circulating tumour cells. In addition to being less invasive, the new method is able to evaluate a much larger volume of blood than what can be drawn from a patient for analysis
Researchers from Purdue's Cancer Center, Department of Chemistry and Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering collaborated with cancer and biotechnology experts from the Mayo Clinic to develop the technology
The technique uses a fluorescent tumour-specific probe that labels tumour cells in circulation. When hit by a laser, which scans across the diameter of the blood vessel 1,000 times per second, the tumour cells glow and become visible. The in-vivo flow detection was performed on a two-photon fluorescence microscope in Cheng's lab. The researchers compared several methods and found two-photon fluorescence provides the best signal to background ratio. The technology is able to scan every cell that is pumped through the vessel, He said.
The laser penetrates to a depth of 100 microns and is able to examine shallow blood vessels near the surface of the skin. Advanced optical technology could be incorporated into the technology platform and enable the method to reach deeper vessels that handle larger volumes of blood,
http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Aug212007/snt2007082020314.asp
August 21, 2007 : Scientists are learning the language of the brain using optical excitation. Laser stimulation can serve as a musical conductor, manipulating the various kinds of neurons in the brain to reveal which important roles they play
http://pr-gb.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=3666
29 July 2007: Many men and women across the world choose to remove unwanted body hair. The reasons for use of lasers for hair removal can be cosmetic, social, cultural, or medical. Medical and cosmetic indications for laser hair removal also include hirsutism, which is a condition characterized by excessive terminal hair growth on face, chest, back, abdomen.
Laser hair removal is a relatively new method available for long-term hair reduction. Unlike electrolysis, laser treatment can target multiple follicles simultaneously. Since women with hirsutism have dark, thick hair which is different from the fine hair that some women have on their upper lip, chin, breasts or stomach, laser hair removal as hirsutism treatment is quite suitable.
The biggest advantage of laser hair removal treatment is that it may be used on large areas of the body. Use of lasers as a method for hair removal for hirsutism treatment is in fact the latest facial laser hair laser removal method offered by professional laser hair removal clinics. The different methods of laser hair removal available with these laser hair removal clinics are the ruby laser (694 nm), alexandrite laser (755 nm), diode laser (800 nm), and Nd:YAG laser (1064 nm). The laser hair removal treatment depends upon targeting melanin to produce selective photothermolysis of the hair follicles. Mechanism of laser hair removal
http://thestar.com.my/health/story.asp?file=/2007/7/29/health/18417769&sec=health
29 July 2007: ASK any man in his 60s or above whether he has to get up at night to pass urine and more often than not, he will own up. Ask him again whether he used to do that when he was in his 20s or 30s, and inevitably the answer will be in the negative.
The fact is, prostate enlargement, medically termed as benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH), occurs in almost all men, with the exception of eunuchs. The effect of this enlargement varies from man to man, and about a quarter of men in their golden age feel that their quality of life is curtailed by it.
Prostate surgery used to be a very dangerous procedure about 80 years ago when one in three men would die from the procedure. In the 1950s, transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) was invented in the US and very quickly became the gold standard surgical treatment for severe BPH.
A new laser system is set to revolutionalise this. Its unique green colour laser light is avidly absorbed by oxyhaemogloblin, the blood pigment. This means that during the procedure carried out on the prostate, the laser light automatically homes in on blood vessels and seals them whilst at the same time causing the obstructing prostate tissue to turn into vapour.
The procedure with the new system is carried out under a short general or spinal anaesthesia and usually takes about one to two hours. Laser cystoscopes are generally
Military Applications
http://www.metronews.ca/toronto/local/article/350346--laser-attacks-on-jets-rising-police
October 26, 2009 There’s an alarming increase in the number of high-powered laser attacks on passenger jets and medical helicopters flying into GTA airspace, and police and transportation authorities aren’t sure how to deal with it.
Using green astronomy lasers that can temporarily disorient a pilot, an unknown group of people have fired on aircraft from Woodbine Racetrack, Bluffers Park, a TTC station and other locations from Georgetown to Markham. There have been 28 of these attacks locally so far this year and the GTA accounts for 53 per cent of the national total for 2009
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/City-airport-to-get-laser-guns-to-check-bird-hits/articleshow/5150540.cms
23 October 2009 AHMEDABAD: The Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport will soon have laser guns to check the menace of bird hits
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has finally begun acting on the directions issued during the high-level meeting between Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) and Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
Officials said that at the meeting it was decided that the AAI would have laser guns installed at the airport instead of the existing LPG scare guns.
Officials said that the laser guns have been tested in Mumbai and soon they would be brought to Ahmedabad for trial. Once successful, the guns will be replaced with the LPG scare guns.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/10/15/lasers.yachts.pirates/
October 16, 2009 LONDON, England -- A military-grade laser that blinds temporarily is the latest security technology available to wealthy superyacht owners afraid of pirate attacks
The "SeaLase" laser, similar to weapons used for crowd control in Iraq and Afghanistan by the U.S. military, has a range of four kilometers and becomes harder to look at the closer an attacker comes. At a distance of one kilometer, attackers develop strong nausea and can no longer see, according to Lasersec Systems, the Finnish company that developed the lasers for commercial use.
"We don't have guns, so we need non-lethal systems to defend yachts," Lasersec CEO Scott Buchter told CNN.
SeaLase is the latest of these kinds of weapons, which include "L-Rad," a long-range acoustic device that temporarily deafens enemies and the $450,000 "SeaOwl" tracking system, which combines radar and infrared or thermal cameras to detect incoming threats as far as five kilometers away.
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Boeing_Advanced_Tactical_Laser_Strikes_Moving_Target_In_Test_999.html
Albuquerque NM (SPX) Oct 14, 2009 Boeing and the U.S. Air Force on Sept. 19 damaged a moving ground vehicle from the air using the Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) aircraft, completing ATL's first air-to-ground, high-power laser engagement of a mobile target.
During the test, the C-130H aircraft took off from Kirtland Air Force Base near Albuquerque and fired a high-power chemical laser through its beam control system while flying over White Sands Missile Range.
The beam control system guided the laser beam's energy to the unoccupied, remotely controlled target, striking the vehicle and putting a hole in a fender. The test demonstrated the ability to aim and fire a high-energy laser beam at a moving target "ATL has now precisely targeted and engaged both stationary and moving targets, demonstrating the transformational versatility of this speed-of-light, ultra-precision engagement capability that will dramatically reduce collateral damage."
The test occurred less than three weeks after an Aug. 30 test in which ATL damaged an unoccupied stationary vehicle, marking the aircraft's first air-to-ground, high-power laser engagement of a tactically representative target. Boeing developed ATL for the Air Force. ATL demonstrations support the development of laser defense systems that will destroy, damage or disable targets on the battlefield and in urban operations with little to no collateral damage.
http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000502675&fid=942
4 Oct 09 SWORD is a Laser Radar (LADAR) that provides obstacle detection and real-time alerts to helicopter pilots flying at low altitudes.
The flight tests were conducted in collaboration with Elbit Systems Electro-Optics (ELOP) and Aviation Applied Technology Directorate (AATD), of the US Army Research, Development and Engineering Command. The tests were conducted under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA).
The SWORD is a Laser Radar (LADAR) that provides obstacle detection and real-time alerts to helicopter pilots flying at low altitudes and adverse weather conditions. For the purpose of the CRADA tests, the system was installed and flown on-board AATD's EH-60L helicopter.
The test reports said, "Results show that the SWORD system detects cables, poles and towers accurately with a low false alarm rate."
HTTP://HOMELANDSECURITYNEWSWIRE.COM/SINGLE.PHP?ID=8834
1 OCTOBER 2009 The pentagon's efforts to develop a beam weapon that can deter an adversary by causing a burning sensation on their skin has taken a step forward with the development of a small, potentially hand-held, version
The idea of the weapon is to "create a heating sensation that repels individual adversaries", according to the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate (JNLWD) in Quantico, Virginia, which develops less-lethal weapons for the US military and coastguard.
Paul Marks writes that tests with a rifle-mounted infrared laser, carried out at a U.S. air force lab near Dayton, Ohio, have determined a combination of laser pulse power and wavelength that causes an alarming, hot sensation on the skin, but which stops short of causing a burn, says JNLWD project engineer Wesley Burgei.
HTTP://WWW.POPSCI.COM/MILITARY-AVIATION-AMP-SPACE/ARTICLE/2009-10/PEW-AIRBORNE-MILITARY-LASER-TAKES-OUT-TRUCK
10.01.2009 In a recent test at the white sands missile range, a specially equipped c-130 plane fried a parked truck with a powerful laser. And while we still haven't seen evidence of the laser "defeating" a ground target, as Boeing puts it, a video of it scorching a direct hit on the hood of a truck is still pretty amazing.
As you can see, the laser beam burns right through the truck's hood, and then through the engine, "defeating" the vehicle. Called the "Advanced Tactical Laser" (ATL), this is the first time the megawatt-powered chemical laser has been used to engage a target in a combat simulation situation.
Now, to be fair, the car was parked by itself in the middle of the desert. Despite those reservations, Boeing is still confident that the laser will soon provide a weapon that can take out a target with little or no collateral damage
http://www.thesun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/news/2655676/Jet-pilots-are-blinded-by-laser-pen-yob.html
26 Sep 2009 A PACKED passenger jet had to be guided to safety by a police helicopter - after a yob shone a LASER at the pilot
The pilot and co-pilot had reported being dazzled by the beam of bright light while they flew the Boeing 757 - carrying 200 passengers - over the city's Castlemilk area.
A source said: "The crew were dazed and confused and needed to check their position." An airport insider added: "The Boeing was approaching its final flight path prior to landing when both the skipper and co-pilot radioed that they were disorientated by a beam from the ground. Both were dazzled.
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/laser-energetics-demonstrates-dazer-lasertm-at-the-emmy-awards-61111177.html
MERCERVILLE, N.J., Sept. 24 Laser Energetics, Inc. (Pink Sheets: LNGT) announced today that the Company has successfully completed and demonstrated the first prototypes of the Dazer Laser(TM) - DEFENDER and Dazer Laser(TM) - GUARDIAN
Laser Energetics has and continues to develop a comprehensive and strategic laser product line that addresses applications in Industry, Science, Medicine and the Military. The Company has had a primary focus on its Alexandrite laser technology. These tunable solid state lasers are unique in that they can be conductively air cooled to compete favorably against water cooled lasers in many applications.
