I speculated that a lightning bolt might have enough energy to cause population inversion in the nitrogen in the atmosphere, and if the plasma path was straight enough, a mirrorless pulse-laser would be formed. Something like the "Blumlein" Nitrogen laser in the Scientific American Amatuer Science column in the 1970's If this can happen, then thunderstorms might occasionally spit out megawatt pulses of microsecond-long UV laser beams. But is this possible at one atmosphere and with oxygen impurities? -Bill Beaty Date: Thu, 17 Aug 1995 11:30:31 -0600 From: Kristian Ukkonen Reply to: usa-tesla@usa.net To: billb@mail.eskimo.com Subject: Re: Zot! > On Wed, 16 Aug 1995 EDHARRIS@MPS.OHIO-STATE.EDU wrote: > > > Interesting idea, Bill. But I made a N2 laser ala Blumlein and found that > > it didn't work with air - the oxygen must be causing some problem. It does work with N2 at pressures of 1atm and even higher - the technology is called TEA-lasers - Transversely Excited Atmospheric lasers. The problem with using plain air is that the electrodes corrode rather badly compared to using pure nitrogen.. In fact, it's enough to have a tube with the electrodes on the sides and pour some LN2 inside the tube every now and then.. There is no need for sealing the laser-"tube".. - this is the way how a friend of mine tested the basic ideas.. I'd guess that you didn't use enough energy to excite the air to superradiance.. Some of the more comples designs use a larger storage capasitor and peaking caps on the sides of the electrodes etc.. Thos who are interested in the subject will find the following interesting: Applied physics letters, vol 28, no 2, 15 jan 1976 Applied physics letters, vol 28, no 5, 1 march 1976 Applied Physics letters, vol 31, no 10, 15 nov 1977 IEEE journal of quantum electronics, vol qe-10, no 2, feb 1974 Applied physics letters 41(7), 1 oct 1982 I'd say that the last one is the most interesting for practical purposes. Yours, Kristian Ukkonen. ps. not that this would be of direct use to tesla-coiling.. :)