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Laser or LASER, an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation and in Russian it sounds completely different: light amplification through stimulated emission.

Laser shows can damage your cameras

Everyone has a desire to take out their mobile phone at a concert and film everything. But be careful, because you risk damaging your phone. Similar videos can be found on the Internet, but the result is always the same. This is because the concentrated light interacting with the camera sensor simply instantly burns it. Let's take a moment to mourn the loss of all those cameras that were lost in concert.

Laser tag was developed by the military

Needless to say, laser tag is a great way to relax with friends or celebrate a birthday. This is fun! And this great way gain the necessary experience in shooting at the vital organs of the enemy. That's because in the 1970s, the US military developed laser tag as a means of training its troops. Original title“games” was the Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System, or MILES for short, but a more advanced version is now in use.

Sci-fi weapons already exist

Previously, when we heard the words laser beam, we imagined shiny guns shooting colored beams, as it looked in science fiction. In 2015, DARPA (the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) announced that they were on the verge of developing laser weapons of unprecedented power. Known as “HELLADS,” the weapon is a laser missile defense system for aircraft various classes. However, these death rays won't be visible and they definitely won't go pew-pew. Perhaps that moment when real fighting will look like in science fiction films just around the corner. Although I don’t really want to see this.

Laser can reach unimaginable temperatures

Scientists at Imperial College London recently proposed a method in which materials could be heated to 15 million degrees Celsius using a laser. This is hotter than the center of the Sun! This development will help scientists reproduce the energy produced by the sun and the emergence of a cleaner method of energy production. On the other hand, it is also possible to use lasers to cool materials, as has been proven by researchers at the University of Washington.

Lasers have many uses

The previous points may suggest otherwise, but in fact, lasers are used for more than just destroying things. Yes, you yourself probably already remembered a couple of ways to use them. For example, for creating engravings or printing, for vision correction or hair removal. But the newest application is “lidar” - light detection and ranging - a technology for obtaining and processing information about distant objects using active optical systems. This system brings invaluable benefits to builders and geologists, much more than all previous ones.

It is difficult nowadays to find a person who has never heard the word "laser", however, very few clearly understand what it is.

Half a century since the invention of lasers different types found application in a wide range of areas, from medicine to digital technology. So what is a laser, what is its principle of operation, and what is it for?

What is a laser?

The possibility of the existence of lasers was predicted by Albert Einstein, who back in 1917 published a paper talking about the possibility of electrons emitting light quanta of a certain length. This phenomenon was called stimulated emission, but for a long time it was considered unrealizable from a technical point of view.

However, with the development of technical and technological capabilities, the creation of a laser became a matter of time. In 1954, Soviet scientists N. Basov and A. Prokhorov received Nobel Prize for the creation of the maser, the first microwave generator powered by ammonia. And in 1960, the American T. Maiman produced the first quantum generator of optical beams, which he called a laser (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation). The device converts energy into narrow-directional optical radiation, i.e. light beam, a stream of light quanta (photons) of high concentration.

Laser operating principle

The phenomenon on which the operation of a laser is based is called forced, or induced, radiation of the medium. Atoms of a certain substance can emit photons under the influence of other photons, and the energy of the acting photon must be equal to the difference between the energy levels of the atom before and after the radiation.

The emitted photon is coherent with the one that caused the radiation, i.e. exactly like the first photon. As a result, the weak flow of light in the medium is amplified, and not chaotically, but in one given direction. A beam of stimulated radiation is formed, which is called a laser.

Laser classification

As the nature and properties of lasers were studied, various types of these rays were discovered. Depending on the state of the initial substance, lasers can be:

gas;
liquid;
solid state;
on free electrons.

Currently, several methods have been developed for producing a laser beam:

using an electric glow or arc discharge in a gaseous environment - gas discharge;
using the expansion of hot gas and the creation of population inversions - gas-dynamic;
by passing current through a semiconductor with excitation of the medium - diode or injection;
by optical pumping of the medium with a flash lamp, LED, other laser, etc.;
by electron beam pumping of the medium;
nuclear pumping when radiation comes from a nuclear reactor;
with the help of special chemical reactions– chemical lasers.

All of them have their own characteristics and differences, thanks to which they are used in various fields industry.

Practical use of lasers

Today lasers different types used in dozens of industries, medicine, IT technologies and other fields of activity. With their help, the following is carried out:

cutting and welding of metals, plastics, and other materials;
applying images, inscriptions and marking the surface of products;
drilling ultra-thin holes, precision machining of semiconductor crystal parts;
formation of product coatings by spraying, surfacing, surface alloying, etc.;
transmission of information packets using fiberglass;
performing surgical operations and other therapeutic interventions;
cosmetic procedures for skin rejuvenation, removal of defective formations, etc.;
targeting various types weapons, from small arms to missiles;
creation and use of holographic methods;
application in various research works;
measurement of distances, coordinates, density of working media, flow speed and many other parameters;
launching chemical reactions to carry out various technological processes.

