Lasers scan future possibilities激光扫描将来的可能性

 

 

激光器已经有每日生活带来深刻影响我们，但潜在的技术才刚刚被挖掘，科学家相信。

Sunday marks the 50th anniversary of the first demonstration of a ruby laser at the Hughes

Research Labs in the US.星期天马克休斯在研究实验室的一首示范红宝石激光器在美国50周年。

The light beams have since found myriad uses, from scanning shop prices to trying to sense

the ripples in space-time made by colliding black holes.光束自发现无数的使用从扫描商店价格

，试图在空间感由黑洞碰撞时所作的涟漪。

Researchers say the coming decades will see even more remarkable progress.研究人员说，未来

几十年将会更加显着进展。

"The laser gave a capability over previous light sources that was just so immense that you

simply can't digest and exhaust all that in the matter of a few decades," said David Hanna,

emeritus professor at the Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton, UK.

“激光了比前这仅仅是如此巨大，你根本无法消化，排气中的几十年内所有光源的能力，”大卫汉纳说

，名誉在光电研究中心，南安普敦大学教授英国。

"People have to use their imagination about what amazing and crazy things can be done with

all that capability," he told BBC News. “人们使用他们的是什么了不起的，疯狂的事情可以做所

有的想象能力，”他告诉英国广播公司新闻。

There is debate over which key technological step made the laser possible, but Theodore

Maiman's success in stimulating a ruby rod to produce an intense narrow beam of light by

shining a flash lamp on it was an undoubted landmark.有争论哪些关键步骤作出的激光技术可能，

but西奥多梅曼的红宝石在刺激一杆出示由一对闪闪发光它强烈闪光灯一小光柱成就是不容置疑的里程碑

。

There had been a race to demonstrate "light amplification by stimulated emission of

radiation" (Laser), and Maiman beat everyone to it on 16 May, 1960.曾有一场比赛，以展示“受

激辐射光放大”（镭射），以及梅曼击败60年5月16日大家给它。

At the time, the technology was said to be the classic "solution looking for a problem",

but its ability to direct a powerful stream of energy from one location to another soon

opened up a world of possibilities.当时，该技术被认为是经典的“解的问题”看，但它能够直接从

一个位置强大的能量流，很快打开了另一个世界的可能性。

Anyone who scans a tin of beans at the checkout is using a laser.谁在任何扫描结帐的豆田使用

的是激光。 Anyone who listens to music on a CD is using a laser to read data stored on a

disc.任何人谁听音乐CD上使用的是激光读取光盘存储的数据。 Anyone who sends an e-mail is

reliant on the lasers that drive the world's fibre optic communications networks.任何人谁发

送电子邮件的激光驱动世界的光纤网络，光纤通信的依赖。 Anyone who gets into a car is sitting

in a box that owes its construction to lasers.任何人到一个谁坐在车中得到一个框，欠其建设激

光器。

"There is a phenomenal amount of laser processing on a car; you wouldn't believe how much -

laser cutting, marking, measurement, drilling, hardening, laser brazing, laser deposition,

and laser welding," explained Tim Holt, the chief executive of the Institute of Photonics,

University of Strathclyde. “有一个激光加工在汽车惊人的数额，你也不会相信多少 - 激光切割，

打标，测量，钻探，硬化，激光焊接，激光沉积，激光焊接，解释说：”蒂姆霍尔特，行政长官在光子

学研究所，东英吉利大学。

"Modern cars today would not be possible without lasers." “现代汽车今天不会没有激光器可能

的。”

THEODORE MAIMAN'S LASER西奥多梅曼的激光

(1) A powerful lamp is wrapped around a ruby rod, depositing energy in the form of

undirected light of many colours, or wavelengths 强大的灯是缠在红宝石棒，存放在无向许

多颜色，形式的能量或波长的光
(2) Atoms in the rod absorb and store energy from the light 在杆原子吸收并储存来自光能
(3) Reflecting mirrors then allow a small amount of light to bounce back and forth in the

rod, collecting some of the atoms' stored energy on each pass 反射镜的光，然后允许少量

反弹的杆来回，通过收集每个原子的'能量储存一些
(4) Some of the light escapes through one of the mirrors; it is a directed, intense beam of

synchronised light waves of a specific colour 光逃离一些通过镜子之一，它是一个导演，对

一个特定的颜色强烈的光束同步光波 

The worldwide market in lasers is worth some $5-7bn annually.在全球激光市场价值约5美元，每

年70亿美元。 Most of that value is in lasers sold to manufacturing outlets for use in

material processing, but the two other key markets are lasers for use in communications

systems and in data storage.该值中的大多数是生产销售激光在材料加工利用渠道，但另外两个主要

市场是在使用激光通信系统和数据存储。

But as much as lasers have infiltrated our everyday world, there is still much more they

could do, scientists believe.但高达激光器已渗透我们的日常生活世界，还有更多的事情可做，科学

家相信。

There is hope lasers could provide us with a near-limitless supply of clean power.有希望激

光器可以提供一个清洁电力近无限供应我们。

Laser cutters deliver a lot of energy to a very specific spot激光切割机提供了大量的精力，以

非常具体的位置 
In the US, the National Ignition Facility will soon train 192 giant laser beams on a tiny

pellet of hydrogen fuel in an attempt to fuse the element to make helium, and so release a

colossal amount of energy - much like the Sun does at its core.在美国，国家点火设施将很快列

车192个大型的激光束对氢燃料的一个微小的颗粒在试图融合的元素，氦等释放出巨大的能量金额 - 像

太阳那样为核心的多。

In Europe, researchers want to take this approach forward in a project known as HiPER that

would be the prototype power station of the future.在欧洲，研究人员希望，以推行为HiPER这将

是未来的一个名为原型电站项目这种做法。

"It's possible to use lasers to crush and heat material to temperatures that are 10 times

hotter than at the centre of the Sun," says Dr Kate Lancaster from the UK's Central Laser

