When light encounters a surface, a certain amount of it is absorbed, some may pass through the material, and the rest reflects. All of those functions are variable with wavelength- a material that is opaque to visible light may be transparent to other forms of radiation, like radio waves. This is actually where our perception of color comes from- it is the wavelengths of light that weren’t absorbed by and didn’t pass through the surface we’re looking at. (Sorry, I’m a nerd about this sort of stuff)
A laser is extremely concentrated light. Most materials can only absorb a certain amount of that energy. As such, a lot more of it reflects back off the opaque surfaces it encounters, even if they aren’t mirrors. For a strong enough laser, even that weakend reflection can do damage.
I’ll have to see if I can find where I read this to cite the source.
The National Ignition Facility is researching using insanely huge lasers to start a nuclear fusion reaction. They are currently the most powerful laser in the world.
Want to know what the second most powerful laser in the world is? The reflection of the NIF laser.
When light encounters a surface, a certain amount of it is absorbed, some may pass through the material, and the rest reflects. All of those functions are variable with wavelength- a material that is opaque to visible light may be transparent to other forms of radiation, like radio waves. This is actually where our perception of color comes from- it is the wavelengths of light that weren’t absorbed by and didn’t pass through the surface we’re looking at. (Sorry, I’m a nerd about this sort of stuff)
A laser is extremely concentrated light. Most materials can only absorb a certain amount of that energy. As such, a lot more of it reflects back off the opaque surfaces it encounters, even if they aren’t mirrors. For a strong enough laser, even that weakend reflection can do damage.
I’ll have to see if I can find where I read this to cite the source.
The National Ignition Facility is researching using insanely huge lasers to start a nuclear fusion reaction. They are currently the most powerful laser in the world.
Want to know what the second most powerful laser in the world is? The reflection of the NIF laser.