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Actually I've got few questions. I've seen an experiment in which a box with hole drilled in it, when viewed from Infrared camera, shows the radiation emitting from it.

Q1: So, is a Black Body an efficient way to convert visible spectra light to infrared light?

Q2: Also, can you create an IR laser from a Black Body?

Q3: Does all holes emit IR radiation? Like if I drill a hole in the wall, will it still emit IR light?

Q4: What happens if you paint the hole inside with the IR equivalent of Black ("IR Black" not our usual Black we see with regular visible light), will the hole emit less IR, the same or more IR?

Eyy boss
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2 Answers2

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First it helps to understand what a black-body is: a perfect black-body is a 'material' that absorbs all radiation that shines onto it and emits 'black-body radiation', which is a broad spectrum of radiation that peaks at a frequency related to the body's temperature. It is important to understand that a black-body isn't necessarily 'black. If the black body is relatively cool, less than a few hundred degrees C, it will emit mostly IR radiation. But a hot black-body (100 C and more) will have the peak in the visible spectrum, and a very hot black-body could have an emission peak in the UV, X-ray, or gamma-ray spectrum. In fact stars are actually pretty close to black-holes in their absorption/emission spectrum. But to answer your questions.

Q1) A box, painted internally with black paint and/or with lots of internal baffles is a pretty good black-hole radiator. If you shine visible light in through the hole (including laser light if you wish) then most of the light will be absorbed in the box and a reasonable approximation to black-body radiation will be emitted through the hole. But in practice, you don't need to shine anything in. The box will emit light in a frequency range related to its interior temperature, so you can keep it warm by sitting it on a stove, blowing hot air on it, or wrapping it in cuddly rabbits.

Q2) The most important qualities of lasers are that they emit light that is coherent, collimated and monochromatic. So, all the waves at the same phase, all moving in the same direction, and all at the same frequency. Black-body radiation is the exact opposite of this: phases all mixed up, light emitted in all directions, and a very broad spectrum. So a black-body isn't and cannot act like a laser.

Q3) All materials emit light. Whether they emit IR or other frequencies depends (mostly) on their temperature. The only benefit of a hole or cavity, is that light that shines in will most likely be absorbed after multiple internal reflections, so won't bounce straight out at the same frequency. So a shallow hole with a reflective interior will not be at all like a black-body.

Q4) Ignoring the question of what an IR black is, if you paint the inside of a hole with a paint that absorbs most/all of the incoming radiation it will probably be a better black-body than a hole that you leave unpainted. But in the real world, paints and other materials also have emission spectra - by which their thermal radiation differs from that of a perfect black-body radiator. So if you chose the wrong paint you could make things worse. Actually, if you had a perfectly absorbing paint (black at all frequencies), then you don't need a hole at all - just paint a spot of it on a wall and that spot becomes very close to a black-body radiator.

Penguino
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  • Q2) If you add different optics & stuff, is it still impossible to create a laser from it? You use the black-body as a source of IR-radiation, then you do "optic stuff" to it to synchronize the wavelengths & whatnot, could that be possible? – Sebastian Norr May 25 '20 at 10:25
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    @Sebastian I don't think that is possible. Optics just doesn't work that way. You can't collimate uncollimated light, or do any practical frequency-shifting on broad spectrum light, or 'cohere' a mixed phase light beam. If your only radiation source was black-body radiation (whether in the IR, visible, UV or other frequency range) and you really wanted to produce laser light from it, then the only practical option would be to do something like 1) shine the b-b radiation on a photoreceptor (or boiler plus generator) to produce electricity, b) feed the electricity into a laser to produce light. – Penguino May 25 '20 at 21:05
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Q1. No. What is inside the hole needs to have a uniform temperature. It is an engineering question how to do this but visible light is not a good choice. Q2. Never say never but no. Better: CO2 laser, fiber laser. Q3. If at the right temperature, yes. Note that the black body spectrum is quite broad so in principle any temperature will do. Q4. If the hole already was a perfect black body than it already had a perfect nonreflective coating.

my2cts
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