
PX!
2008-04-13 10:50:43 |
PANDAFACT!!!!!
Laser Light is Highly Monochromatic
Light from the sun, or a light bulb, is generally seen as "white", and contains many wavelengths of light (seen as different colors when white light is put through a prism). Laser light, on the other hand, is generally monochromatic, meaning that it contains one specific wavelength of light. This wavelength of light can be seen as one single, intense color (red, blue, green, or yellow, etc., depending on the laser) or invisible (ultraviolet or infrared). Lasers can, and do, produce more than one color, but these colors are discrete individual wavelengths of light, as opposed to the broad spectrum of sunlight or fluorescent light.
Laser Light is Highly Coherent
Laser light wavelengths can be thought of as "organized". The photons of laser light all "move in step" with one another. Light from a light bulb, for instance, has wavelengths that are not nearly as organized, with most photons' waves traveling chaotically and interfering with one another. It's the coherent, organized property of laser light that makes it capable of delivering a high amount of energy in a small beam. In the case of visible lasers, this makes the laser beam very bright and intense.
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