There are many more areas in which lasers are already used or will find application in the very near future.

Now, it seems, more than ever, the world needs ray weapons. I wonder why lasers are not yet used as such weapons. I think that the successful use of beam weapons in the films "Flash Gordon", " star Wars" And " Star Trek" should have been more than enough to justify its use instead of pesky gunpowder or nuclear weapons. But why is it still not used? How can I solve this problem? Should we be afraid of laser pointers?

Without a doubt, lasers are the biggest disappointment of our time.

Of course, we use them in communications, entertainment, medicine, scientific measurements, etc. But what we really would want are laser weapons. Why are some things from science fiction such as pocket communicators, pocket computers have already become a reality, while laser weapons are still not.

Although we are still waiting for transporters to appear, the appearance of lasers in our lives seemed so close. After all, even the technology has already been created. From programs such as Star Wars in the Age of Reagan, we know about the Pentagon's testing of laser-killing ballistic missiles. But, unfortunately, the best we could create were Blu-Ray players. It would be the same if, instead of reinventing the wheel, they continued to produce toys.

Let's speculate a little. First, let's evaluate Current state laser technology, and then we will conduct small tests with the laser.

To begin with, let us note the following fact.

During a test conducted by the Pentagon in 2010, a laser mounted on an aircraft successfully destroyed a ballistic missile. The impressive achievement perfectly illustrated the real problem with the laser: it would take a Boeing 747 to get a laser weapon into the air. In a test in 2011, the Navy was able to use a laser to set a small motorboat mounted on an 8,000-ton destroyer on fire.

Even small laser weapons are not so small in size. The US Department of Defense is testing a rifle-sized "PHaSR" device that uses a laser to temporarily blind the bad guys. (Permanent blinding is prohibited by the Geneva Convention). The prototype photo shows a guy lifting what appears to be a bison-sized water pistol. If "It" is called portable, then it is a "portable" bag of cement.

Of course, you guessed the power of this device. The laser has great range and accuracy, but it causes significant damage that has serious consequences. Military research into handheld lasers has largely focused on non-lethal weapons that quickly blind or burn. How likely are such devices to persuade the recalcitrant? We decided to take a laser and find out.

Most laser pointers are Class IIIA, meaning they emit between 1 and 5 milliwatts, and are only dangerous if you look directly into the beam. Class IIIB lasers are often used by astronomers and are installed on some aircraft. Their power can exceed the previous class by 100 times and pose a potential hazard to vision. The next step is a Class IV laser, which is at least 200 times more powerful than laser pointers. It was this type of laser that my friends got for research - a one-watt blue laser that looks like a light saber. Preliminary conclusion: Lasers will not replace water cannons and tear gas as a method of riot control anytime soon. Let's see if they can refute this.

The "researchers" first created a target designed to mimic human flesh, namely a pork chop and several strips of bacon, heated to room temperature. Then, wearing safety glasses, they began firing at them from different distances. Monitoring the affected areas with an infrared thermometer proved problematic, so instead they calculated how long the meat took to cook by shining a second red laser beam on the sparkling smoke particles.

The bacon took much longer to heat than the pork, and the pork took a lot of it—it took 27 seconds of continuous exposure per foot (30.48 cm) and 35 seconds for 32 feet to produce smoke. Hoping for more impressive results, the researchers substituted meat. It took 11 seconds to heat it with a laser - one foot, and 15 seconds - 32 feet.

I admit that there was more entertainment in the study than practical benefit. On the one hand, the likelihood of this laser actually changing someone's thinking (other than through intimidation) is virtually zero. The cooking temperature is undoubtedly above the pain threshold; but the fact remains that no bad guy will sit still while you try to fry him. We're guessing you'll need at least a 100-watt laser and its batteries to get results fast enough to be effective.

Overall, the immediate prospects for pocket laser weapons are not very impressive. Despite decades of ongoing hype about lethal laser beams, the real prospects for this technology remain dismal.

Today Various types Lasers are used in many branches of science, technology, manufacturing and medicine. Even in Everyday life We are increasingly seeing these electronic devices. However, just some 50-60 years ago, few people knew about the laser, and the device itself, in fact, did not yet exist - there were only isolated developments in this area and the inexhaustible enthusiasm of some scientists. It was these scientists from Russia, the USA and other countries who actually stood at the origins of the history of the laser, which will be discussed in this article.

But before the advent of the first functioning laser, there was still enough long story various discoveries and inventions, which subsequently formed the basis for the invention of this device. And so, first things first.

In 1900 one of the most talented minds on our planet, the German scientist Max Planck, discovers an elementary portion of energy - a quantum and theoretically describes the relationship between quantum energy and frequency electromagnetic radiation, which caused its appearance. After 8 years in 1918 He receives the Nobel Prize for his discovery. By the way, around the same time, another outstanding scientist Albert Einstein discovered the smallest elementary particle of light - the photon and proved the theory of discreteness of light.

