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Re: Coil ideas for experiments
Actually, you'll need 10^12 W/cm^2. I talked to one of the optics profs today.
We worked out a nice plan:
Pulsed (CO2, I think) laser at 10mJ per pulse, 10ns Pulses, at 10 pulses per
second. Focus the beam down to a spot size of 10um, and you have your
10^12W/cm^2.
The down side is that this is still a pretty huge laser requring some
interesting optics to handle the high power. Also remember that m ost lasers
are less than 10% efficient: put in 1kW, and you'll get at most 100W laser
(continuous). I'm not certian how much power input would be needed for this
device, however.
The prof did say that one could use a prism, or accousto-optic modulation to
make figures that the arc could/would follow. I must admit, it would be pretty
sweet to see a TC spit out streamers that trace out a square, circle, or my
name :-)
I still feel that using a laser this large in a non-laboratory environment
could
have some serious safety problems.
Mark
Tesla List wrote:
> Original Poster: "Jim Lux" <jimlux-at-jpl.nasa.gov>
>
> Not enough power. You need a lot more power to ionize air. Several kW, at
> a minimum
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tesla List <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
> To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
> Date: Wednesday, April 12, 2000 4:37 AM
> Subject: Re: Coil ideas for experiments
>
> >Original Poster: Fucian-at-aol-dot-com
> >
> >Hey all,
> >
> >I know a good laser to use for the ionization--use a c02 laser.they can be
> >built by a amatuer with a fair amount of money unless you can scroung.they
> >will burn through metal so they are obviousely strong
> enough.www.amazing1-dot-com
> >has plans claiming one can be built for 100.00 and that a highschool kid
> >built one for 50.00.
> >
> >matt
> >
> >
> >