In addition, these lasers have one of the greatest wavelength tuning ranges with a bandwidth of over 250nm. The company is pursuing markets that are diverse yet can use the same laser with their compact user friendly design. This laser technology provides a sustainable advantage over many other lasers because of their tune-ability, conductively air cooled operation, and their efficiency.
http://chattahbox.com/technology/2009/01/28/truck-mounted-laser-raises-hopes-of-unmanned-military-defense/
January 28, 2009 New Mexico (ChattahBox) Boeing, the well known aerospace and development company, has announced that one of it’s lasers, mounted atop a truck, has shot down a UAV in New Mexico, making it the most promising military prototype in some time. This is a big step since the last test with a moving target and because the power of its laser has been doubled since 2007, when it was shown off destroying a stationary improvised bomb.
The idea behind the Laser Avenger is simple: take an infrared laser, stick it on a Humvee, and let it do it’s work. The truck is unmanned and can be very small, making it a much safer option for military defense then that of using soldiers to do the shooting, and it’s aim is impeccable, as it is able to pick up smaller objects on radar, such as small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
The project has been personally funded by Selinger Boeing himself, but he has high hopes that the government will be impressed. "If funded by the Pentagon, the Laser Avenger could be available within a year," he said in a recent statement.
http://www.heritage.org/Research/AsiaandthePacific/wm2250.cfm
January 27, 2009 Last week, the Press Trust of India reported that defense officials intend to produce a laser capable of shooting down enemy ballistic missiles. The United States is a global leader in directed-energy defenses, including both low and high-powered lasers. American military research is also highly advanced in the technologies of acquiring targets as well as the command, control, and battle management systems necessary to identify and direct weapons to destroy missiles and other targets.
The United States and India share many security concerns, such as the threat of ballistic missiles. V. K. Saraswat of the Defense Research and Development Organization rightly told the Press Times of India: "If you have a laser-based system on an airborne or seaborne platform, it can travel at the speed of light and in a few seconds, [and] we can kill a ballistic missile coming towards [India]." India's interest in developing directed energy defenses is understandable, as lasers have several distinct advantages.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10150136-1.html
January 26, 2009 Boeing is seeing a glimmer of progress in its work toward fielding laser weapons. The defense industry giant on Monday said tests of its Laser Avenger system in December marked "the first time a combat vehicle has used a laser to shoot down a UAV," or unmanned aerial vehicle. In the testing, the Humvee-mounted Laser Avenger located and tracked three small UAVs in flight over the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico and knocked one of the drone aircraft out of the sky.
Boeing didn't go into much detail about the shoot-down. In response to a query by CNET News, it did say this much about the strike by the the kilowatt-class laser: "A hole was burned in a critical flight control element of the UAV, rendering the aircraft unflyable."
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/01/laser-1-drone-0.html
January 26, 2009 Last month, a small robotic plane flew into the skies over New Mexico's White Sands Missile Range. Tracking the drone was an experimental Humvee, equipped with a laser. The real-life ray gun then took aim at the drone, and began blasting. Soon, the drone had a hole burnt through it -- and was crashing down to the desert.
For decades, the Army and the Air Force have used laser prototypes to zap unmanned planes. But what makes this test, held last month, a little different is that the laser was small, and low-powered. Which makes the ray gun, at least in theory, fairly easy to fit into an existing combat vehicle. In the summer of 2007, this modified Humvee -- a Boeing "Laser Avenger" -- blasted five targets on the ground, including some unexploded ordnance.
Those initial trials raised some eyebrows, because the Laser Avenger used only one kilowatt laser; 100 kilowatts is generally considered the minimum for weapons-grade. Since then, the power has been "doubled," Boeing executive Lee Gutheinz says in a statement. And Boeing swears the weapon performs just fine, despite its relative weakness.
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Boeing_Laser_Avenger_Shoots_Down_Unmanned_Aerial_Vehicle_In_Tests_999.html
http://www.laserfocusworld.com/display_article/352076/12/none/none/TECHN/Combat-vehicle-uses-laser-to-shoot-down-UAV-in-tests
Jan 28, 2009 Boeing has successfully demonstrated that a laser system mounted on an Avenger combat vehicle can shoot down a small unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) like those that increasingly threaten U.S. troops deployed in war zones. During tests last month at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., Laser Avenger achieved its principal test objectives by using its advanced targeting system to acquire and track three small UAVs flying against a complex background of mountains and desert.
The laser system also shot down one of the UAVs from an operationally relevant range. These tests mark the first time a combat vehicle has used a laser to shoot down a UAV.
"Small UAVs armed with explosives or equipped with surveillance sensors are a growing threat on the battlefield," said Gary Fitzmire, vice president and program director of Boeing Directed Energy Systems. "Laser Avenger, unlike a conventional weapon, can fire its laser beam without creating missile exhaust or gun flashes that would reveal its position. As a result, Laser Avenger can neutralize these UAV threats while keeping our troops safe."
The tests follow a 2007 demonstration in which an earlier version of Laser Avenger neutralized improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and unexploded ordnance (UXO) on the ground. "We doubled the laser power; added sophisticated acquisition, tracking and pointing capability; and simplified and ruggedized the design," said Lee Gutheinz, Boeing program director for High-Energy Laser/Electro-Optical Systems. "Boeing developed and integrated these upgrades in less than a year, underscoring our ability to rapidly respond to warfighters' needs."
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Thompson_Files_Fuzed_weapons_are_good_999.html
Arlington, Va. (UPI) Aug 1, 2008 Some of the saddest stories to come out of recent military conflicts concern children who found the unexploded remains of cluster bombs.
Cluster bombs are designed to neutralize a wide area by carpeting it with many small explosive devices, called sub-munitions. But some of the sub-munitions on older cluster bombs fail to detonate, and can lie unnoticed for months or years until children pick them up. The result, all too often, is dead children, or lost limbs, blindness and other tragic wounds.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates recently approved a new policy to reduce the danger that cluster bombs pose to non-combatants by setting a timetable for phasing out unreliable munitions and using only systems that detonate or go dormant quickly.
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/07/spray-on-laser.html
July 30, 2008 Real-life laser weapons aren't here, yet. But they're getting closer. Which is why the Air Force is starting to look for ways to laser-proof its bombs and missiles -- with spray-on coatings, no less.
A new Air Force request for proposals asks researchers to come up with ways to find "retrofittable laser protection for weapons."
Hence the need for "High Energy Laser (HEL)-shielding technology that can be applied to vulnerable airframe components and internal guidance electronics of [a]ir-delivered bombs and missiles."
The idea isn't to renders the weapons "impervious" to ray gun blasts. The Air Force just wants the shield to delay the laser burning through a weapon's skin -- five seconds or so ought to do the job. The best way to make it happen, the service believes, is with "a thermal protection coating (e.g., spray-on) or a broadband reflector embedded layer on [the] munition['s] skin."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7531046.stm
29 July 2008 A US military plane equipped with a powerful laser has moved a step closer to becoming a viable weapon. Engineers have started flowing chemical fuel through the laser to test its sequencing and control. This will set up the first test firing of the weapon aboard the aircraft while it is on the ground. The US Air Force's Airborne Laser (ABL) is designed to shoot down enemy ballistic missiles in the early stages of their flight.
"The Airborne Laser team has done a great job preparing the high-energy laser for these fuel tests, which will lead the way toward achieving 'first light' of the laser aboard the aircraft," said Mike Rinn, vice president of Boeing, which is prime contractor on the project.
The ABL illuminates the missile with a laser tracking beam, while computers measure its distance and calculate its course and direction. After acquiring and locking onto the target, a second, high-power laser fires a three-to-five-second burst from a turret located in the 747's nose. The beam heats up the pressurised fuel tank of the outbound missile and causes it to rupture, destroying the missile. The high-energy weapon is a Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser (COIL) capable of producing megawatts of power.
The ABL's range is limited by the distance its beam can propagate through the atmosphere and remain focused. This is affected by atmospheric conditions, turbulence (changes in air density as the result of heating and cooling), humidity, clouds and the time of day. According to an American Physical Society report in 2004, the Airborne Laser could shoot down a typical liquid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) from up to 600km away. However, against solid-fuel ICBMs, which are more resistant to heating, the useful range would be about 300km.
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/03/light-laser-new.html
ST. LOUIS, July 24, 2008 Boeing has successfully completed the preliminary design of their beam control system for the U.S. Army’s High Energy Laser Technology Demonstrator (HEL TD) program. The objective of the HED TD program is to demonstrate that a mobile, solid-state laser weapon system can effectively counter rocket, artillery and mortar projectiles. The program will support the transition to a full-fledged Army acquisition program.
"HEL TD is a cornerstone of the Army's high-energy laser program, and this successful completion of the preliminary design is an important step in developing a weapon system that can change the face of the battlefield," says Scott Fancher, vice president and general manager of Boeing Missile Defense Systems.
http://communities.canada.com/ottawacitizen/blogs/defencewatch/archive/2008/07/21/compact-laser-dazzlers-for-canadian-forces-small-arms.aspx
July 30, 2008 The CF is on the verge of launching the project definition portion of its upcoming laser dazzler program. It’s still waiting for Defence Minister Peter MacKay to approve things but that isn’t expected to be a problem. The military had wanted to get this underway in the fall but has been slowed down by the legal aspects of the weapon system (ie; is it a laser weapon or a signaling device). Canada has ratified a treaty that prevents the use of weapons that cause permanent blindness so the legalities have taken some time.
The Canadian military wants to mount the dazzlers on rifles and vehicles, mainly for use in protecting convoys. It’s hoped the systems might reduce the number of Afghan civilians killed or injured by soldiers after failing to heed warnings to stop at checkpoints or not approach convoys.
The dazzler would be able to be mounted on the C-7 family of small arms.
