Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! TYPICAL LASER Components of a typical laser: 1. Gain medium 2. Laser pumping energy 3. High reflector 4. Output coupler 5. Laser beam A laser consists of a gain medium, a mechanism to energize it, and something to provide optical feedback. The gain medium is a material with properties that allow it to amplify light by way of stimulated emission. Light of a specific wavelength that passes through the gain medium is amplified (increases in power). For the gain medium to amplify light, it needs to be supplied with energy in a process called pumping. The energy is typically supplied as an electric current or as light at a different wavelength. Pump light may be provided by a flash lamp or by another laser. The most common type of laser uses feedback from an optical cavity—a pair of mirrors on either end of the gain medium. Light bounces back and forth between the mirrors, passing through the gain medium and being amplified each time. Typically one of the two mirrors, the output coupler, is partially transparent. Some of the light escapes through this mirror. Depending on the design of the cavity (whether the mirrors are flat or curved), the light coming out of the laser may spread out or form a narrow beam. In analogy to electronic oscillators, this device is sometimes called a laser oscillator. Most practical lasers contain additional elements that affect properties of the emitted light, such as the polarization, wavelength, and shape of the beam. Simply solar panels can transform solar energy into electricity so then a laser device can transmit this electric energy as electromagnetic radiation from one place to another. But I have an idea ...! If the sun is a flash lamp/pump light to the gain medium of typical lasers then what do you think about it ? And gain medium can get enough intensity of solar radiation near the sun. So without solar panels, can it transmit enough energy to a planet ?
i want to tell you that you should explore the " tether " experiment of sts-75--and not the alien aspect, but what the mission statement stated.
If your goal is to take sunlight and transform it into electromagnetic radiation to send somewhere else - how about a mirror?
Actually I thought about the goal because A planet that is so far from sun can't get enough solar energy so mirror can't do perfect and it(mirror) has to have big size....is it ?
The mirror would indeed have to be huge. But huge mirrors are much cheaper and simpler than huge lasers.
Thanks a lot. You are correct. I was trying to edit my post but you replied again. Yes, from near the sun, mirror can reflect high intensity of solar energy !
Domestic mirrors are not perfect mirrors as they absorb a significant portion of the light which falls on them. Dielectric mirrors are glass or other substrates on which one or more layers of dielectric material are deposited, to form an optical coating. A very complex dielectric mirror can reflect up to 99.999% of the light incident upon it, for a narrow range of wavelengths and angles. A simpler mirror may reflect 99.9% of the light, but may cover a broader range of wavelengths. Almost any dielectric material can act as a perfect mirror through total internal reflection. This effect only occurs at shallow angles, however, and only for light inside the material. The effect happens when light goes from a medium with a higher index of refraction to one with a lower value (like air).
