Ultra-short duration pulse lasers

[GURPS Fox]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

Note though that that's not a statement of their great penetration. Hypervelocity kinetic weapons deliver a huge amount of energy but don't convert it to penetration well. They explosively crater on impact instead of being able to stab into the surface.

True enough... must have gotten some memories mixed up then. :\

If you look inside the link, it describes the relevant wavelengths as "vacuum ultraviolet, extreme ultraviolet, and soft x-ray"

From what I understand, for plasma sheaths, it's UV in general...

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

According to this, they actually can at the extreme end of the scale, because superheating the material apparently makes it become transparent to some radiation around the x-ray range.

Not sure where you're seeing that, it's not in the link. Hard X-rays and gamma rays can pass through limited amounts of defenses without making a hole, but that doesn't have anything to do with drilling mechanisms. The most relevant thing on that site is http://panoptesv.com/SciFi/LaserDeat...eFromLaser.php.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Not sure where you're seeing that, it's not in the link. Hard X-rays and gamma rays can pass through limited amounts of defenses without making a hole, but that doesn't have anything to do with drilling mechanisms. The most relevant thing on that site is http://panoptesv.com/SciFi/LaserDeat...eFromLaser.php.

It is in fact the whole subject of the specific page I linked:
"The light in the vacuum ultraviolet, extreme ultraviolet, and soft x-ray region of the spectrum has unique properties that render death rays that use pulses of these wavelength significantly different from the effects of near visible blasters.... They easily penetrate the energetic plasmas they create, allowing the beam to pass through and drill deeply."

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

They easily penetrate the energetic plasmas they create, allowing the beam to pass through and drill deeply."

That's talking about penetrating atmosphere, not penetrating armor. And in fact they still have to let the channel evacuate, plasma at the density of room temperature air will still block them pretty effectively (the difference is that plasma at 1% of the density of room temperature air will block visible light but won't be super effective against the shorter wave radiation).

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Anthony

That's talking about penetrating atmosphere, not penetrating armor. And in fact they still have to let the channel evacuate, plasma at the density of room temperature air will still block them pretty effectively (the difference is that plasma at 1% of the density of room temperature air will block visible light but won't be super effective against the shorter wave radiation).

No, it clearly isn't. The fact that it isn't is the entire point of that page and its reason for existence.

Here's the entire paragraph that the latter sentence I quoted is in:
"Air is transparent to the light of blasters, but the plasma the blaster pulse creates when incident upon condensed matter is opaque to their light. As a result, a thin layer of plasma absorbs all the light and then violently explodes. Ray beams have the opposite issue. They easily penetrate the energetic plasmas they create, allowing the beam to pass through and drill deeply. However, non-ionized matter of all kinds is essentially opaque to these radiations - including air. Consequently, the ray beam has to "burn" through air, ionizing it to a plasma state in order for the beam to penetrate."

"Pass through and drill deeply" is plainly talking about what happens at a surface, in contrast to the immediately preceding description of what happens to a 'blaster' at a surface.