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Revellers-blinded-by-laser-show-in-Russia/335381/
Moscow, July 14, 2008 Dozens of young revellers were blinded by a laser show at a dance and music festival near Moscow last week and doctors fear the damage may be irreparable, the Kommersant daily reported on Monday.
"More than 30 people between the ages of 16 and 30 have ended up in hospitals in the capital with the same diagnosis-- damaged retinas - since July 7," the report said, quoting doctors.
One doctor told Kommersant, "All of them have burnt retinas, and you can see scars on them. The loss of eyesight in some cases is up to 80 per cent and it's unlikely it can ever be restored."
Festival goers being treated in hospital said they were blinded when lasers intended to light up the night sky were trained on dancers. "I immediately saw a black spot like the kind you get when you look at the sun," said one of the patients. The Aquamarine festival took place near the town of Vladimir, some 170 kilometres east of Moscow
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/03/light-laser-new.html
March 31, 2008 Imagine being hit by a nonlethal blast that seems to explode in front of you -- a deafening and blinding combination of light and sound. As the battle for "sonic blasters" heats up, a number of companies are looking at innovative ways to combine light and sound into new, nonlethal devices.
"The device uses a technology known as dynamic pulse detonation (DPD). A short but intense laser pulse creates a ball of plasma, and a second laser pulse generates a supersonic shockwave within the plasma to generate a bright flash and a loud bang,"
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4458777a11.html
01 April 2008 Laser pointers should carry compulsory warnings and be restricted for sale to adults only, says an aviation security expert for the New Zealand Air Line Pilots' Association (NZALPA).
New South Wales authorities appear set to ban the pointers after one was used on Friday night to target pilots landing at Sydney Airport. Laser pointers are already outlawed in Victoria and Western Australia.
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=4532048&page=1
March 26, 2008 Terrorist organizations have let it be known that they would use their shoulder-launched surface-to-air-missiles, otherwise known as man portable air defense systems (MAN PADS), to attack commercial aircraft.
To counter these threats, the Department of Homeland Security asked if current military technology could also protect our commercial jets.
Northrop Grumman announced today that it has completed a 14-month test of a commercial anti-missile system - the Guardian System - and it's ready to be deployed.
The technology is contained in a seven-foot canoe-shaped "pod," weighing 500 pounds, attached to the belly of the plane, with "eyes" that can scan 360 degrees at all times and a turret housing a laser that disables the missile, according to Northrop Grumman.
When they see a missile, they turn the turret toward the missile, lock on to the missile and track it," he said. "When they determine it really is a missile, they activate an eye-safe laser and jam the guidance system of the missile, turning it away from the airplane."
The Guardian System pod is self-contained and does not require any action on the part of the flight crew to engage.
"It happens in two to three seconds, and it happens so quickly," Pledger said. "Because these missiles fly at over twice the speed of sound, and can be fired fairly close to the airplane, there really is no time for a human to get involved. So, everything has to be automatic, everything the system needs to detect the missile, to track and jam it is located in the pod and it is all done autonomously."
http://www.livenews.com.au/Articles/2008/03/27/Ferries_targeted_in_laser_attacks
March 27, 2008 Ferry driver has been the subject of a laser attack on Sydney harbour.
Witnesses have told police the laser beam came from a man standing on the Rose Bay public wharf.
The ferry was passing around Seven Thirty when a green laser was shone into the cabin - temporarily blinding the skipper.
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/03/battlefield-str.html
March 26, 2008 The Navy is pushing ahead with a five-year, $163 million dollar plan to bring the "Holy Grail" of energy weapons up to battlefield strength.
For decades, scientists have been slowly working on a laser that never runs out of shots -- and can be "tuned" to blast through the air, at just the right wavelength. For most of that time, all they could get was a laser at lightbulb-strength. But in 2004, researchers at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility finally managed to assemble a "Free Electron Laser," or FEL, that could generate 10,000 watts of power. Now, the Navy has started an effort to design and build a new FEL, 10 times as strong. That would bring the laser up to 100 kilowatts -- what's considered the minimum threshold for weapons-grade. But it would also be just a stepping stone, on the way to an energy weapon as powerful as any produced. If ray gun researchers can get the thing to work, that is.
These days, some lasers use use garnet crystals as their gain media. Others, huge vats of toxic chemicals. But a FEL doesn't use any gain medium at all to generate its beam. It uses a turbocharged stream of electrons to kick-start its reaction, instead. And that lets the FEL fire along many different wavelengths -- and for a long, long time. Which is why it's been called the "Holy Grail of lasers."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/967338.html
March 24, 2008 For the past two years, the defense industry has been working on an order commissioned by the Ministry of Defense to develop a system that can intercept rockets, the kind that Gazan militants for years or Hezbollah during the Second Lebanon War have showered on Israel.
The industry is endeavoring to produce an operational system based on a so-called solid laser beam, produced by electrical current, as opposed to the chemically-based laser beam, currently in use by the U.S. Nautilus interceptor system.
Technology using solid lasers has not been developed, which is why Rafael is lowering expectations by saying its system will not be available for at least eight years. In theory, using such technology would allow the system to lock on to a rocket as it is fired at Israel and send a beam traveling at the speed of light that will cause the warhead to heat up and explode within two seconds
http://dvice.com/archives/2008/03/x47b_unmanned_a.php
The manhunters are coming. Air Force pal and defense contractor Northrop Grumman has been tinkering with this X-47B drone since early in this century, but now things are getting serious. How serious? The sophisticated radio-controlled jet might be flying off aircraft carriers as early as next year. Besides calling the beast a "manhunter," the company plans to equip the unmanned plane with air-to-air missiles, laser and microwave firepower (called "directed energy and rechargeable weapons") that can take out enemy missiles.
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5iMn4g9Br98v5fT94ExXvmLKZWKkg
Mar 20, 2008 NYON, Switzerland - UEFA fined French champion Lyon 3,200 euros (C$5,000) Thursday because a fan aimed a laser pen at Manchester United player Cristiano Ronaldo during a match.
Television replays showed a circle of bright, green light shining on the Portugal international during the first half of United's Champions League game at Stade Gerland on Feb. 20.
The fine was imposed for "incidents of an unsporting nature," UEFA said in a statement
Manchester United staff reported the laser pen being directed from the stands before and during the match.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,338009,00.html
March 17, 2008 Seventy residents of Sderot, a town of 20,000 people less than a mile from the Gaza Strip, sued Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak Wednesday, demanding immediate deployment of the mothballed Nautilus missile-defense system.
The Nautilus system was jointly developed at a cost of $300 million by the U.S. and Israeli militaries to shoot down medium-range Katyusha rockets launched over the Lebanese border by Hezbollah.
But it was deemed too expensive and too inaccurate, and both countries abandoned it in 2005.
The Nautilus was in fact never tested against the short-range Qassam rockets, which reach their targets within 10 seconds after launch, more quickly than most anti-missile systems can lock in on and intercept them.
Northrop Grumman claims it's improved the Nautilus system, now called SkyGuard, so that it's smaller and faster, though its press materials didn't specify a targeting-and-response time.
The Israeli military is in fact working on a different system called "Iron Dome," which essentially shoots down missiles with large bullets.
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/03/laser-tag-in-af.html
Laser "dazzlers" are becoming increasingly popular as nonlethal devices. This is one of the first videos I've seen of the lasers actually being used. It shows a military convoy in Afghanistan zapping bicyclists and motorists as a way to clear traffic.
http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=3123006&C=america
Nov 26, 2007 Within three years, the U.S. Army hopes to field a solid-state, 1-kilowatt, vehicle-mounted laser that can destroy improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and UAVs, Army program managers said. A prototype weapon called the Avenger performed well during a Boeing-Army test in September at Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Ala.
It was the first test of record for the solid-state laser.
"The laser propagates through a telescope built onto the AMW, focusing that kilowatt of power out at operational ranges, placing the hot, high-intensity thermal light beam on UXO [unexploded ordnance] and/or IEDs," said Lee Gutheinz, Boeing’s high-energy laser and electro-optical program director. The Avenger laser burns through bomb casings, touching off part of the explosive material. This means the bomb detonates with much less force than if it had been set off as planned, or shot at with a gun.
"The effect that a thermal engagement can have on unexploded ordnance or an IED is that you can heat them until they deflagrate - then blow up," Gutheinz said. "The explosive in the shell cooks off slowly through either melting or bubbles off. It goes off in a low yield so you will typically only blow up about 30 percent of the explosive."
http://www.canada.com/....id=d2ec53f3-19f7-49ac-a6da-aa95a4e3ca7d&k=32874
November 19, 2007 Canada should hold off equipping its soldiers in Afghanistan with laser weapons until the systems can be tested to ensure they can't inadvertently blind civilians or harm the troops using them, says an Ottawa-based think-tank.
The Canadian military is looking at purchasing the systems, known as laser dazzlers, for use against Afghans who would get too close to military convoys. The devices are capable of temporarily blinding people, serving as a warning not to approach military checkpoints or vehicles.
The Canadian Forces hope the use of dazzlers would reduce the number of times troops have to fire upon vehicles whose drivers have failed to heed warnings to stop or not to come any closer.
Dazzlers are capable of "disrupting" the vision of a person 50 to 500 metres away, depending on the specific type of model used. The systems are considered non-lethal weapons by Defence officials, although some in the military prefer to refer to them as warning devices as opposed to weapons. Being hit by a dazzler is akin to looking directly into the sun, according to some reports.
http://www.tfot.info/news/1051/boeing-tests-avenger-solid-state-laser-weapon.html
November 20, 2007 In late September 2007, Boeing successfully tested a 1kw solid state laser weapon mounted on a converted Avenger anti aircraft vehicle in Redstone Arsenal, Alabama. The laser successfully destroyed several unexploded mortar shells from a safe distance and was also able to destroy two unmanned aerial vehicles (which were on the ground). Boeing hopes to introduce the first operational laser-based weapon systems in the not too distant future, helping soldiers to fight road side bombs and to defend themselves from possible aerial threats.
