video: Cartoon showing mid-infrared laser pulse breaking down ambient air exposed to a radioactive source. The backscattered portion of the pulse confirms the presence of the source. This material relates to a paper that appeared in the March 22nd, 2019, issue of Science Advances, published by AAAS. The paper, by R.M. Schwartz at University of Maryland, College Park, MD, and colleagues was titled, "Remote detection of radioactive material using mid-IR laser-driven electron avalanche." view more
Credit: [Credit: Intense Laser Matter Interactions Laboratory, University of Maryland]