I’ve been digging lately, looking for the next thing to wow my photon brain… there’s been some LED developments and some other manufacturing-based tech dev that has been cool, but when you see something that peaks your curiosity, you’ve often got to go way back to the starting line and stretch.
Here’s some mind stretch for the photonics world — How Lasers Actually Work:
This article is from one of my favorite blogs, Hackaday. It’s in your face.
And that is a big-ass Carbon Dioxide laser lasing and igniting a target. Boom.
You know what blows my mind about lasers? It’s just light.
This plywood is being cut by light.
This metal pipe and stuff? Light.
Allllll light.
This is also all light:
Awesome.
Some companies and websites to check out:
X-Laser, who makes pretty bad ass laser packages for our industry
Pangolin, they make some interesting laser control software/hardware
Showlasers, a Dallas company that does some pretty amazing stuff
Edmund Optics, just get on their catalog list, they have the coolest freaking optics catalogs
Schaum’s Guide to Optics, probably one of the best optics books I’ve read
Real Genius, with Val Kilmer, one of the best nerd movies of all time, about lasers
