A French research team has used an experimental apparatus similar to that in a classic Frankeinstein movie to cause lightning created in a laboratory to strike a specific area repeatedly.
This phenomenon of electrical reorientation helps create a virtual lightning rod from ionized gas filaments, using femtosecond pulses of laser light. With laser-induced atmospheric filaments, an electrical discharge was deflected from its target and further directed to a less-attractive electrode. The application of laser-based lightning rods in research and security was demonstrated by this experiment.
According to Aurlien Houard, Ph.D., from the Laboratoire d'Optique Appliquée, the laser lightning rod can be effectively used instead of lightning rockets.
Conclusions from the earlier experiments showed that femtosecond laser is able to generate ultrashort filaments of ionized gas that operate similar to electrical guide wires. These filaments are capable of long distance performance, over 50 m.
The French researchers triggered a laser beam to move across a spherical electrode to reach a planar electrode that is oppositely charged. The outer electrons from the atoms existing along the laser’s path were deflected by the laser. A plasma filament is therefore created, through which an electrical discharge can pass from the planar electrode to the spherical electrode. The research team included further electrodes in the experiment, in order to observe the filament’s ability to redirect an electrical discharge from its regular path.
As lightning is directed towards the path of least resistance, it is expected to strike the nearest object, supposed to be the tallest object in nature. The discharge reached the pointed electrode, in the absence of lasers. Whereas, with lasers, the discharge was deflected, striking the spherical electrode.