Scientists use peacock feathers to make frickin’ laser beams

Mind-Blowing Discovery: Peacocks Have Lasers In Their Tails

Sharks with frickin' lasers are tired news. Peacocks, apparently, are where it's truly at. Famous for their dazzling iridescence, peacock feathers are known to contain nanostructures that scatter light in ways that make their plumage shimmer in hues of blue and green. Applying a special dye to multiple areas on a peacock's tail, researchers from Florida Polytechnic University and Youngstown State University in the US went on the hunt for structu…

Scientists use peacock feathers to make frickin’ laser beams

The feathers can emit two frequencies of laser light from multiple regions across their colored eyespots.

Peacock Feathers Can Be Lasers

sciencehabit shares a report from Science.org: Peacocks have a secret hidden in their brightly colored tail feathers: tiny reflective structures that can amplify light into a laser beam. After dyeing the feathers and energizing them with an external light source, researchers discovered they emitted narrow beams of yellow-green laser light. They say the study, published this month in Scientific Reports, offers the first example of a laser cavity …