![]() ![]() Those masers work only when cooled to less than ten degrees above absolute zero, and even then they are not nearly as powerful as lasers.īut Mark Oxborrow, a physicist at the UK National Physical Laboratory in Teddington, wondered whether a crystal containing the organic molecule pentacene might offer a breakthrough. It found only a few niche uses, such as boosting radio signals from distant spacecraft - including NASA's Curiosity Mars rover. Lasers are now used in applications ranging from eye surgery to CD players. They produced only a few nanowatts of power, severely limiting their usefulness.īecause of this impediment, most in the field gave up on masers and moved on to lasers, which use the same principles of physics, but work with optical light instead of microwaves. First conceived in the Soviet Union and the United States during the 1950s, early maser machines were the size of a chest of drawers. The work is published this week in Nature.īefore there were lasers, there were microwave lasers, or masers. ![]() The achievement comes nearly 60 years after the first clunky versions of such devices were built, and could revolutionize communication and space exploration. Making the Difference in Institutional Performance - Cairo - Egypt.Using spare chemicals, a laser bought on eBay and angst from a late-night argument, physicists have got the world's first room-temperature microwave laser working.
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