Thread: Laser Energy - BEC

I have become quite interested in the BEC theory, which raises a vast amount of questions.

While studying it, I noticed something. While it costs $50,000 to do originally, surely that technology will be able to be reproduced on the market eventually (I mean a long time, perhaps after we've retired). If that is possible, surely there's another alternative power source.

Considering shining a laser at the right frequency at an atom will cool it (slowing it down), and the energy will be converted to light, surely eventually they will have a laser power station, where they near supercool atoms on a large scale, converting the energy wherever necessary.

Reason I ask this is, surely an energy source that has no inputs or outputs is where the future will head at some point. Remember all those sci-fi's that talk of absorbing ambient energy, surely this is it?

Trouble is, I'm not very good in this field, is there enough energy in a particle like that to collect any sizable amounts of light energy (considering you'd be cooling it by 200 C)? Is my following novice calculation wrong?

shc(air)=1KJ/kg

energy=shc(air)*200C*1kg

energy=200000 per kg of air used.

What is the best material to absorb energy from though? Nitrogen? I am aware that you couldn't do it with (most of) air, it was an example.

If you don't know what BEC is, it's Bose-Einstein Condensate (state of matter). The questions around it aren't even specifically related. They're just the methods used to create it.

Originally Posted by Lawrence

Considering shining a laser at the right frequency at an atom will cool it (slowing it down), and the energy will be converted to light, surely eventually they will have a laser power station, where they near supercool atoms on a large scale, converting the energy wherever necessary.

This would violate the laws of thermodynamics and is almost certainly impossible. If it were possible, we would have things like ships that powered themselves by taking on sea water, extracting the thermal energy, and then dumping the resulting ice cubes off the back of the ship. You are basically trying to get work from a single heat reservoir, which can't be done.