Free Electron laser In The news Again

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Jccarlton
Posts: 1747
Joined: Thu Jun 28, 2007 6:14 pm
Location: Southern Ct

Free Electron laser In The news Again

Post by Jccarlton »

The navy's FEL program:
http://alfin2100.blogspot.com/2010/11/u ... laser.html

I worked on this 12 years ago or so. Incredible machine.

BenTC
Posts: 410
Joined: Tue Jun 09, 2009 4:54 am

Re: Free Electron laser In The news Again

Post by BenTC »

wot?! no politics?
In theory there is no difference between theory and practice, but in practice there is.

chrismb
Posts: 3161
Joined: Sat Dec 13, 2008 6:00 pm

Post by chrismb »

Isn't the problem with a charged particle weapon that once fired it'll loop around in the earth's mag field and you'll shoot yourself in the arse if you miss!?

krenshala
Posts: 914
Joined: Wed Jul 16, 2008 4:20 pm
Location: Austin, TX, NorAm, Sol III

Post by krenshala »

chrismb wrote:Isn't the problem with a charged particle weapon that once fired it'll loop around in the earth's mag field and you'll shoot yourself in the arse if you miss!?
Its not a particle beam, its a laser.
Wikipedia wrote:A free-electron laser, or FEL, is a laser that shares the same optical properties as conventional lasers such as emitting a beam consisting of coherent electromagnetic radiation which can reach high power, but which uses some very different operating principles to form the beam. Unlike gas, liquid, or solid-state lasers such as diode lasers, in which electrons are excited in bound atomic or molecular states, FELs use a relativistic electron beam as the lasing medium ...

happyjack27
Posts: 1439
Joined: Wed Jul 14, 2010 5:27 pm

Post by happyjack27 »

A free electron-laser! sign me up for that! oh wait, you mean a laser that shoots free electrons. darn it.

Jccarlton
Posts: 1747
Joined: Thu Jun 28, 2007 6:14 pm
Location: Southern Ct

Post by Jccarlton »

happyjack27 wrote:A free electron-laser! sign me up for that! oh wait, you mean a laser that shoots free electrons. darn it.
That's what I said when I got the call for the contract. Actually a FEL uses a high energy beam of electrons to create a lught source. After passing through the wiggler to bounce the electrons the bean is brought around 180 degrees out of phase to recover the energy and dumped. The machine itself is the size of a fairly large building. Said building has to be heavily shielded because running a high energy beam is a radiation source much higher than any reactor.

kcdodd
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Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2008 3:36 am
Location: Austin, TX

Post by kcdodd »

I thought a FEL was highly inefficient. Only used for generating stuff like x-ray laser beams etc that cannot be made through conventional lasing.
Carter

Jccarlton
Posts: 1747
Joined: Thu Jun 28, 2007 6:14 pm
Location: Southern Ct

Post by Jccarlton »

kcdodd wrote:I thought a FEL was highly inefficient. Only used for generating stuff like x-ray laser beams etc that cannot be made through conventional lasing.
I suspect if you only use a single beam path a FEL is inefficient, though if it would be less efficient than other kind of lasers is problematical because laser in general are not known for efficiency. With energy recovery the laser turned out to be even more efficient than we expected. which was a very nice surprise.

Stoney3K
Posts: 154
Joined: Sun Jun 28, 2009 9:24 pm

Post by Stoney3K »

Imagine one of these mounted on board of a ship powered by a Polywell.

If we only had photon torpedoes and a sticker marked 'ENTERPRISE', we'd be in the ballpark. :mrgreen:
Because we can.

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