Re: Laser and tesla coil (fwd)

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2007 19:17:32 -0600
From: Gomez Addams <gomezaddams@xxxxxxxxx>
To: Tesla list <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Laser and tesla coil (fwd)


On Aug 10, 2007, at 4:05 PM, Tesla list wrote:

>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 00:21:10 +0300
> From: Tomas Stankevic <Tomas.Stankevic@xxxxxxxx>
> To: Tesla list <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: Laser and tesla coil
>
> Hi, I heard somewhere, that if you point a laser beam on the toroid,
> lightning will exactly follow the beam because laser slightly ionizes
> the air what makes it more conductive for sparks. Of course simple  
> He-Ne
> or semiconductor laser is not enough-higher power is needed. Did  
> anyone
> tried?

If you do a bit of research on the web, you will find that the peak  
power
required for this trick is beyond the reach of most amateur  
experimenters.
And it's not just the power, it's the wavelength.  Try a few  
megawatts of
UV.  :) (not as hard as it sounds, but tabletop N2 lasers which can  
easily
generate MW peak power in <1nS pulse widths don't do it, so that should
give you an idea how hard it is.

I am pretty sure that _no_ CW laser will do it, period, full stop,  
not even
the COIL or MIRACL machines.

  - G.

..............................................................
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