Sounds useful for display purposes
NIST scientists create 'any wavelength' lasers
121–130 of 201 posts
Re: NIST scientists create 'any wavelength' lasers
#122> When it comes to information transfer and processing, light can do things that electricity can’t. Photons — particles of light — are far zippier than electrons at working their way through circuits. Electrons themselves don't move at the speed of light, but information transfer (i.e. communication) via electrons does happen close to the speed of light. A subtle, but important, distinction that's often misunderstood…
In electric circuits, information is transmitted through the electric field, which itself is close to the speed of light.
Nope, it's 1/2 - 2/3 the speed of light depending on the metals used.
Re: NIST scientists create 'any wavelength' lasers
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
* Concert lasers just got a lot cooler.
Concert tickets will still remain very hot though.
Even with the latest updates?
> Jury Finds Live Nation Acts as a Monopoly in a Victory for States In a verdict that could have far-reaching consequences in the music industry, the live colossus that includes Ticketmaster was found to have violated antitrust laws.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/15/arts/music/live-nation-an...
Re: NIST scientists create 'any wavelength' lasers
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is there there... The substance is they've created a way to fabricate a device that can make the optical frequencies they wish. That is useful: it means a designer isn't limited to frequencies that are economic to generate with existing techniques, which is a constraint that lasers currently struggle with: low cost, compact, efficient laser sources (the kind that fit on a chip, and are fabricated by cost effect…
I wonder if this could also work for (e)uv
I wondered this too - why are you being downvoted for asking?
All the difficulty to create that laser it seems fair enough to ask!
Re: NIST scientists create 'any wavelength' lasers
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
Visible light is a bit less than a petahertz, so no.
Would you care to explain how the NICT guys achieved 402Tb/s through a single (50km long!) fiber back in 2024 then? It seems like another factor of two would easily be in reach if they could extend their setup into the visible.
Fibers are not transparent enough in visible. I found about 10dB/km (to be compared with 0.2 dB/km around 1550nm) [0]. This means that after every km the light intensity is divided by 10, which is completely impractical for telecommunications.
[0] https://media.thorlabs.com/globalassets/family-pages/shareda...
Re: NIST scientists create 'any wavelength' lasers
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
Any day that I learn something new about color is a good day. Here's my favorite color factoid: There is no such thing as monochromatic pink. You have to make it by combining the two ends of the visible spectrum: somethung reddish and something violet-ish. So that means there is no pink in a rainbow, strictly speaking.
When I was young I was taught that pink is a light shade of red. But what kids these days call pink seems to me to be a bright magenta.
The word "pink" is derived from a name this flower had about 600 years ago:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/42/Dianthus...
So however you see that flower, that's the literal pink prototype.
Re: NIST scientists create 'any wavelength' lasers
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
Vinyls are sometimes preferred because people like white noise, same as tube amps. Granted some CDs are mastered like garbage, and that led to some bad press for awhile. But you can master a CD so that it sounds exactly, as in mathematically exactly, as a vinyl record, if so desired. It is also possible to make a digital amplifier that sounds exactly identical to vacuum tubes. Humans have well and mastered the art of…
I mean I've always thought the kinetic experience of vinyl was the point: my childhood memory is the excitement and anticipation of carefully putting the needle on the lead in and hearing the subtle pops and scratches that meant it was about to start. The whole physical enterprise has a narrative and anticipation to it.
> carefully putting the needle on the lead in and hearing the subtle pops and scratches
Re: NIST scientists create 'any wavelength' lasers
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
It reminds me of how vinyl records are fairly lossy, but they provide a superior experience in some cases because those limitations have been accounted for during the mastering process. It's an entire pipeline from photomultiplier to recording medium to the inverse process and everything is optimized not for any particular mathematical truth but for the subjective experience.
Most records these days use CDs as masters, sadly.
Are you referring to the loudness wars?
Re: NIST scientists create 'any wavelength' lasers
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
Any day that I learn something new about color is a good day. Here's my favorite color factoid: There is no such thing as monochromatic pink. You have to make it by combining the two ends of the visible spectrum: somethung reddish and something violet-ish. So that means there is no pink in a rainbow, strictly speaking.
This is conflating two kinds of pink. The pink made from combining ends of the spectrum is most commonly termed ‘hot pink.’ The other, very often just ‘pink,’ is predominantly a light red. A quick and sloppy way to describe this is a light grey with a raised red component. Also, you can make hot pink without needing to use spectral violet (the ‘end’ of the spectrum) since there are combinations of blue and red that a…
The other, very often just ‘pink,’ is predominantly a light red. A quick and sloppy way to describe this is a light grey with a raised red component.
While that’s true, it’s also still not monochromatic in the electromagnetic sense.
Re: NIST scientists create 'any wavelength' lasers
#130I'm excited for new displays where instead of RGB primaries that can only show a triangular subset of possible colours, we have dynamic primaries that can combine to show almost any colour.
I want all the colors! Give me the full spectral power distribution!
Promptly cooks in the microwave and infrared, and fries in X-ray and gamma radiation
Ahh true HDR