Re: HV + laser beams

To: tesla-at-poodle.pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: HV + laser beams
From: Tesla List <tesla-at-stic-dot-net>
Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 02:02:24 -0500
Approved: tesla-at-stic-dot-net

Subject:      Re: HV + laser beams
      Date:   Mon, 19 May 1997 19:52:29 -0800
      From:   Greg Leyh <lod-at-pacbell-dot-net>
        To:   Tesla List <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
References:   1

Tesla List wrote:

> >  Five MILLI-watts?! No one gets it here! Try 5 MegaWatts! Now were
> > talking!...
> 
> David, I don't think that uch power is required. I remember hearing
> back around 1973 that some students at MIT used a U.V. laser of a few
> watts (Nitrogen laser I think) to conduct the output of a small Tesla
> coil several hundred feet to an isolated terminal and draw several
> inches of spark from the isolated terminal to ground.

Several hundred feet?  I am skeptical, as the laser needs to have an
intensity sufficient to ionize the air along the entire light path.
A 100kW pulsed laser can ionize the air if focussed to a point, but
tens of megawatts are required in order to ionize an appreciable
linear path to the point of conduction.  Even though a 10MW pulsed
laser is relatively available (large table top, <1M$), I doubt that 
even 10MW pulsed could ionize more than a 10 foot path thru the air.

-GL