However, in recent years, there is a growing hope that smaller, lighter, and safer lasers will be able to perform at least some of the tasks currently carried out by these large military chemical lasers. The new lasers are solid state and use glass or crystalline material (with some additives) to create the laser beam. For many years, lasers of this type were considered too weak to be used for many military tasks, but Boeing's recent successful experiment has proved that solid state laser-based weapons are finally suitable for military service.
The modified Avenger system works by aiming a laser beam at a roadside bomb or unexploded ammunition "and then increasing the power until the explosive fizzles out in a low yield detonation," said Gary Fitzmire, Boeing's Vice President who is in charge of the Laser Avenger Program.
In the current test, the system was only able to destroy stationery ground targets using its 1kw laser. Boeing is considering the development of an upgraded weapons' system that will have a shoot-on-the-move capability and the ability to destroy other kinds of targets, including low-flying unmanned aerial vehicles.
http://www.physorg.com/news113939734.html
November 10, 2007 South Korea is developing a mobile truck-mounted laser weapon capable of destroying North Korean missiles and artillery shells, a report said.
A defence ministry research team and defence firms have been involved in the development of high energy laser weapons, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper said.
From 2010, South Korea hopes to deploy the weapon, which can counter North Korean missiles and long-range artillery shells deployed along the border, it said.
South Korea faces a potential military threat from nuclear-armed North Korea, which has improved its missile system to cover all east Asia.
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/11/blackwaters-new.html
November 16, 2007 The State Department has a high-tech solution to keeping its security contractors from killing any more Iraqi civilians unnecessarily: Give the mercs laser dazzlers and helmet cameras
U.S. officials also tell ABC News that "the State Department plans to double the number of its diplomatic security agents to 90 so that one of its agents can accompany every convoy guarded by Blackwater and other private security contractors."
This isn't the first time the dazzlers -- which temporarily blind its targets, with pulses of green laser light -- have been pitched as life-savers for non-combatants in Iraq.
http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/10/02/2048910.htm?section=business
Oct 2, 2007 Police are investigating an incident on Sunday night where a laser beam was directed at a media helicopter as it travelled to the Sydney Olympic Stadium for the NRL grand final.
Officers believe it came from Carnarvon Street in Silverwater but they had no luck tracking the culprits.
Authority spokesman Peter Gibson says there has been about 180 attacks reported by pilots in the past 18 months.
"Unfortunately the attacks are now fairly frequent. We're getting two or three reports every week from airports around the country," he said.
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/LNSU00130092007-1.htm
September 30, 2007 Elbit Systems Ltd. reported today that it had been selected to equip the Israel Air Force (IAF) with its Lizard laser-guided bombs. Contract value is several $Millions and the initial supply of the systems to the IAF has already begun.
Lizard, a sophisticated new generation laser-guided bomb incorporates decades of Elbit Systems in-house technological expertise. The system, which will be used for air-to-surface attack of diverse targets, inflicts pinpoint damage while substantially reducing collateral damage. The current laser designator is designed for warheads of various sizes.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/laser-blinds-copter-pilot-carrying-sick-patient/2007/09/29/1190486633701.html
September 30, 2007 A HELICOPTER carrying a critically ill brain surgery patient could not land after the pilot was targeted by a laser beam from the ground.
A senior NSW Ambulance Service spokesman said the laser attack - one of a growing number against aircraft - could have been catastrophic.
The Bell 412EP was forced to restart its landing procedures when struck by the green beam from a residence in Marrickville about 10.30pm on Friday
It was the second time in three weeks that pilot Darryl Humphries was the victim of such an attack.
Since 2006 there have been more than 170 reports of laser lights being directed at aircraft and the number is increasing. Forty-nine incidents were reported between April and June this year.
http://blog.scifi.com/tech/archives/2007/08/27/5mile_laser_rif.html
August 27, 2007 Movies about the future are slowly becoming a reality one new technology at a time. Take, for example, laser guns. A staple of sci fi movies for years, they've never quite come to fruition - until now. A California company called TRW Systems is working on a laser beam rifle that'll be able to burn things from 5 miles away. Yeah, 5 miles.
And when I say burn things, I'm not talking about pieces of paper. It could burn a fatal, quarter-inch-wide hole in a person's body without making a sound from 5 miles out. Oh-great. Somehow, these things always seemed a lot cooler in space. Now that its possible to get your guts burned out from across town I'm not sure how psyched I am about it. - Adam Frucci
http://www.dailytech.com/..../article8618.htm
August 28, 2007 The U.S. will possibly field man-sized portable laser weapons in coming years
Yet there are still some laser weapon technologies that could bring the long dreamed of laser gun to fruition. Solid-state lasers, the oldest and most mature types of lasers, are one of the more viable options since they don’t require corrosive chemicals to produce the laser beam. The solid-state laser simply requires a supply of electricity to produce a beam, and only needs enough power for a single pulse rather than a continuous beam.
Current solid-state lasers are used for everything from tattoo removal to optical refrigeration. However, unlike gas and chemical lasers, solid-state lasers cannot achieve megawatt capabilities without vast amounts of electricity -- not practical for mobile forces. Yet kilowatt lasers may be enough for soldiers on the ground.
http://www.domain-b.com/companies/companies_b/boeing/20070823_bombs.html
23 August 2007 The US Army and aircraft manufacturer Boeing are presently testing a vehicle-mounted laser weapon that shoot down enemy planes as well as help soldiers clear their path of dangerous roadside bombs and unexploded artillery shells.
Defence manufacturer Boeing is developing a laser pod that can be mounted on its Avenger Agile Multi-Role Weapon System. The one-kilowatt, solid-state laser would be used to destroy explosives and possibly shoot down enemy unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
The laser melts away the explosives and destroys the bomb or unexploded ordnance at a safe distance without setting it off, to restrict damage and keep troops and people safe. Boeing already uses its 20-year-old Avenger system as the foundation for its Agile Multi-Role Weapon System, which is designed to allow US forces to use a variety of rockets, guided missiles and guns to tackle ground and air threats.
http://www.al.com/business/..../1187774180311980.xml&coll=1
August 22, 2007 Army and Boeing Co. engineers hope Redstone Arsenal tests of a vehicle-mounted laser beam could one day help soldiers clear their path of dangerous roadside bombs, unexploded ordnance and enemy aerial vehicles.
Boeing is developing a laser pod that can be mounted on its Avenger Agile Multi-Role Weapon System. The one-kilowatt, solid-state laser would be used to destroy explosives and possibly shoot down enemy unmanned aerial vehicles, said Phil Hillman, Boeing project manager for the Avenger program in Huntsville.
"The key goal is to use the laser to melt away the explosives and destroy the bomb or unexploded ordnance at a safe distance without setting it off like it was intended to do. That will keep damage down and keep troops and people in a safe" area, Hillman said during last week's Space & Missile Defense Conference in Huntsville.
In addition to roadside bombs, Boeing engineers hope that the laser pod can be used to swat small enemy UAVs out of the sky, said Gary Fitzmire, Boeing vice president for directed-energy programs. "That's our plan for 2008," he said.
The laser pod has to be stable so the advanced optics can be used to generate a beam to strike small aircraft such as UAVs. For ground use, the laser system will be tested at Redstone beginning around the first of September, Fitzmire said.
http://technocrat.net/d/2007/8/18/25239
18 Aug 2007 Permanently blinding laser weapons (and now strong LEDs) are allegedly illegal under international law, but if they make claims it is only temporarily blinding, that is enough to garner interest for some militaries and police forces.
"Two versions of the portable non-lethal dazzlers, including a hand-held laser dazzler, are set to be inducted into the Indian armed forces for use in counter-insurgency operations. This will make the 21st century soldier a technology-driven jawan," a top defence source told PTI."....and
"The device works by temporarily blinding and disorienting a person, said Bob Lieberman, president of Intelligent Optical. Once aimed at someone's eyes, light pulses and colors can be triggered and the subject's eyes can't adjust."...more tech like this along with the sonic and microwave weapons and public political protest is about over, there
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/.../articleshow/2287506.cms
17 Aug 2007 JAMMU: Soldiers engaged in counter-insurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast will soon have a new weapon to help them take on militants -- portable non-lethal laser dazzlers that can stun and blind their opponents.
"Two versions of the portable non-lethal dazzlers (PNLD), including a hand-held laser dazzler, are set to be inducted into the Indian armed forces for use in counter-insurgency operations. This will make the 21st century soldier a technology-driven jawan," a top defence source told a news agency.
The laser dazzlers, which can be mounted on existing weapons used by the soldiers, were tested in Kashmir in October last year and will be inducted into the army possibly by next year, sources said. They could be used against militants operating in the hinterland of Kashmir and against those infiltrating into the state across the Line of Control (LoC).
The Defence Research and Development Organisation's Laser Science and Technology Centre (LASTEC) in Delhi has developed two variants of the PNLD suitable for counter-insurgency operations. The hand-held and weapon-mounted versions of the PNLD have a maximum range of 50 meters and 500 meters respectively, the sources said.
Both variants are completely non-lethal directed-energy weapons employing intense visible light and produce randomly a flickering green laser output that is sufficient to cause temporary blindness or disorientation. The dazzlers also have an in-built safety interlock to prevent misuse and the weapons do not cause permanent blindness, the sources said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6917041.stm
26 July 2007: The US Army is developing a truck-mounted laser weapon to destroy rockets, artillery shells and mortars.
Aerospace giant Boeing has been awarded a contract to start on the first phase of the project - designing a control system for the laser beam
The solid state laser weapon would eventually be mounted on a 10-tonne, eight-wheel-drive tactical truck.
