For convenience sake let’s say you have 2 identical lasers, one is blue and one is red. And you shine it on lead (so none of the light leaks through) until the lead doesn’t heat up anymore. Would the temperature change at all between the different color lasers. It doesn’t have to be red or blue, it could be microwave or x ray, just different colors is nessisary.
This question has lots of different answers depending on exactly what you want to know, I’ll ask it in a few different ways and provide answers to them
Does the color of a photon change its energy content?
Yes, color is the result of how energetic a photon is, red is low energy compared to blue, so a single blue photon contains more energy than a single red photon.
Does the color influence how much energy is transferred to an object?
Yes, the color of an object is the result of white light hitting it and it reflecting back that color. For example leaves are green because they reflect green light while absorbing most others. In a way the color of an object is the color that the object rejects. So if you have a blue object it will reflect the blue laser more than the red one, so the red laser will heat it more because it’s being absorbed.
Which color heats lead the most?
That is a very interesting question, to know this you need to look at the absorption spectrum of the material, i.e a graph showing you which wavelengths are more absorbed by the material, so if I’m reading correctly the spectral lines in the wiki page for lead https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead it seems a cyan/greenish laser would be most effective in heating it (or I might be reading it completely opposite and that is the least effective color for heating lead)
Does a blue laser produces more energy than a red laser?
It depends, lasers emit photons, and while a single blue photon contains more energy than a single red photon, thousands of red photons contain more energy than a single blue photon. So it depends on how many photons each laser emits, if it’s the same amount then yes blue lasers will output more energy, but that’s not a given. In fact while I’m not intimately familiar with the physics of lasers, if we asume a perfect energy conversion from electricity to photons if two lasers use the same energy input they should have the same energy output, which would mean less photons for the blue laser.
if we asume a perfect energy conversion from electricity to photons
That’s not really necessary. Lasers are usually rated by the output power already.
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doesn’t have to be red or blue, it could be microwave or x ray
Technically those wouldn’t be LASER (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation.) but MASER or XASER.
I’m probably the only asshole left that cares about this though.
Anyway, a maser or a xaser would create completely different responses on the material. There’s a good reason we use different names.
So where do you stand on infrared lasers? Light is already a junk term for the EM spectrum that we can see, otherwise holding no specific importance.
Oh I have a question! Do all frequencies on the EM spectrum emit photons? Like, when gamma rays or X rays or microwaves hit something are photons bouncing off/being absorbed and we just can’t see them?
All EM waves are photons.
When X or gamma ray photons interact with matter, e.g. by Compton scattering, i.e. hitting electrons of an atom. Thereby the photons loose discrete amounts of energy, leading to an increase of their wavelengths, and the electrons are then lifted on corresponding higher energy levels. When the electrons ‘fall’ back onto their base levels, additional photons are emitted.
Microwave photons, however, have to low energy for this kind of interaction. They e.g. induce vibrations and oscillations of molecules which is perceived as a temperature increase.
Ooh neat! Thank you, very well described for a layman such as myself
You’re welcome.
You’re telling me only visible light counts as light to lasers?
Red light will generally carry less energy than blue light, so if you want a red and blue laser with the same power output, you need more intensity on the red laser.
Also the colour affects how some materials absorb the energy. A material that is good at reflecting red light won’t heat up as quickly from a red laser, for example.
it could be microwave or x ray, just different colors is nessisary.
Colour just means different wave lenghts of light. So x-ray is a different “colour” from microwave.
The power needed to power the laser, if identical, is what determines the temperature here, not the color.
A thousand watt laser is going to make the lead melt while a 5 watt laser won’t.
Another limiting factor is how fast the lead/target material can dissipate the heat. A 10kg block of lead is going to stay a lot cooler than a 5 gram piece of lead.
The colour of the laser has no influence on the final temperature, at all.
The photons are just transferring energy from a to b. And whether they can do it fast or slow doesn’t really matter. Both blue and red photons are subject to the law of conservation of energy. The amount of energy you put in is the amount of energy you get out.
In reality there is probably a difference in how efficient a blue and red laser diode are, so there are losses. And if one is slower than the other, the target material is losing energy to the surrounding air. And that’s why you’ll get different temperatures.
In an ideal setting with exactly identical lasers, where the only difference is the colour, the end result is also exactly the same.
You misspelled color
Both “color” and “colour” are valid spellings.
cooler
Im in the privileged position where I can say that I was educated to pronounce and write in British English. And while I’m not a native speaker, I’m confident that my knowledge of the English language surpasses most of native speakers in the US, if not 99%. My spell checker is biased for us English.
Now if you excuse me I have to go back to my flat, with my lorry having chips and candy floss in the boot. Do you even elevator bro?
