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U of MI Produces Strongest Laser Ever

eldavojohn writes "Weighing in at a mere 20 billion trillion watts per square centimeter and containing a measly 300 terawatts of power, the University of Michigan has broken a record with a 1.3-micron speck wide laser. It's about two orders of magnitude higher than any other laser in the world and can perform for 30 femtoseconds once every ten seconds — some of the researchers speculate it is the most powerful laser in the universe. 'If you could hold a giant magnifying glass in space and focus all the sunlight shining toward Earth onto one grain of sand, that concentrated ray would approach the intensity of a new laser beam made in a University of Michigan laboratory ... To achieve this beam, the research team added another amplifier to the HERCULES laser system, which previously operated at 50 terawatts. HERCULES is a titanium-sapphire laser that takes up several rooms at U-M's Center for Ultrafast Optical Science. Light fed into it bounces like a pinball off a series of mirrors and other optical elements. It gets stretched, energized, squeezed and focused along the way.'" And ... cue the evil chortling.

4 of 244 comments (clear)

  1. Now all they have to do.. by ignavus · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Now all they have to do is use it against the RIAA.

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    I am anarch of all I survey.
  2. Re:Cool by evilned1 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    The heck with the B1, I want to know if it can be mounted on the head of a shark!

  3. Yes, but can you burn ants with it? by xkr · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    (this side of your brain intentionally left blank)

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    I will create a sig when innovation restarts in the U.S.
  4. Re:Cool by buck19 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Why don't the Democrats scream that deficit spending is a tax increase plus interest. It is a much much worse tax increase!!

    I'm really beginning to think all this politicking of the Democrats and Republicons is just a show to make us all think they are not really there just to steal our money.