In 1917 Einstein formulates the theory of “Stimulated Emission,” which describes the possibility of creating conditions under which electrons simultaneously emit light of the same wavelength. That is, in fact, he described the theoretical possibility of creating some kind of controlled electromagnetic emitter, later called a laser.

Only 34 years later, Einstein's idea began to turn from theory into reality. In 1951 Columbia University professor Charles Townes decides to use the theory of “stimulated emission” to create a real operating device. In 1954 He and his like-minded people Herbert Zeiger and James Gordon put their idea into practice by presenting to the public the world's first actually working laser. True, back then it was called a “maser.” The device generated a very thin beam of light at a frequency of 100 Hz with a power of 10 nW. Of course, by today's standards this is not much, but then it was a real breakthrough in optoelectronics.

One year later in 1955 Soviet scientists Alexander Prokhorov and Nikolai Basov from the Institute of Physics of the CCCP Academy of Sciences are improving the maser design by changing the method of pumping electrons. In 1964 In the same year, together with Townes, they received the Nobel Prize for their discoveries. In 1956 American scientist Nicholas Blumbergen from Harvard University is developing a solid-state maser. Before that, there were only gas ones.

As for the name itself, for the first time the term “laser” is mentioned in its scientific works Columbia University graduate and fellow scientific research Charles Townes - Gordon Goode. It happened in 1957. Why this change? The fact is that the first masers did not operate in the optical range and were invisible to the human eye. Townes developed the design of an optical light-generating device, and Good introduced the concept of “laser” and notarized the right of the first person to describe the operating principle of this device.

In 1960, American physicist Theodore Mainman creates the world's first laser that operates on a crystal. gemstone- ruby. Later, this type of lasers began to be called “ruby” and they were the most widespread for quite a long time. A little later in the same year, in November, IBM introduced its solid-state laser using 4-level pump technology.

First commercial use laser happened in 1961. At that time, there were already several companies on the market developing and producing similar optical devices. In 1962 Ruby laser was used for the first time. It was used to weld seams on the body of a wristwatch.

The first semiconductor laser was created in 1962 at General Electric. Its developer was engineer Nick Holonyak. Nowadays, lasers of this type are widely used in consumer electronics: CD players and DVD players.

This is the story!

Every day laser tag is gaining more and more fans. Today it is a high-tech game that takes place in real time and space. Usually a special arena is equipped for it, various scenarios, sound and visual effects are developed. Participants use special safe weapons (taggers), which simulate laser shots using a built-in LED light.

The history of laser tag began quite a long time ago, and there are many interesting facts in it:

In 2017, the game will celebrate its 40th anniversary. The development of the laser shooter began with the military MILES system, which was used by the American army to simulate combat operations when training soldiers. For realism, the personnel used original uniforms and weapons. In this case, hits were recorded by an electronic system and did not require the use of ammunition. The first gaming laser tag system, Photon, was created by George Carter in 1977. Today this system is no longer produced, but it still remains the most expensive in the world (the cost of a franchise for one arena reached $1,200,000).
When launching the Photon system, the slogan “Sport of the 21st Century” was used. Laser tag was initially conceived not as a children's game, entertainment for adults or copying of army systems, but as a sport of a new generation. Today, it displays all the features inherent in extreme species. To win in battle you need teamwork, strategy, impeccable laser combat technique. Each player must demonstrate instant reaction, high physical endurance and excellent preparation.
The first seller of laser tag gaming equipment was South Bend Toys, which released a set of pistols on store shelves in 1979. The set was called Star Trek Phasers and consisted of two simple taggers equipped with sensors.
The grand opening of the world's first laser tag arena took place in March 1984 in Dallas. The place for the game was created by the company of George Carter, whose services were highly appreciated by the laser tag association. After this, the game began its triumphant march across all states, and soon spread beyond the United States.
The term “laser tag” began to be used by the Worlds of Wonder company in 1986. Initially, the name of the game was written with “z” (lazer tag), and then they began to use “s” (laser tag) in the word. The toy manufacturer came up with this name for a set that included two taggers, a holster, a special bandage with a damage sensor and a belt. Later the words began to be used to refer to all systems operating on the Photon principle.
The game Q-Zar, which appeared in 1987, won the greatest popularity and “love of earthlings.” Despite the fact that the creators of this scenario went bankrupt 10 years later, many people around the world still consider its name synonymous with the word “laser tag”. By the way, the adherents of this game produced modified weapons for Q-Zar until 2005.
The very first laser tag arena in the CIS was opened in Minsk in 1995.
The oldest arena for this game in Russia is a special site in mall"Roll Hall". Its opening took place in 2005.
Russia has its own own systems laser tag. The first was created by developers from Novosibirsk in 2001.
The first official laser tag tournaments began to be held in Europe in 2006. Today, competitions are held all over the world and have different statuses: from corporate or school to official.