The objective of the High Energy Laser Technology Demonstrator (HEL TD) programme is to demonstrate that a mobile, solid state laser can effectively counter rockets, shells and mortars.
http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/25/boeing-developing-truck-mounted-laser-cannons-for-us-army/
25 July 2007: Boeing is certainly no stranger to lasers of various sorts and it's now extending its expertise to the US Army, recently snagging a $7 million contract to begin developing a truck-mounted laser weapon system. From the sound of it, the system appears to be not unlike a mobile version of the still-in-development Skyguard laser defence system, with it designed to shoot down rockets, artillery shells and mortar rounds. According to Boeing, the laser cannon would be mounted on a Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck
It will be a mobile defense system that creates a virtual bubble of protection against flying artillery over anything located within a five kilometer radius. Based on the THEL that's been in development since 1996, the so-called Skyguard system employs target-acquisition radar and a deuterium fluoride laser to detect and shoot down a variety of airborne projectiles, including rockets, mortars, and short-range munitions. Northrop is promoting the weapon as a way for countries to defend deployed troops or critical infrastructure such as airports, and not surprisingly, Israel was one of the first foreign nations given a product pitch. Initially the system is said to cost between $150 and $200 million per installation, though mass adoption could see prices plummet to less than $30 million.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6380789.stm
22 February 2007: A laser developed for military use is a few steps away from hitting a power threshold thought necessary to turn it into a battlefield weapon.
The Solid State Heat Capacity Laser (SSHCL) has achieved 67 kilowatts (kW) of average power in the laboratory.
Potentially, lasers could destroy rockets, mortars or roadside bombs.
http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000122336&fid=942
The decision to reconsider use of the Skyguard system was taken in view of the strategic threat posed by Hizbullah rocket attacks on strategic sites such as Oil Refineries and chemical factories in the Haifa Bay area. The latest model of the Skyguard is still on the drawing boards, so no evaluation of its performance can be made at this point.
software that would enable surplus interception using existing radar systems, in a similar mode to the Green Pine system used by the Arrow anti-ballistic missile. This software can provide the radar system with retroactive data on the precise location of rocket launches and anticipated points of impacts, based on the characteristics of the trajectory of each Katushya or Kassam rocket.
According to its plan, Northrop Grumman will need $300-400 million to complete development and build a prototype of the Skyguard. The company said that the new model will retain the original effective target range of 6-8 km and that the development would be completed within 12-18 months. Each interception system will cost an estimated $30-50 million. Northrop Grumman has proposed that the laser systems be stationed near every sensitive site or densely populated town near Israel's borders such as Sderot.
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htada/articles/20060725.aspx
The Department of Homeland Security is being offered a laser anti-projectile system, Skyguard, for protecting commercial aircraft from portable anti-aircraft missiles. The manufacturer, Northrop Grumman, developed THEL (Tactical High Energy Laser) for combat situations. Tests last year showed THEL was able to knock down barrages of incoming mortar shells. Israel was a partner in the development of THEL, which was originally to enter service until 2007.
The THEL laser and radar system can track up to sixty targets (mortar and artillery shells, rockets) at a time and fire on and destroy these projectiles at a range of up to five kilometers. THEL can destroy about a dozen targets a minute, at a cost of some $3,000 per shot. It's taken nine years, and over a half a billion dollars, for American and Israeli engineers to get that far. The short range, however, meant that THEL could only protect a short (ten kilometer) stretch of, say, the Labanese border.
The first Skyguard system would cost about $150 million, with subsequent ones costing about 70 percent less. Ultimately, a multi-billion dollar contract is in play here. Skyguard will also be able to handle rockets, artillery projectiles, mortars, unmanned aerial vehicles and cruise missiles.
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/High_Energy_Lasers
Northrop Grumman has formally proposed a ground-based, high-energy laser system, Skyguard, as part of a layered airport defense against the man-portable air defense systems (MANPADs) threat to commercial aviation
Based on technology proven by the Tactical High Energy Laser (THEL) testbed at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., Skyguard has the specific capabilities needed to defeat supersonic threats, including speed-of-light operation, extreme precision, proven lethality and demonstrated operational safety, according to McVey. He noted that THEL has shot down dozens of rockets in flight since 2000, including 122 mm Katyusha rockets, short-range ballistic missiles, artillery and several calibers of mortars
Compatible with a range of packaging options, the Skyguard laser system would be placed at or near an airport to detect, track and destroy a variety of threats. This capability will handle a full range of infrared seeker systems, and also is uniquely effective against command-guided missiles and other threats known to be in growing terrorist inventories.
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Mid_Infrared_Lasers_Confuse_Heat_Seeking_Missiles.html
Quintessence Photonics has announced that it has won a US Government Contract to develop and deliver high-power Mid-Infrared Lasers. The Phase III award is a follow on to previous development activity funded by the US Army, which culminates in the delivery of semiconductor lasers, which emit light in the Mid-Infrared wavelength regime.
Low-cost, high-power mid-infrared have a variety of defense and homeland security applications, including protection of aircraft, ships and armored vehicles from heat-seeking missiles and standoff detection of chemical weapons.
Free space optical communications and imaging on the battlefield benefit from mid-infrared sources since, unlike visible and near-infrared wavelengths, communications at mid-infrared wavelengths are relatively immune to fog, smoke and solar background impairments.
http://www.prweb.com/releases/20061350/5/prweb390138.htm
U.S. military personnel are using high-powered laser pointers as life-saving tools in combat situations. These handheld lasers are not standard issue military gear, yet they are valued so highly in combat situations that servicemen frequently purchase them at their own expense.
General Applications
http://www.physorg.com/news175434422.html
October 22nd, 2009:: A National Science Foundation grant is supporting a novel approach using laser light to convert methane into methanol. Roger Dube, research professor at Rochester Institute of Technology's Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science, won the $79,000 exploratory research award to apply optical catalytic conversion to the problem. Dube will use finely tuned laser light, not heat, to reduce the barrier to reaction in methane and to create longer chain molecules or fuels. The process works without the need for heat or a catalytic surface. This is important because heat consumes some of the fuel stock and decreases overall conversion efficient. Catalysts get dirty and have to be replaced or cleaned, both expensive and time-consuming propositions.
"Successful photo-catalysis of methane would theoretically produce clean fuels and remove methane gas that otherwise would simply be released into the atmosphere," Dube says. "If successful, the technology could have broad impact in other fields of chemistry."
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/40714
Oct 21, 2009:: A new microscopy technique that turns molecules into "mini lasers" has been developed by researchers in the US. The new method could help scientists to study biological samples containing "dark molecules", which are invisible to today's advanced fluorescence microscopes.
Fluorescence microscopy is the technique of choice for obtaining high-resolution images of biological samples. It works by tagging molecules in the sample with fluorophores – molecules that emit light shortly after being illuminated with light of a shorter wavelength. However, some important biological molecules such as haemoglobin cannot be tagged in this way, rendering them invisible to such microcopes.
The new method is called stimulated emission microscopy and was developed at Harvard University by Wei Min, Sijia Lu, Sunney Xie and colleagues. It is a classic "pump-then-probe" measurement that involves firing two different laser pulses at the sample. Each pulse is about 200 femtoseconds long and the two are separated by less than a picosecond.
Energy from the first (pump) pulse is absorbed by a molecule of interest, placing it in an excited energy state. The energy of the photons in the second (probe) pulse is set at precisely the difference between the molecule's excited and ground states. This stimulates emission of photons from the excited molecules, which boosts the amplitude of the probe pulse by a factor of 1+10–4 to 1+10–8. Xie told physicsworld.com that this is the same process involved in the production of laser light – in effect the molecules are acting as mini lasers. To extract this tiny signal, which is much smaller than noise in the probe laser, the team switched the train of pump pulses on and off at about 5 MHz and used a lock-in amplifier to eliminate low-frequency noise. An image can be built up in a matter of minutes by scanning the pulses across the sample and repeating the measurement.
By adjusting the energies of the pump and probe lasers, the Harvard group were able to image a number of biological samples containing hitherto dark molecules. They could, for example, see individual red blood cells in a sample of mouse tissue as well as measure the distribution of a certain drug in a similar sample
http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2009/10/modeling-a-black-hole-with-a-300-gigawatt-laser.ars
October 18, 2009:: Black holes are famous for having a gravitational field that is so potent that light cannot escape its pull. But that same gravitational pull causes nearby matter to reach energies that results in a prodigious amount of radiation, from regular light up to X-rays and beyond. Researchers have attempted to model the behavior of matter as it gets drawn into accretion disks near a black hole in order to understand this radiation, but the conditions in these areas are difficult to reproduce on Earth. Now, a consortium of researchers from China, Japan, and Korea have figured out how to use a 300 GigaWatt laser to reproduce conditions near the accretion disk, and have successfully reproduced the spectrum observed near both black holes and neutron stars
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/sci-tech/19-laser-land-levelling-project-for-farmers-initiated-hh-66
18 Oct, 2009:: KARACHI: The Sindh agriculture department has initiated a Rs250 million project to provide laser land-levelling equipment to farmers on 50 per cent subsidy. The US-made laser unit is attached to tractors while tilling the land to produce uniform and plain soil surface that makes optimum use of soil and water.
The cost of a laser unit comes to Rs0.45 million, of which the farmer selected through balloting would have to pay Rs225,000 per set.
A progressive grower Anwer Bachani of Sindh Chamber of Agriculture told Dawn on Saturday that the laser land levelling equipment played wonders in increasing per acre yield of wheat to 70 maund against 30 to 40 maund achieved through manual levelling method
He said that the laser land levelling project was initiated in the past but was later abandoned and the present government has revived a good scheme. The laser land levelling eliminates high and low spots on the soil which generally cause salinity and water logging but brings uniformity in seed germination.
http://www.dailytech.com/NPL+Develops+Femtosecond+Laser+Tech+for+Formation+Space+Flying/article16405c.htm
October 2, 2009:: The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) has helped determine that a femtosecond comb laser could be used to provide highly accurate measurement of absolute distance for missions in space that require formation flying. The NPL worked with the European Space Agency to determine that the lasers were suitable for the task. However, the accurate femtosecond lasers would allow the formation to know their relative position to each other by plotting positions relative to known stars and establish lateral positions by laser pointers. This would allow the craft to detect slight movements that would signal the discovery of a gravity wave.
The NPL reports that prototype systems will need to have uncertainty claims verified by national standards laboratories like NPL and meet other stringent requirements to become space ready.
http://www.physorg.com/news173462286.html
SEPTEMBER 29TH, 2009,:: Lasers are providing scientists with new tools for mapping, protecting, and restoring bird habitat along rivers. In a paper published in the October issue of ecological applications, scientists from PRBO conservation science and the information center for the environment at uc Davis used aerial laser technology known as LIDAR (short for light detection and ranging) to predict where different bird species occur in the cosumnes river preserve in central California, u.s.a.
