Neon bleeding issue with lasers

[Josiah]

Hi, is it possible to solve the neon bleeding issue with lasers, if continuously pumped more neon in, or if you used a material which wasn't glass?

 

[berkeman]

Thread is in Moderation for review by the Mentors.

 

[berkeman]

Hi, is it possible to solve the neon bleeding issue with lasers, if continuously pumped more neon in, or if you used a material which wasn't glass?

You are confused about the term "bleed" that was used in your previous thread. It does not mean that the HeNe gas is leaking out of the laser gas container; it means that the HeNe gas is reabsorbing some of the laser energy. So pumping more gas into the laser cavity is irrelevant.

It is great that you are so interested in STEM subjects, especially LASERs. Please do more research and reading to better understand how they work and what their limitations are. The Wikipedia article is a good introduction, with lots of references for further reading.

As you were told in your previous thread, trying to restart a locked thread is not allowed here. If you want to ask more laser questions, please send me DM beforehand so I can vet your request. Thank you.

From your first thread:

Take the Helium Neon laser as an example. A current is applied across the gas mixture at a voltage over 1000V. That discharge excites the Helium atoms which in turn excite electrons in the Neon from their ground state to a higher state. The readiness of these electrons to fall back to their ground state and emit a photon in the process is what builds up the laser beam. But the laser beam itself is able to pull those same electrons into the higher state. Once the laser beam is of sufficient intensity, the Neon will bleed almost as much from the laser as it delivers. The "almost" is because there will be other energy loses that the laser system will be "powering".

if you could eliminate the bleeding of the neon, and stop other energy losses, would you create an infinately strong laser?

When you ask to eliminate the bleeding from the neon and other energy losses, you're not only setting aside any Engineering obstacles, you're also setting aside the characteristics of the neon. The same electron energy gap that makes He-Ne laser light red also makes the neon able to absorb that same red.

 

[berkeman]

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