Chapter 204 Red Light (3k)

It was a toy laser pointer, the simplest kind, without even a distance-finding function.

In my previous life, I saw someone using this kind of laser pen as a cat toy on the Internet.

In the future, even children on the street basically know about lasers, but its principle was proposed relatively early. As early as 1917, Einstein proposed the concept of stimulated radiation of light. The result of this stimulated radiation is laser.

But this is often the case with physics; many theories may move faster than practice.

It was not until 1958 that the principle of stimulated emission of light was fully perfected.

In 1960, scientists at the Hughes Aircraft Company of the United States created a ruby ​​laser and officially announced its success in July.

That’s right, this thing was not made by any university, military, or research institute, but by Hughes Aircraft Company, which is the prototype of the movie “The Aviator” starring Leonardo DiCaprio: Howard Hughes’ company.

my country started laser research very early. In November 1961, one year after the birth of the first ruby ​​laser, my country's first ruby ​​laser was born. By 11, my country's helium-neon laser, neodymium-doped glass laser, and gallium arsenide laser were all developed. In 1963, my country successfully developed a carbon dioxide laser.

This is also the reason why Gao Zhendong did not turn his attention to lasers at the beginning. We developed this thing very quickly, and there was no need to waste time waiting for the big guys to study it and then use it.

An interesting fact is that the laser rangefinder is one of the few new technical equipment on the second-generation tanks that has not caused any problems. This shows how early my country started laser technology and how mature the technology is.

Although he had considered not doing it, now that he had the opportunity, Gao Zhendong thought about it for a long time and decided to give us the honor of the world's first laser, since we had already paid the patent fee a long time ago.

This will be of great benefit both for expanding our technological influence in the world and for Gao Zhendong himself.

As the saying goes, if you don't take what God gives you, you will suffer for it. Now that the system has given it to me, it seems not good not to accept it.

What Gao Zhendong extracted was a not particularly large cylindrical box with a base. At one end of the box, there was an optical window, and the laser should have been emitted from here.

Gao Zhendong did not bother to read the rest of the manual carefully. He just read the operating instructions carefully, then hurriedly took the laser to the south room, connected the laser to the power supply, and turned off all the lights.

As soon as Gao Zhendong turned on the switch, a beam of red light shot out from the optical window of the laser.

This is the world's first laser beam!
At this time, Citigroup's laser should not be able to emit lasers yet. The span from February to July is too long. It is impossible for them to develop it in February and then announce it in July.

Gao Zhendong stared at the red light intently, feeling a little excited. If other things were not considered the first time in the world, then this thing was truly at the forefront of the world.

Laser ranging, laser guidance, laser scanning, laser communication, laser processing, laser killing, and even laser confinement nuclear fusion.

You've been thinking too much. That's not what you should be thinking about right now. Gao Zhendong, who was almost drooling, shook his head and forced himself to stop thinking.

In terms of originality, transistor computers are only a sub-field of computers, and are not the first from a world perspective. Things like materials are too specific and there is no meaning of being the first.

But lasers are different. It was predicted by Einstein but has not yet been confirmed. Just thinking about it is very interesting.

Laser is only the engineering implementation of various laser research theories, not theoretical research. However, the inventor of the first laser in the United States was nominated for the Nobel Prize. Although he did not win the prize, it already shows the importance of this invention.

It is now February, and there are still many months before the day when the Citigroup laser successfully shines.

And he already had a laser that could emit light normally.

More than three months! It’s still enough time, even for explaining the source and doing some cover-up work.

Looking at the red light, Gao Zhendong was stunned for a long time before he turned around, turned off the power of the laser, turned on the light in the south room, and took the laser's instruction manual to read it carefully.

It was similar to what Gao Zhendong guessed when he saw the color of the laser beam. This was a ruby ​​laser with a very simple structure. The laser rod was made of aluminum oxide doped with chromium.

Aluminum oxide is the main component of ruby ​​and sapphire, so it is called ruby ​​laser, just like diamond is composed of carbon and the main component of crystal is silicon dioxide. Putting aside those artificially added properties, many gems are not worth much money.

The trouble with lasers is the principles, which can only be studied and written into a language by theoretical experts.

As for the laser itself, a laser that can emit light is actually not complicated.

Gao Zhendong even remembered that he had seen a past issue of a youth science magazine in his previous life. There was an article in the magazine that taught junior high school students how to make a laser by themselves. One of the most important parts used to discharge and excite the gas to emit laser was a screwdriver. The reason for using a screwdriver was that it was more convenient to adjust the discharge gap. It was also specially noted: a flat-blade screwdriver is preferred, as a cross-blade screwdriver is easier to roll.