LIDAR data are generated using lasers mounted on an airplane that is flown over the study area. Sensors on the aircraft record the laser light that is reflected from the vegetation and the ground. These data are then used to develop detailed maps of the forest structure (for example, the height of the tallest trees). Scientists can then use their knowledge of what types of forest structure birds need to predict where birds will occur. With LIDAR, they can do this over large geographic areas more quickly and easily than with traditional methods.
Scientists have long known that many birds are often found in specific types of forest structure. In the past, these associations have been established by counting birds in areas where vegetation was painstakingly measured on the ground. "Using the LIDAR measurements of vegetation, we can predict where the birds will be over areas much too large to survey by foot," explains Dr. Nat Seavy, Terrestrial Ecologist Research Director at PRBO Conservation Science.
Maps of bird habitat help scientists understand what areas should be protected and what forest conditions are important for different bird species. "We want to make sure common birds stay common," says Dr. Chrissy Howell, an ecologist at PRBO Conservation Science. "This technique helps us identify areas to protect and understand how we can design restoration to create new habitat."
http://trak.in/news/port-wine-stains-now-easy-to-wipe-off-with-laser-therapy/8830/
Washington, Sep 29, 2009 ,:: Port wine stain, a vascular birthmark characterized by reddish to purplish discolorations of the skin, is now easy to wipe off through laser therapy. Three of every 1,000 children born have a port wine stain, which is made up of numerous dilated vessels in a localized part of the skin, and for most the skin discoloration has caused discomfort, embarrassment, and even pain.
One such individual is Maureen Dillon, who for 56 years was not able to go out in public with only one layer of makeup on, as the port wine stains became darker and brought more distress as years went by.
After dealing with blood vessel clusters and papules, swelling and infections, Dillon’s family doctor sent her to see Dr. Jeffrey Orringer, director of the Cosmetic Dermatology and Laser Center at the University of Michigan Health System. Orringer used lasers that, over eight treatments, removed Dillon’s port wine stains.
"There are lots of theories about why port wine stains develop, but the truth is that no one really knows why a child is born with a port wine stain," Orringer said.
Even though he cannot explain why Dillon or anyone else gets the vascular birthmark, he has good odds of making them better with the laser therapy: 75 percent to 80 percent of patients have their port wine stain lightened by at least 50 percent, and the mark disappears completely in 15 percent to 20 percent of patients.
http://hamptonroads.com/2009/09/nsu-s-trying-develop-laser-wee-frontiers
September 27, 2009:: Norfolk State University scientists are getting international attention for their part in developing the world's smallest laser. Norfolk State, in partnership with Cornell and Purdue, has worked on the project for the past three years, and physics professor Mikhail Noginov said future applications for the "spaser," as it's called, are "incredible."
The name "spaser" comes from the "sp" of surface plasmons replacing the "l" in the acronym that is "laser" - light amplification by the stimulated emission of radiation. Spasers, which cannot be seen by the human eye, could produce significant medical advances by going where current technology cannot. Spasers also have possibilities in electronics, as they operate at frequencies thousands of times faster than present-day computers. The potential payoff for Norfolk State, being in the forefront, is just as strong. "The promises are so fantastic that the government is putting millions of dollars into it," Noginov said.
The science behind the spaser is complex. Noginov says it releases light similar to lasers - which most people can relate to, since they are used in a variety of items, such as CD players and dental drills. But spasers are a different animal, a new class of device that requires terms such as "nanoparticles," "gold cores," "dye molecules" and "surface plasmons."
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/09/smoke-and-lasers-could-disrupt-microphone-market/
September 25, 2009,:: David Schwartz, who laid the foundation for MP3 with his undergraduate and graduate work in the ’80s, has another big idea: a microphone that uses lasers and smoke to detect the minute variations in air pressure the rest of us call "sound."
His invention appears to be the world’s first laser microphone, and it works by streaming smoke across a laser beam aimed at a “very, very fast and sensitive” photocell designed for fiber-optic networks. The photocell converts variations in the beam into electrical signal that carries the audio signal.
http://www.photonicsonline.com/article.mvc/Researchers-Use-Laser-Induced-Breakdown-0001
February 6, 2009,:: The Environmental Sciences Division's Madhavi Martin has reinvented an old analytical method, finding some very new applications for the technology in the process. She uses laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy - a technique invented in the 1960s - to collect elemental fingerprints.
The LIBS method uses a focused laser to evaporate sample materials, breaking down all of the bonds and producing optical emissions of very specific wavelengths depending on the elements present within the sample.
"The wavelength emissions are the fingerprints of the elements in the sample," Madhavi says. "One advantage of the method is that I can analyze any kind of sample: liquid, solid, gas or aerosol."
She can analyze the environmental conditions experienced by a tree during its growth, pulling samples from each ring. Global climate change can be traced by looking at the elements present throughout the lifetime of a tree. Material from 100 years of tree growth takes her about 20 minutes to analyze and requires only a few thousand shots of the laser. Conventional wet-chemistry techniques take much longer and involve extracting and chopping up the wood samples from every ring to be analyzed.
"It's been exciting because the tools that we have now - better lasers, better instruments for detection - have revived the LIBS technology," she says.
People are using LIBS to look at all kinds of materials, but Madhavi is one of the few using it for environmental analysis.
http://optics.org/cws/article/research/35177
Jul 29, 2008,:: A team of scientists in Canada have for the first time engineered a liquid mirror that changes shape according to an applied magnetic field. The group from the Centre of Optics, Photonics and Lasers at Laval University in Quebec believes that its deformable mirror could be used to compensate for distortion in the images of telescopes and other optical devices
Liquid mirrors are nothing new. The Large Zenith Telescope in Canada, for example, has a 6 m diameter mirror that is a rotating dish filled with mercury. As the mercury spins around, its profile forms a perfect parabola.
While such mirrors can be made large and essentially defect-free, they do have two important limitations: they can only point straight up; and the shape of the mirror cannot be adjusted dynamically. Dynamic adjustment is important because astronomers are keen on using adaptive optics systems that change the shape of the mirror to correct for aberration caused by the atmosphere.
http://www.laserfocusworld.com/display_article/331428/12/none/none/WebX/BEAM-COMBINING:-High-power-fiber-laser-beams-are-combined-incoherentl
21 July, 2008,:: Incoherently combining the beams from multiple high-power fiber lasers has a number of advantages over other beam-combining methods, and can result in compact, robust, low-maintenance and long-lifetime high-energy laser systems. In initial experiments, we have combined the beams from four lasers with a beam director consisting of individually controlled steering mirrors. We achieved propagation efficiencies greater than 90% at a kilometer in range, with a total power of 2.8 kW on a target with a 10 cm radius.
In an example that illustrates the essence of incoherent beam combining, the beams from a hexagonal array of seven fiber lasers are combined with a beam director of individually controlled steering mirrors. The individual fiber lasers have an initial spot size large enough so that diffractive spreading is not significant over the propagation range. For example, a straightforward calculation involving only diffraction shows that a Gaussian beam with a 4 cm spot size that is focused onto a target at a range of 5 km will have a spot size of only 4 cm on the target. Typically, atmospheric turbulence will cause more beam spreading than diffraction.
Incoherent beam combining of fiber lasers is readily scalable to higher total power levels. For multiple incoherently combined fiber lasers, the total transmitted power scales as the number of lasers, while the radius of the beam director scales as the square root of the number of lasers. A 500 kW laser system, for example, could consist of 100 fiber lasers (5 kW/fiber) and have a beam director radius of about 40 cm. Excluding the power supply, the fibers and pump diodes would occupy a volume of about 8 m3.
http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=209800332
29 July, 2008,:: Focusing semiconductor lasers usually requires bulky optical lenses acting as a "collimator." Researchers have now demonstrated a plasmonic collimator that utilizes grooves etched directly into the semiconductor laser facet. If the technique is adopted -- Harvard University has applied for a patent on the process -- then semiconductor lasers can be downsized to a bare die without a lens. Eventually the team at Harvard and Hamamatsu Photonics (Hamamatsu City, Japan) hope to demonstrate electrically-controlled polarization of laser beams for use in spintronics and quantum computing. "The plasmonic collimator is applicable to all semiconductor lasers," claimed Harvard professor Federico Capasso. "This research opens up using plasmonic structures built on the laser facet to make any desired state of polarization -- the holy grail of spintronics and quantum information processing." A quantum cascade laser patterned with a plasmonic collimator reduces beam divergence, Harvard University and Japanese researchers found.
The current prototype used parallel line grooves that showed the technique could collimate a laser in the direction of the polarization of the laser. The researchers plan to etch concentric circular grooves in an attempt to fully collimate the laser beam in all directions.
http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14632645
30 March , 2008,:: Kolkata: Colorado-based India born animation and laser artist Manick Sorcar beat 99 contenders worldwide to bag the prestigious International Laser Display Association (ILDA) 2007 Artistic Award for his entry "Reflection" in the category for best laser photography.
On March 27, the ILDA officially announced a list of the 2007 artistic award winners in their annual international laser display competition. Manick's company LaserLight Magic won the ILDA 2007 Artistic-Award for their entry "Reflection".
"Reflection is a scene from my forthcoming stage production. This was also my first entry in laser photography category," said Manick, who shot into fame in the early 1990s for his first animation mixed with live action "Deepa & Rupa: A Fairy Tale From India", which won the Gold Plaque at the Chicago International Film Festival.
Manick, an engineer by profession, is the first Indian-American to receive the prestigious ILDA Artistic-award twice.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/24/technology/24wafer.html?_r=1&ref=business&oref=slogin
March 24, 2008: Now Sun Microsystems has found a way to reconnect the chips so they can communicate with each other at such high speeds that computer designers can build a new generation of computers that are faster, more energy-efficient and more compact.
