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Re: Laser Heresy



At 21:13 12/22/97 -0800, Bill Beaty wrote:


LASERS EMIT COHERENT LIGHT, BUT NOT BECAUSE THE ATOMS EMIT
IN-PHASE LIGHT WAVES

Even fairly advanced textbooks fail to give the real reason why laser
light is coherent. It is true that the fluorescing atoms in a laser all
emit light that is in phase with the waves already travelling between the
mirrors. ... After a few
thousand mirror bounces, all the different waves which started out from
different parts of the laser tube have added and subtracted to form a
single wave. ...

Here's a quick shot across the bows, to get your attention.

This treatment ignores the various possibilities of
spatial and temporal coherence.

Regards
brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net>
Altus OK