Laser white or red

[jairtj]

I would prefer a plasma

It could be plasma, but would be red.

[CaptFlowers]

I’m unsure what you mean by that, but plasma can be practically any color. For example, here is a list of various chemicals and the color their plasma glows:
CF4: blue
SF6: white blue
SiF4: light blue
SiCl4: light blue
Cl2: whitish green
CCl4: whitish green
H2: pink
O2: pale yellow
N2: red to yellow
Br2: reddish
He: red to violet
Ne: brick red
Ar: dark red

[jairtj]

I’m unsure what you mean by that, but plasma can be practically any color. For example, here is a list of various chemicals and the color their plasma glows:CF4: blue SF6: white blue SiF4: light blue SiCl4: light blue Cl2: whitish green CCl4: whitish green H2: pink O2: pale yellow N2: red to yellow Br2: reddish He: red to violet Ne: brick red Ar: dark red

Very cool. You prefer what color?

[CaptFlowers]

I like blue or green personally. Red is too often used for “lasers”, which is ironic because red indicates lower temperature/energy level…

[Arkenbrien]

Violet!

Purpleness FTW!

[DarkZeak]

Perhaps add in a lot of colours for energy weapons and allow the addition of players changing the colour at shipyards?

I always tend to change colours often for energy weapons.

[jairtj]

Perhaps add in a lot of colours for energy weapons and allow the addition of players changing the colour at shipyards?

It would be nice.

[Kichae]

I wanted to mention that a white laser is physically impossible because it is comprised of all visible wavelengths. The problem with this is that there is no optical lens that can bend all wavelengths the same way. Instead, you would end up with a rainbow effect at the end because some wavelengths are being bent by the lens more than others.

That really depends on how you want to define “white”, how picky you want to be about said definition, and over what distance you care about it actually remaining white.

But yeah.

[drzerg]

There could be a weapon that acts like a laser but is actually plasma gun. for example Bolo Hellbore fires their rounds consisted of actual thermonuclear explosion at 0.7 C or something like that. so that is perfect candidate for beam weapon.

[frag971]

Well, you could do a beamed plasma blaster - you project a laser beam and then shoot plasma along it. The advantage is much faster “projectile” velocity.

[cybercritic]

Space lasers should obviously be black, but that’s probably physically impossible with our current tech/understanding…

[Kichae]

Space lasers should obviously be black, but that’s probably physically impossible with our current tech/understanding…

Well, they shouldn’t be visible unless you’re getting shot in the eye with one, if that’s what you mean, but they certainly wouldn’t be black.

[Naiba]

Was that a joke, Critic?

*It’d be cool to see the proper lasers show up only in the atmosphere, and get shown on the hud while in space.

[cybercritic]

It was a sarcastic joke with some truth in it. I don’t see a reason for weapon fire to be visible in space, you are just giving information away to the enemy unnecessarily and since space is ‘black’ what better color for a laser than black. However it’s impossible to make a black laser (as in reflecting as black when scattering) in the visible spectrum, black is essentially an absence of energy across the spectrum.

[CaptFlowers]

I wanted to mention that a white laser is physically impossible because it is comprised of all visible wavelengths. The problem with this is that there is no optical lens that can bend all wavelengths the same way. Instead, you would end up with a rainbow effect at the end because some wavelengths are being bent by the lens more than others.

I take it back, turns out I was completely wrong in this case. [Nerd Alert, science incoming] There is actually something called a Laser Frequency Comb that uses white lasers with very specific distances between frequencies that can be used to determine the exact wavelength of other lasers of a single frequency. These white lasers are passed through a highly non-linear dispersion fiber in order to broaden the spectrum to include wavelengths even outside of the visible spectrum. While the laser doesn’t really necessarily leave optical fibers throughout the process of manipulating the laser (as far as I know), it is technically a white laser. Here is a link in case there are actually other hardcore physics nerds like myself that want to read more on this: Laser Frequency Comb Information

[CaptFlowers]

Well, you could do a beamed plasma blaster - you project a laser beam and then shoot plasma along it. The advantage is much faster “projectile” velocity.

You just blew my mind… This is actually a thing!!! I never knew about this! It seems that a high energy laser can give just enough energy into air to cause ionization, which can then act as a conductor, allowing high voltage to be sent ACROSS A LASER BEAM! Some forms of it literally look like something out of a science fiction film. I don’t think this is quite what you were thinking, but it is really cool nonetheless. However, this effect unfortunately requires a gas to be present in between the weapon and the target, otherwise no plasma can form in order to transmit the charge. Here is a link to a good article about it for the curious: http://phys.org/news/2014-08-laser-lightning-rods-channel-electricity.html