Facility in Didcot. “这是可以使用激光粉碎和热物质的温度为10倍于太阳中心更热，”兰开斯特博

士说凯特来自英国中央激光设备在迪德科特。

"A standard laser pointer is about a milliwatt; we'll be approaching a petawatt - 10

million million times more powerful than a standard lightbulb. “一个标准的激光指针约1毫瓦

，我们将接近1 petawatt - 10万元倍多，比标准灯泡。

"Fusion would be immensely efficient but it's extremely hard to do. Ever since Maiman

demonstrated his laser, however, people have realised that this technique should be

possible." “融合将极大地有效率，但它是非常困难的事情。自从梅曼证明他的激光，但是，人们已经

意识到这种技术应该是可能的。”

In astronomy, lasers are already used to sharpen the images of the world's very best

telescopes.在天文学，激光已用于提高世界的最好的望远镜的图像。 By projecting a "reference

star" on the sky, scientists can work out how to correct their observations for the

distortions introduced by atmospheric turbulence.通过投影一个“参考星的天空”，科学家可以了

解如何通过正确的大气湍流引起的反常行为的意见。

Fibre lasers allow far more data to be transferred much faster光纤激光器允许更多的数据被转

移到速度更快 
But lasers are also pioneering a completely new form of astronomy, one that attempts to

probe the Universe without the need to detect light.但激光也开拓一个全新的天文学的新形式，

一种尝试，探索，而不需要检测光的宇宙。 These laser interferometers would measure the

disturbances in the very fabric of space-time generated every time massive stars imploded.

这些激光干涉仪测量将在空间，时间非常织物的骚乱每次大质量恒星产生内爆。

Such gravitational waves are extremely weak, however, and only lasers have the precision to

measure their passing.这种引力波非常微弱，但是，只有激光具有精确测量其通过。 If the

technique works, it should be possible to see remnant gravitational radiation from the very

moment of creation itself.如果这项技术可行，应该可以看到来自创作本身非常时刻的残余引力辐射

。

And in medicine, too, the possibilities seem boundless.而在医药，也似乎无限的可能性。

Lasers can be used to manipulate atoms and molecules, "to unfold proteins and tickle DNA",

says Dr Lancaster.激光可以被用来操纵原子和分子“，以开展蛋白质和DNA的痒”，兰开斯特博士说。

"Lasers can accelerate particles to high energy and we can use that to treat cancer," she

adds. “激光能加速高能量粒子，我们可以用它来治疗癌症，”她补充道。

"At the moment, with the way we treat cancer with radiation, photons travel into the body

and they deposit energy in healthy tissue as well as at the cancer site. “目前，我们的方式

与放射治疗癌症，光子旅行到他们的身体和健康的组织中沉积能量，以及在癌症的网站。

"Whereas when protons and ions travel into the body, they will deposit most of their energy

only at the very end of their range. So we can use lasers to tune protons to deposit their

energy just within the tumour site." “而当质子和离子进入人体旅行，他们将自己的大部分精力存

款只是在他们的范围到底。因此，我们可以使用激光来调整质子存款只在肿瘤部位的能量。”

The world's biggest telescopes use lasers to sharpen their images世界上最大的望远镜使用激光

来提高他们的形象 
As lasers have got ever more powerful, their pulse rate has also pushed new boundaries.由于

激光具有了更加强大，他们的脉搏，也促使新境界。

We already have lasers that trace time at the femtosecond level - a thousandth of a

millionth of a millionth of a second.我们已经有了激光器在飞秒级跟踪的时间 - 以一个100万的百

万分之一秒的千分之一。 Researchers now are also working on attosecond lasers, which count

time in divisions of a millionth of a millionth of a millionth of a second.现在，研究人员还

正在就阿秒激光，这种激光计数一个一个第二个100万100万100万部的时间。

Working at these scales, it is possible to see how matter works, to record for example the

moment chemical reactions occur.在这些尺度的工作，就可以看到问题的工程，以创纪录的时刻，例

如发生化学反应。

"On the femtosecond timescale, the atoms in a molecule will vibrate. So that is the

relevant timescale for taking a detailed look at what is going on - as it happens - in a

molecule," Professor Hanna told BBC News. “在飞秒时间尺度，在一个分子中的原子会震动。所以

这是采取什么会详细研究有关的时间表 - 因为它发生在一个分子 - ”汉纳教授告诉英国广播公司新闻

。

Divide that tiny time by 10 - a reduction of an "order of magnitude", as it is known -

three times over, and science can now speak of what happens in attoseconds.除以10个微小的时

间 - 以一个数量级“，”订单减少，因为它是已知的 - 3倍，现在可以说，科学在attoseconds发生什

么。 This, Professor Hanna explained, is the timescale of processes inside the very atoms

that make up molecules.这汉纳教授解释说，里面的进程构成分子的原子很时间表。

"Every time we pick up an extra order of magnitude - and there are many more to be got - we

need to go back to the drawing board and think 'what on Earth do we do with that?'." “每一

次我们选择了一个数量级额外秩序 - 和有更多的是得到了 - 我们需要回到绘图板，以为'地球上做什么

我们做呢？'。”