Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I hope I word this right...
Ok so I have been doing some reading in Tesla coils and lasers.
I was wondering if the light produced from the discharge(electricity?) of a Tesla coil could be used instead of the flash tube around a laser crystal.
thanks

Mstegrim,

Thank you for your question and welcome to the forum. In theory, the short answer to your question is yes, provided the frequency of light produced by the arc is of higher frequency than the coherent single frequency of the laser light to be produced. In early developments of the laser, around 1962 (I'm not sure of the exact date) the flash tube used to create a pulse beam laser was replaced by an arc lamp to create the first continuous beam. Arc lamps create light by jumping electricity across a gap between two carbon filaments vaporising the carbon and ionizing the air. A tesla coil does much the same just between copper coils. Carbon in the arc lamp was used because it created a much brighter light than between plain metal so there might be some efficiency issues with a tesla coil.