Yes, the popular science magazines at that time were so hardcore. And the first ruby ​​solid laser of the Citigroup man also looked very simple. The core was a ruby ​​cylinder as a laser rod, and a spiral lamp tube outside, which was used as an optical pump.

Simply put, a solid-state laser is a laser material (laser rod) that is irradiated with light pump to excite the laser material to emit laser light.

Unlike many lasers in the future, which generally have a focusing cavity outside the optical pump and laser rod, the Citigroup laser does not have a focusing cavity or can emit lasers without a focusing cavity because the spirally wound optical pump plays a role similar to a focusing cavity.

The laser in Gao Zhendong's hand is also a ruby ​​laser, but its structure is different. The structure of this laser is also very simple, using a silver-plated focusing cavity, the cross-section of which is an ellipse, and the ruby ​​laser rod and the optical pump are located at the two foci of this ellipse.

This ensures that the excitation light emitted from the optical pump at one focus can be completely reflected to the laser rod located at another focus.

One of the two end faces of the laser rod has a total reflection mirror, which ensures that the light emitted from this end can be reflected back to the laser rod.

Some lasers have a semi-reflective or partially reflective lens at the light-emitting end, but the one Gao Zhendong has does not have it. Perhaps it is to save some technology. It’s just a prototype, so it’s fine as long as it can be used.

As for the common cooling system of lasers, the high EQ said that it uses gas cooling, and the low EQ said that it relies on air flow to dissipate heat. Is it an active cooling system? No, there is no filter system either. For prototype lasers, there are not so many requirements.

Since a ruby ​​is used as the laser rod, this should be a pulsed laser like the one used by the Citigroup man.

Although the light appears to be continuous, it is actually a laser emitted by rapid flash excitation. Ruby laser has good energy storage and high output power, with a peak power of tens of MW, but the pulse width is only tens of nanoseconds.

Since it is a pulse laser, it is perfect for measuring distance.

However, ruby ​​laser has poor monochromaticity, but this problem is not a problem at all for Gao Zhendong. What I want is laser, not monochromatic laser.

Monochromaticity is not something we need to consider now. If the monochromaticity is poor, does it mean that we cannot measure distance? If the monochromaticity is poor, it can still be used for guidance.

In general, this laser is based on the same principle and type as the one that Citigroup used a few months later, but the details are different.

This is even better. If they were too similar to Gao Zhendong, it would be hard to explain.

Gao Zhendong happily put away the instruction manual, turned off the lights, and started playing with the laser like a child.

This thing is quite small and can be easily waved around like a laser pointer.

The only thing missing is a cat, otherwise it would be fun to play with the cat, Gao Zhendong thought with a hint of regret.

Outside Gao Zhendong's house, a figure with a slight limp walked into the front yard.

When I looked up, I saw red spots of light flickering on the window of Gao Zhendong's south room. There was nothing I could do. No matter how weak the laser was, it was still a laser. When it hit the thick and airtight curtain, it could still reveal some clues on the other side.

There is no need to guess who this figure is, it’s Liu Haizhong.

He saw the mysterious light spots flickering on the window of Gao Zhendong's house, his face lit up with joy, and he wanted to go over and hide under the wall. He was very familiar with that place, and I'm not bragging, he could find the most comfortable sitting position as soon as he sat down.

But after limping for only two steps, Liu Haizhong touched his legs and stopped.

He almost slapped himself twice, "Liu Haizhong, ah Liu Haizhong, you can move that big Buddha now? You forgot your two legs, right?"

He turned his head and looked at Gao Zhendong's window hatefully. One day, when I become an official, I'll see how I'll make it up to you!

Don't be fooled. Oh, sorry, I came to the wrong channel.

Anyway, Liu Haizhong turned around and walked towards home with a bit of hatred. When he reached the middle courtyard, he angrily spat on the ground, "Bah!"

Gao Zhendong, who had had enough fun, put away the laser and thought about what to do next.

In fact, the laser is ready-made, he just needs some explanation, and everything else is easy to explain. You can take it to a factory to make it, or even buy the materials and process it yourself.

After all, what he wanted was just proof of the laser trial-production process, proving that he had indeed spent the effort to trial-produce each component of the laser. However, the products of these processes were actually of no use at all, and the finished product would definitely be made directly from the extracted laser in his hand.

(End of this chapter)