Published: April 04, 2012
The Thompson group, with theory help from the Holland group, recently demonstrated a superradiant laser that escapes the “echo chamber” problem that limits the best lasers. To understand this problem, imagine an opera singer practicing in an echo chamber. The singer hears his own voice echo from the walls of the room. He constantly adjusts his pitch to match that of his echo from some time before. But, if the walls of the room vibrate, then the singer’s echo will be shifted in pitch after bouncing off of the walls. As a result, if the singer initially started singing an A, he may eventually end up singing a B flat, or a G sharp, or any other random note — spoiling a perfectly good night at the opera.
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