Each chip would be able to communicate directly with every other chip in the array via a beam of laser light that could carry tens billions of bits of data a second.
http://www.ballard.co.uk/press_releases/company_releases.aspx?lang=English(uk)&story=1123
March 18, 2008: Scientists at the Advanced Technology Institute (ATI) of the University of Surrey and at the School of Chemistry in the University of Bristol have been awarded funding of nearly £0.87M from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to investigate techniques using high-power, short-pulsed lasers for the production of important nanomaterials, including nanoclusters, nanotubes and nanorods of carbon and zinc oxide, with controllable electrical and optical properties. These techniques, including pulsed laser deposition and laser annealing, are ideal research tools for rapid investigation of a wide variety of synthesis environments, which should enable a plethora of new technologically significant nanomaterials. This project will be highly synergistic, addressing the full range of challenges, from obtaining a fundamental understanding of the growth processes to producing physical, chemical and biological sensors based on the products.
"A focused short laser pulse can produce very extreme conditions, such as high temperatures and pressures, but only at the point of focus of the beam. We can use these conditions to generate highly energetic atoms and ions to drive a synthesis that would normally require the whole reaction to be performed in a high temperature furnace."
http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-11-14-voa21.cfm
14 November 2007 :: Research scientist Jerry Wiant has traveled a lonesome highway in western Texas to the McDonald Observatory in the Fort Davis Mountains almost every morning for 38 years
The laser sends pulses of green light through a telescope, to four reflectors on the moon's surface. Wiant explains, "It hits the reflector that we are aiming at and then that reflector sends the light back."
Apollo 11 astronauts set up the first reflector when they made the first manned flight to the moon nearly 40 years ago. Subsequent Apollo mission's added two more reflectors, and an unmanned Russian mission sent a fourth.
The fact that we can lunar range [target moon reflector with laser] at all is just short of a miracle," said Wiant
The lunar laser provides data on gravity, tides and spreading land masses here on Earth. It has also showed that the moon is moving away from Earth 3.8 centimeters annually.
http://news.thomasnet.com/fullstory/535949
November 12, 2007: : Model FO4020NT 6,000 W laser features shuttle tables, automatic focal and assist gas control, and automatic nozzle changing device. Offering 3,150 ipm max X- and Y-axis speed and 2,362 ipm max Z-axis speed, system supports sheet sizes up to 80.7 x 160 in. with positioning accuracy of 0.0004 in./20 in. It includes X-axis dual drive rack and pinion gantry and Water Assisted Cutting System (WACS(TM)) with adjustable water mist to absorb heat generated by cutting process.
http://inventorspot.com/articles/japanese_team_invents_tiny_laser_8676
November 28, 2007 : : A working motor powered only by laser light has been demonstrated by researchers at the International Christian University in Tokyo, Japan. Light-powered motors will work in areas with high magnetic fields unsuitable for conventional motors, such as such as MRI medical scanners.
The prototype laser-powered motor features a copper disc with a hole in the middle - much like a very tiny washer. When green laser light with a wavelength of precisely 532 nanometers is fired at the disk, the metal heats up and expands.
The result of this rapid expansion is that a series of tiny, fast-moving elastic waves move across the surface of the disk in a circular motion around the ring's center of the ring. By mounting the disc on a spindle, it will begin to rotate much like a conventional motor.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/football/nfl/10/01/bengals.pigeons.ap/
CINCINNATI (AP) : The Cincinnati Bengals turned to laser pointers Monday night in another effort to shoo pigeons that have been pooping on fans at Paul Brown Stadium.
Employees were to aim hand-held laser pens at the pigeons during the Bengals' game with the New England Patriots. The birds have been roosting in the stadium rafters, and fans at earlier games had complained about the droppings getting into their food and drinks.
The Bengals hope the pigeons will become so irritated by the lasers that they'll fly away from the beams and pipes above the stands, team spokesman Jack Brennan said. Team employees have used the laser pointers before but with only limited success, he said
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/.../articleshow/2417809.cms
1 Oct, 2007: Mehul Choksi, chairman of the Mumbai-based Gitanjali group, recently procured a new machine ,which has changed the way gold jewellery is retailed.
"It uses a computer programme, which assists our customers to design jewellery for themselves or make changes in the existing designs that can be replicated by us," Choksi says. As India’s top jeweller, he can’t take a chance. The demand for gems and jewellery is growing at a fast pace and anyone who is technologically-challenged is likely to lose out.
Laser machines, which are now used at every gems and jewellery factory, have been put to an "innovative" use at Ace Jewels. Says Nanavati, "Normally there is one laser machine or laser head and one workstation. But with the help of the machine manufacturer we have worked out a system where there is one laser head but three work stations at Ace Jewels, resulting in the increased capacity at marginally higher cost." This arrangement also helps save electricity.
http://www.nanotech-now.com/news.cgi?story_id=25249
September 27th, 2007: Ilan Ben-Zvi, a physicist at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, has won the 2007 Free Electron Laser (FEL) Prize along with James Rosenzweig of the University of California-Los Angeles. Sponsored by the International Free Electron Laser Conference, which was held this year in Novosibirsk, Russia, the prize consists of an award citation, a plaque, and approximately $2,500 for each recipient.
Ben-Zvi's work leading to the FEL Prize included two facets of FEL technology. First, he developed laser-photocathode radiofrequency guns that provide record brightness to laser beams. These devices produce highly concentrated bursts of electrons and accelerate them to nearly the speed of light, making possible such facilities as the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) at DOE's Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. The LCLS is a free electron laser that combines laser-like x-ray beams with extreme brightness, short wavelengths, and short electron pulse duration - important features for studying materials on the atomic scale, including light-induced structural changes on time scales of a quadrillionth of a second. This will allow scientists a glimpse on a time scale never before possible and open untold opportunities for understanding catalysis, chemical processes, and molecular assembly.
http://www.laserfocusworld.com/display_article/307054/12/none/none/TECHN/New-laser-method-helps-detect-hidden-liquid-explosives
September 24, 2007,: A new and powerful technique that can detect hidden liquid explosives through common plastic containers and glass bottles has been demonstrated by scientists from STFC's Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL). The research is being reported in the latest issue of Analytical Chemistry.
The scientific paper, "Non-invasive Detection of Concealed Liquid Explosives using Raman Spectroscopy," by Charlotte Eliasson, Neil Macleod, and Pavel Matousek, reports on the successful application of a recently developed measurement technique using lasers that applies a novel approach to a conventional, trusted method for identifying materials. Spatially offset Raman spectroscopy' (SORS) was originally developed for medical and pharmaceutical applications but has now been demonstrated to work in security applications. The technique, which can be implemented using a hand-held probe, produces chemical information on liquids contained in transparent and diffuse plastic containers, including those made from colored materials
http://www.photonics.com//content/news/2007/September/10/88910.aspx
TOKYO, Sept. 10, 2007 : Osaka University and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) are developing a way to convert sunlight into laser light, Japan's Nikkei news service has reported. The technology reportedly will boost the design of solar power systems that will one day collect sunlight in space and convert it to laser energy, then to electricity for our use on Earth.
The new device converts sunlight with an efficiency four times greater than previous attempts, Nikkei reported. Sunlight is collected and kept as energy in a plate made of a sintered powder of metals such as chromium and neodymium, it said.
If weak laser light hits the plate, the energy already kept in the plate is transferred to the laser light and boosts its strength. Using a 0.5-W laser, the power was able to be amplified to 180 W.
Previous attempts to convert solar to laser light energy have yielded about a 10-percent transfer rate. The new technology converted 40 percent of solar energy, Nikkei said
http://www.shortnews.com/start.cfm?id=64801
August 06, 2007: The Osaka University Institute of Laser Engineering in collaboration with the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency are soon to launch a new space-based laser system for the purpose of energy generation.
The neodymium and chromium plates can beam sunlight down to the surface using lasers with an efficiency of 42 percent. A ground station can convert the beams into electricity.
The system would allow energy to be generated around the clock. By 2030 scientists believe that they could generate as much energy as a 1-gigawatt nuclear power station using 100-200m collectors.
http://www.spectrasensors.com/h2s
August 06, 2007: To users of high-purity bulk nitrogen, hydrogen, dry air or other specialty gases, it is critical to stable operations that those gases are free of contaminants such as moisture. Specifications for maximum moisture allowed are often as low as the parts-per-million and even parts-per-billion levels.
Although electrochemical devices may perform with acceptable accuracy at first, the confidence level in their measurements soon becomes low, due to drift, the inability to read high concentrations of moisture. There is a tendency for those sensor probes to become desensitized by the gas streams they are measuring.
Specialty gas manufacturers must certify the contents in ppm or ppb to their customers. This is why reliability of measurement is so important.
Now a new H2O moisture and analyzer technology is available that employs tunable laser diode (TDL) spectroscopy to provide highly accurate and virtually instantaneous measurements of trace amounts of a particular gas (H2O in this instance). By its nature, the TDL based gas detection method is not susceptible to aging affects, making its factory calibration a timeless constant. The result is a very low maintenance analyzer that does not require consumables or scheduled calibration.
Developed by SpectraSensors (Rancho Cucamonga, CA), TDL-based analyzers have revolutionized the measurement of gases in petrochemical streams such as natural gas. The technology employs a simple measurement that uses a fundamental principle: Molecules vibrate when excited by light at specific wavelengths. Therefore, if you can detect how much light is absorbed at these wavelengths, you can precisely measure the concentration of a given gas.
The system consists of a cell that the sample gas flows through, a tunable laser diode that emits a specific wavelength of light through the gas, an optical detector, and software to analyze and output the results.
http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=90025#compstory
Chicago, July 26, 2007: Suspended in laser light, thousands of atoms pair up and dance, each moving in perfect counterpoint to its partner.
They are the building blocks of what may one day become an enormously powerful quantum computer capable of solving in seconds problems that take today's fastest machines.
Porto and colleagues have coaxed pairs of super-cold rubidium atoms to repeatedly swap positions, a feat that could make them useful for storing and processing data in quantum computers.
Porto's team isolated pairs of atoms in a lattice of light formed by six laser beams all fixed on one point, suspending the atoms in a uniform pattern. "There is no container. It is levitated by the laser beams."
