gamma ray laser

Originally posted by NWguy83

Originally posted by ChemicalLaser
To build a gamma ray laser, you would first have to identify a material that:
a) absorbs gamma rays and doesn't break down
b) re-emits the gamma rays preferentially at a specific frequency in the gamma ray range.
c) has a large cross section for stimulated emission
d) the absorbed energy is not internally converted to visible light, infrared radiation, etc.
e) find a source of energy to pump said material

Do you know of a material that does any of a) - d) ?

Flubber

Exactly what i was thinkin

Xenopathic_Investigator has the right idea of using positronium.

The concept of a Gamma ray laser is not ridiculous at all. I am a graduate student working toward that goal at the University of California, Riverside. I study under the tutelage of Pro. Allen Mills in the physics department. We are employing a novel approach using a BEC of positronium and thus, the annihilation of positrons with electrons to produce the coherent source of gamma rays.

Achieving a BEC of positronium is very big news in the first place (and we are a few years away from that), but we plan to go further and develop the laser. There is no physical constraint to prevent us from doing this—except for funding...LOL. Its formal name is the Bose-Einstein Condensate Annihilation Gamma Ray Laser.

In theory, such a laser is easily scalable since it is dependant on the amount positronium condensate. Since ultra-high power lasers are possible with such a system, potential applications are military based but civilian applications are foreseeable; maybe a trigger for fusion.

[edit on 3-5-2006 by The Bad Physicist]

[edit on 3-5-2006 by The Bad Physicist]

Gamma rays do not in fact need a large amount of power to produce. I simple low power low level x-ray (dental x-rays) can stimulate an isotope of hafnium causing it to release 40X the power in gamma rays as was put into it with x-rays. (fission of hafnium).

how about using a graser for some advanced form of spacecraft propulsion?