http://blog.gordaen.com/2006/11/01/light-sources/ Ramblings about art, education, culture and a lot more Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:48:22 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://blog.gordaen.com/2006/11/01/light-sources/comment-page-1/#comment-2058 How Do Lasers Work? at Gordaen’s Blog Thu, 28 Dec 2006 17:15:35 +0000 http://blog.gordaen.com/2006/11/01/light-sources/#comment-2058 [...] How is a laser different from a light bulb? Photons (light energy) are released when an electron goes from a higher level orbit to a lower level orbit. That’s why heating something up causes it to change color; some of that heat is being released as light energy. I did a post about different types of lights and explained how they work in a fairly nontechnical manner. Essentially, they all work by exciting electrons, which go up in orbit and then release a photon when they drop in orbit. The difference is that “normal” lights do this pretty randomly, but lasers are more organized (amazing how much more you can accomplish if you are organized, isn’t it?). [...] [...] How is a laser different from a light bulb? Photons (light energy) are released when an electron goes from a higher level orbit to a lower level orbit. That’s why heating something up causes it to change color; some of that heat is being released as light energy. I did a post about different types of lights and explained how they work in a fairly nontechnical manner. Essentially, they all work by exciting electrons, which go up in orbit and then release a photon when they drop in orbit. The difference is that “normal” lights do this pretty randomly, but lasers are more organized (amazing how much more you can accomplish if you are organized, isn’t it?). [...]

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