They trapped these pairs in wells or dips formed by ripples in the light. When forced together in tight spaces, the atom pairs began to oscillate between zero and one, passing in and out of a state of entanglement.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/....laser-detects-danger-liquids--name_page.html
SCOTS scientists are on the verge of producing a laser, which could detect liquid bombs at airports. Makers claim the highly sensitive equipment could even sense traces of explosives on tickets handled by terrorists.
Security staff at transport terminals could have the technology within two years - but only if the project gets £5million Government backing.
The firm behind the design, Stirling's Cascade Technologies, said the sensors would have been able to pick up the explosives would-be terrorists are thought to have tried to take on Heathrow flights. Cascade chief executive John Fuller said: "As part of a Government trial, the equipment was tasked to detect small amounts of nitro-glycerine. Not only did the sensors pick it up, they detected minute traces of the compound on the outer packaging."
http://www.foodproductiondaily.com/news/ng.asp?n=69462-pathogen-laser-bacterial
A pathogen detecting system that uses scattered laser light can cut costs and speed up safety checks for food processors, researchers developing the technology claim.
The machine bounces particles of light, called photons, off of a bacterial colony. The pattern of scattered light is projected onto a screen behind the petri dish.
The "light-scatter pattern" is recorded with a digital camera and analyzed with sophisticated software to identify the types of bacteria growing in the colonies.
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2006/jul/30/red_hot_gadget/?business
Laser-sighted gun tells temperature of surfaces. It uses the infrared band of the light spectrum. Tools designed to do so use a lens to take readings of the infrared energy being emitted from the surface of an object.
Non-contact IR thermometers are helpful in industry to measure extremely hot temperatures, moving objects or objects that are too dangerous or cumbersome to reach.
Sears has a hand-held Craftsman model with a laser pointer (about $60) that runs off two AAA batteries. It's supposed to give a fairly accurate measure up to six feet away. It will read temperatures from minus 58 to 518 degrees. There's only one thing I didn't like about it — it looked more like a calculator than a ray gun.
Omega.com has a pistol-style consumer model for $75 that sports a temperature range from minus 75 degrees to 1,000 degrees.
Raytek has numerous pistol-type infrared thermometers, including several for use around the house. The MiniTemp MT-6 costs $99 and has an accuracy of plus or minus 3 degrees for temperatures between minus 20 and 932 degrees.
The Free-Electron Laser (FEL), supported by the Naval Research and located at the U.S. Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, achieved 10 kilowatts of infrared laser light in late July, making it the most powerful tunable laser in the world. The recently upgraded laser's new capabilities will enhance defense and manufacturing technologies, and support advanced studies of chemistry, physics, biology, and more.
http://www.coremg.net/newspapers.php?paper=pasadenaindependent&storyid=2914
Now a team of physicists, mathematicians, and electrical engineers from the California Institute of Technology and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst has figured out a trick to keep light pulses from diverging or focusing. Using a multi-layer sandwich of glass plates alternating with air, the scientists have provided the first experimental demonstration of a procedure called "nonlinearity management". This technique wouldn't do anything for light traveling all the way to the moon, but could be useful in future generations of devices involving optical switching and optical information processing, for which precise control of laser pulses will be advantageous.
Reporting in the July 21, 2006, issue of Physical Review Letters, the researchers demonstrate that a laser beam passing through multiple layers of glass and air can be made to last much longer than if it had passed through only one type of medium. This procedure exploits a phenomenon known as the "Kerr effect," which causes the refractive index of an individual material to change if the light energy is sufficiently intense.
When light is propagated only through glass, one obtains a focused beam so intense that it generates a plasma in the medium, stripping away its electrons. Using a multi-layer "Kerr sandwich" of light and air, however, keeps the plasma from being created because the different refractive indices of the media cause the light beam to diverge and converge several times.
"The idea is for the beam size on average to stay constant," says team member Mason Porter, a postdoctoral scholar in Caltech's Center for the Physics of Information.
The experimental setup was the work of Martin Centurion, also a postdoctoral researcher in the Center for the Physics of Information. According to Centurion, the laboratory apparatus consists of nine normal microscope slides, each about one millimeter thick, that are aligned parallel to each other at one-millimeter spacings. An intense femtosecond laser pulse is sent into the slides, and the pulse converges while in the glass medium, but then diverges again while traversing through air. The end result is a beam that is the same diameter when it emerges from the apparatus as it was when it entered, although it is slightly weaker due to reflection of a fraction of the energy at each interface.
"This is focusing in space," Porter says. "If you could combine both space and time, you'd have a 'light bullet' - that is, a pulse that stays the same all the time."
The title of the paper is "Nonlinearity Management in Optics: Experiment, Theory, and Simulation."
http://www3.sdstate.edu/SDSU/NewsDetail45702.cfm?ID=46,5267
From the back of a van, a green laser shoots out from a black box. The beam travels through the air and shines on a tree hundreds of meters away.
Only this isn't a science-fiction thriller, it's called lidar. And that laser beam may one day help prevent forest fires, said Songxin Tan, assistant professor of electrical engineering at South Dakota State University and one of the scientists working with the new technology.
Tan uses lidar, or light detection and ranging, to collect data on plants and trees.
Tan began working with lidar while earning his doctorate at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. There, he and his advisor, Ram Narayanan, worked with a NASA system called ALPS, or Airborne Laser Polarimetric Sensor, which had been donated to UNL. Later, they developed the Multiwavelength Airborne Polarimetric Lidar, or MAPL, designed primarily for vegetation applications. The system was part of a million dollar airborne remote sensing project at UNL, Tan said.
To gather data, the MAPL uses two different wavelengths of light, a green laser and another laser in the nearly infrared wavelength not visible to the human eye, said Tan. The MAPL shoots the laser towards an object, such as a single tree or an entire forest. The waves bounce back from the vegetation, and the MAPL's sensors collect the return signal. The way the waveform backscatters after hitting an object provides clues about the object's characteristics such as roughness and reflectance
Laser Sources / Materials
http://www.nanotech-now.com/news.cgi?story_id=32049
http://www.usnews.com/articles/science/technology/2009/02/02/advanced-ceramics-shine-new-light-on-lasers-electronics-and-biomedical-implants.html
To most people, the word "ceramics," refers to opaque clay flower pots or translucent porcelain tea cups. But not all ceramics block or scatter light.
Gary L. Messing, distinguished professor of ceramic science and engineering, and his group at Pennsylvania State University, are developing a brand new class of ceramics that are so pure and perfectly transparent, they can be used as a substitute for crystals in solid-state lasers.
To test their new method, Messing and his group made neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (Nd:YAG) laser ceramics, because they are important in industrial and military applications. The Nd:YAG crystal structure also works well with ceramic processing.
"Most high power, solid-state lasers use single crystals made by melt-growth methods," said Stevenson. "These require high temperatures of greater than 1950 degrees Celsius, and weeks or months to grow a single crystal boule [block] of Nd:YAG."
According to Stevenson, switching to ceramic processing could reduce the temperatures needed to make an Nd:YAG laser ceramic by at least 250 degrees Celsius and reduce the time it takes down to just days.
To make the ceramics, the group started with powders and mixed them with liquids and polymers to make a material similar in consistency to paint. "We used a process called tape casting to make long thin sheets of the material," Messing explained. "Next, we cut the sheets into squares and stacked them to form thicker squares about 1 centimeter x 5 cm x 5 cm."
After applying heat to sinter the squares, the ceramics became transparent. But the material still contained enough pores to degrade a laser's performance. "We did a final step, called hot isostatic pressing (HIP), where we heated the ceramics to over 1600 degrees Celsius and applied high pressures with argon gas," Messing said. "By combining heat with pressure, we eliminated the few remaining pores."
http://www.lasermaterials.net/ytterbium.htm
lasermaterials.info is supposed to be an Open Source project providing data of modern solid state laser gain media. Primarily, this information board is addressed to laser physicists and laser engineers requiring property parameters and spectra of solid state laser materials.
Still not complete, the data content will be extended. Due to the large number of crystal or glass parameters a certain variation of the presented data must be taken into account.
Although non-commercial this site additionally gives an overview about suppliers and institutions for crystal growth or glass fabrication.
http://www.patentdigi.com/tide_time_calculating/plastic_laser_materials.html
A material exhibiting narrow line fluorescence when excited by high-energy radiation, hence suitable for laser applications, is formed by dispersion of rare earth ions bonded to organic molecules in the form of an organometallic chelate, in solid solution in a plastic host.
Characteristics of a continuous-wave Yb:GdVO4 laser end pumped by a high-power diode
Optics Letters, Vol. 31, Issue 17, pp. 2580-2582
An efficient and compact diode-pumped continuous-wave Yb:GdVO4 laser is demonstrated, generating an output power of 4.0 W with an optical conversion efficiency of 61% and a slope efficiency as high as 78%. With increasing pump power the polarization of the laser output changes from s to p, while in a certain intermediate power range the two polarization states coexist with different emission wavelengths.
Optics Letters, Vol. 31, Issue 10, pp. 1435-1437
We realized an efficient diode-pumped Nd:LuVO4 continuous-wave (CW) laser operating at 916 nm. Laser experiments with 0.5at. % Nd-doped Nd:LuVO4 crystals of various lengths and cutting directions were also investigated. The maximum output power of 930 mW was obtained with a slope efficiency of 27.2% and an optical conversion efficiency of 20.8% at the absorbed pump power of 4.5 W. The laser experiment shows that Nd:LuVO4 crystal can be used for an efficient diode-pumped laser system.
Optics Express, Vol. 14, Issue 9, pp. 3893-3905
We have studied the concentration dependent fluorescence decay kinetics of ceramic Nd:YAG, to resolve inconsistencies in the previous literature. Our data indicate that earlier reports of single exponential lifetimes even at Nd concentrations of a few percent were due to the effects of long-pulse excitation. Under short-pulse excitation the fluorescence decay is nonexponential for concentrations greater than about 1% atomic. Energy migration to sinks consisting of cross-relaxing Nd ions dominates at long times, whereas single-step energy transfer to randomly distributed quenching sites dominates at earlier times. The concentration dependence of this single-step transfer indicates direct cross-relaxation between individual ions at concentrations below 4% atomic, but resonant transfer to quenching sites consisting of Nd pairs at higher concentrations.