What a Whopper

摘要

The basic design of a laser sandwiches a gain medium between two mirrors. As the light bounces between the mirrors, the intensity of the electromagnetic field builds up within the cavity and spills out from one of the mirrors.rnLaser instrument size can vary greatly, from the tiny semiconductor devices in DVD and CD players, to the tabletop-confined systems used in spectroscopy and other laboratory applications. Then there are the football field-sized instruments used to probe high-energy light/matter interactions in attempts to harness the class of fusion energy released by the Sun.