Phat photons and phat lasers

Pharis E. Williams

doi:10.1117/12.2021711

1 October 2013 Phat photons and phat lasers

Pharis E. Williams

Proceedings Volume 8832, The Nature of Light: What are Photons? V; 88320D (2013) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2021711
Event: SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications, 2013, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

The initial theoretical finding that eventually led to laser development was Einstein’s prediction, based upon statistical considerations, that the energy of quanta of light be given by Planck’s constant times the frequency of the light. A new theoretical development based upon Weyl’s gauge field theory predicts that photon energies are quantized with the energy given by N²hν. Such quantization of photon energy changes the character of the photon from the Einstein photon that does not have a quantum number. Photon energy that includes a quantum number means that for a given energy the frequency may have more than one value. Conversely, photons of a given frequency may be found that have more energy than the Einstein photon. Further, the phat photons, all at a given frequency will have energy proportional to the number of phat photons and N². For these phat photons the electric field strength, which causes breakdown in optical fibers or air, depends linearly on N. Thus, more energy may be transmitted using phat photons of higher quantum numbers than increasing the number of photons of lesser quantum numbers while still keeping the electric field below the breakdown level. Further, while the stimulated and spontaneous emission probabilities are proportional to 1/N² the Rayleigh scattering cross section diminishes by 1/N⁸. This reduction in the scattering cross section means that a laser emitting phat photons with N<1 will lose less energy traveling through the Earth’s atmosphere than lasers using N=1. This reduction in energy losses through the atmosphere means increased efficiency for Earth based beamed applications. This presentation discusses the fundamental theory, emission probabilities, and cross section calculations.

Citation Download Citation

Pharis E. Williams "Phat photons and phat lasers", Proc. SPIE 8832, The Nature of Light: What are Photons? V, 88320D (1 October 2013); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2021711

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KEYWORDS

Photons

Rayleigh scattering

Chemical species

Laser scattering

Electromagnetism

Scattering

Absorption

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