Constant width laser beam possible?

Celinamg8

Celinamg8

Answered question

2022-09-26

Constant width laser beam possible?

Answer & Explanation

Madden Huber

Madden Huber

Beginner2022-09-27Added 12 answers

You can’t have a perfectly parallel beam. There are two equivalent ways to see this.
The uncertainty principle: the photons making up the beam have to have some spread (uncertainty) in their transverse momentum because they’re confined in position to a certain beam width.
Diffraction: by creating a beam of a certain width, you must have a certain amount of diffraction that causes the beam to diverge.
Fundamentally, these are the same. They come from the wave nature of light.

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