Laser-induced fusion

Wiegand Steubing, R., Cheng, S., Wright, W. H., Numajiri, Y., and Bems, M. W. (1991) Laser induced cell fusion in combination with optical tweezers the laser cell fusion trap. Cytometry 12, 505-510. 

Besides these gas-breakdown phenomena, laser-induced plasmas on solid surfaces have attracted the interest of many physicists, since there may be a chance that nuclear fusion processes will be triggered by laser-produced high-temperature plasmas 293). We will discuss these plasmas and their practical importance for spectroscopy in Section III.9). 

Conventional routes to ceramics involve precipitation from solution, drying, size reduction by milling, and fusion. The availability of well-defined mono-dispersed particles in desired sizes is an essential requirement for the formation of advanced ceramics. The relationship between the density of ceramic materials and the sizes and packing of their parent particles has been examined theoretically and modeled experimentally [810]. Colloid and surface chemical methodologies have been developed for the reproducible formation of ceramic particles [809-812]. These methodologies have included (i) controlled precipitation from homogeneous solutions (ii) phase transformation (iii) evaporative deposition and decomposition and (iv) plasma- and laser-induced reactions. 

New fusion applications include the concept of production of intense negative ion beams ( ) (for neutral beam injection for heating and diagnostics in tokamaks or other magnetically confined plasmas (26, 28)) by using photodissociation to ion pairs (e.g. NaLi + hVyy Na + Li") in supersonic molecular beams. Another promising concept is the use of laser induced fluorescence to monitor very low tritium concentrations (as little as 10 Tj/cm ) under fusion reactor conditions (29). 

With respect to the operation of thermonuclear reactors, laser-induced fusion and heavy-ion-induced fusion are also discussed. In these concepts compression of T or D-T mixtures to high density and heating to high temperatures are achieved by irradiation with a laser beam of very high intensity or with a beam of high-energy heavy ions. 

Laser Induced Fusion and Fragmentation of Metal Nanoclusters... 

H. Fujiwara S. Yanagida P. V. Kamat, Visible laser induced Fusion and fragmentation of fhionicotin-amide capped gold nanopartides. J. Phys. Chem. B 1999, 103, 2589-2591. 

Yoon, S., Ban, E., and Yoo, Y. S., Direct monitoring of the expression of the green fluorescent protein-extracellular signal-regulated kinase 2 fusion protein in transfected cells using capillary electrophoresis with laser-induced fluorescence detection, J. Chromatogr. A, 976, 87-93, 2002. 

Chemical lasers will continue to have an inherent fascination because of what they reveal concerning the partitioning of energy in reaction products. The development of chemical lasers has had a crucial influence on fundamental research on reaction dynamics, energy transfer processes, and the gas dynamics of reacting flows. The intellectual climate and knowledge gained from advances in these areas has contributed much to related research in laser-induced chemistry, laser isotope separation, and laser-induced nuclear fusion. 

In the five years since the first volume was published, there has been increased interest in the chemistry within gas lasers and the chemistry induced by laser radiation, the kinetics and photochemistry within fusion and industrial plasmas, as well as in the normal and perturbed lower and upper atmosphere. And. since the Three Mile Island accident there has been renewed interest in radiation damage to living and nonliving things. This state of affairs has not only precipitated a variety of spectroscopic studies, but has also brought more attention to the nonspectroscopic aspects of excited state production and the interaction of excited species. The latter topic was stressed in the earlier volume and the emphasis is retained here. 

Lasers also have many research applications outside of chemistry. They can be modulated (turned on or off, or changed in frequency) in tens of femtoseconds, and this means that they can transmit many bits of information in a very short time. Intense laser beams can cut metal or human tissue with high precision. They can even generate high pressures (photons have momentum, so bouncing light off a surface exerts a pressure, just as bouncing gas molecules off a surface exerted pressure), and this is used to induce nuclear fusion. 

The weaker lasers are used in such systems as CD players and recorders and in communications and distance-measuring devices. The more-intense laser beams are used for welding and cutting of metals, cloth, skin, etc. and have even been examined as a means of inducing thermonuclear fusion reactions. 

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