Laser spark plugs

[Henning]

For the next spark plug generation:

http://scienceblog.com/44560/laser-sparks-revolution-in-internal-combustion-engines/

Can’t find more information about it currently.

[mchargue]

Well, it’s nice to see that such a device is becoming available. I wonder how well it could be applied to enhance the spark-gap mediated current switches that are being used now.

If nothing else, it should make experimenting with the idea of a laser-based current switch easier to conduct.

Pat

[Henning]

Timing.

… lasers inject their energy within nanoseconds, compared with milliseconds for spark plugs.

That’s what makes it interesting for focus fusion.

I don’t know whether they’re strong enough to ionise the switch fill gas as required. But multiple shots possibly can add up (maybe not):

The laser is not strong enough to light the leanest fuel mixtures with a single pulse. By using several 800-picosecond-long pulses, however, they can inject enough energy to ignite the mixture completely.

[Brian H]

Since the point of the spark in the FoFu is to create an ionized path for the spark, not to ignite a burn, it should be easier for the laser, not harder. Heating isn’t relevant.

[mchargue]

From research that I’ve done, using a laser to initiate the closing of the switch is possible. The question before, I think, must have been if the effort to develop a laser-based gap switch could be justified in the face of the (mostly) functional spark-gap switches.

I think that with the advent of this technology, it becomes easier to justify the research needed to develop a better switch, and to get the advantages it seems to offer: more repeatability, better simultaneity between switches, the ability to tune the switches electronically, the ability to increase the gap to lessen pre-firing, and the chance to stop using SF6 as the switch gas.

I hope that the folks running the experiment are trying to get the inside word on these thing, test results from the researchers pursuing this technology, and some units in for testing.

Pat

[jamesr]

[merged post – admin]
The BBC has a news article today about progress in laser spark plug technology:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13160950

I know people have been working on this for a while such as this from a few years ago.

I wonder if this kind of ceramic laser technology could be used to trigger high power spark gap switches at the precision required.

[yempski]

I wonder if a laser sparkplug would be useful for generating the boron fuel

http://www.chem.hawaii.edu/Bil301/Kaiser Paper/p178.pdf

[vansig]

yempski wrote: I wonder if a laser sparkplug would be useful for generating the boron fuel

http://www.chem.hawaii.edu/Bil301/Kaiser Paper/p178.pdf

your link broke, here’s a fix
http://tinyurl.com/n2f3sve

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