I have a question about Neon and lasers

[Teln3t]

Okay so here's the phenomena that I've wondered about for the past week.

I have a 400mv green laser. Very powerful...shines pretty damn far (you might have seen some like it on youtube or the like).

But here's the story:

I have a neon poster in my room. The other night I got bored and was shining my laser around the room...through the ice cubes in my glass...through bottles lying around...

However, when I shown the light upon my neon poster which has colors orange, green, yellow, and pink; I noticed something. Whenever I shinned my laser on the pink-colored neon, it changes to a vibrant orange! I can't explain it for the life of me, but for some reason the green laser was completely unaffected by any other colors (meaning it still retained its green color, un-affected). Yet, the pink drastically changed the color of the laser to a vibrant orange.

I'm no physics major, but I'm working on a masters in Biochemistry and my PhD works in cognitive neuroscience. I figured that it might have something to do with the electrons of Ne trying to shake off the excess energy and thus changing the wavelength. Though, what doesn't make sense is that it wasn't affected by any other colors...


If anybody can explain this phenomena, please!

 

[NobodySpecial]

The green color of the laser can't be changed into anything else by reflecting off stuff - it only contains green light
But the flurescent tube works by electrically exciting the gas inside so it emits high energy photons, these hit atoms coated on the inside of the glass which emit light in the visible.
You can only (in simple cases) get out a lower energy (ie redder) photon because the process isn't perfectly efficient.
Your green laser isn't as high energy as the shorter uv photons normally produced by the hot gas so you can only excite the longer (red-orange) emissions in the coating

 

[Teln3t]

The green color of the laser can't be changed into anything else by reflecting off stuff - it only contains green light
But the flurescent tube works by electrically exciting the gas inside so it emits high energy photons, these hit atoms coated on the inside of the glass which emit light in the visible.
You can only (in simple cases) get out a lower energy (ie redder) photon because the process isn't perfectly efficient.
Your green laser isn't as high energy as the shorter uv photons normally produced by the hot gas so you can only excite the longer (red-orange) emissions in the coating

THANK YOU! I knew it had to do with something related to quantum photon emission

 

[DaveC426913]

So, let me see if I understand the general case.

I have a dayglo-coloured poster of a rainbow, and a range of lasers, red, green, blue.

I shine the red laser on the poster and I will see fluoresence only on the red band of the rainbow.
I shine the green laser on the poster and I will see fluoresence on the red, orange yellow and green bands.
I shine the blue laser on the poster and I will see fluoresence on the red, orange yellow and green and blue bands.

Yes?

Why would the OP's green laser not cause fluoresence on the yellow part of his poster?

 

[Drakkith]

Perhaps the pink area absorbed green light better than the other spots did? Just throwing out a guess.

 

[turbo]

Perhaps the pink area absorbed green light better than the other spots did? Just throwing out a guess.

There is no way for us to know which compounds were used to make the various colored pigments, so trying to figure out how a laser could stimulate luminescence is a shot in the dark. That said, it is unlikely that a monochromatic beam could look like a different color due to absorption/reflection.

 

[Drakkith]

There is no way for us to know which compounds were used to make the various colored pigments, so trying to figure out how a laser could stimulate luminescence is a shot in the dark. That said, it is unlikely that a monochromatic beam could look like a different color due to absorption/reflection.

I meant that if the pink absorbs the laser more effectively, maybe it would stimulate it more and result in more luminescence? Could it emit enough light to cause your eye to see the reflected green light and the emitted light combined to be Orange?