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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.
Now if you can get it to fit in the weapons bay of a B1-B we might have something.
Now all they have to do is build a huge moon-sized military base around it.
This development is clearly useless until the system is miniturised to the point it can be mounted on a shark.
That's nothing! I can perform for 3 seconds once every ten minutes!
Just -1, Troll talking to another.
20 billion trillion watt per square centimeter = 2x10^26 Wm^-2
300 terawatt of power = 3x10^14 W
1.3 micron wide = ca. 1.7x10^-12 m^2 (for a square shape)
30 femtosecond = 3x10^-14 s
hope that clarifies things.
So this is like a serious question:
What can you do with this thing? Why does it exist? Just to say it's there, or does it have some function beyond bragging rights?
And, pray tell, what would a mere 9 joules pulse accomplish anything from a B1-B?
That "300 terawatts" is nothing if you take into account how short the beam lasts.
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
Because focussed correctly, the extremely high field strenght in the focal point can create effects that at first seem physically implausible.
:)
For example there is one effect that seems to "break" quantum phyiscs (or more exactly, the photo-effect): You can excite electrons out of energy levels that are bound stronger than the photon energy. Even if they are bound _a_ lot stronger. The electric fields can be strong enough to strip atoms from everything down to and including the k-shell (I have one seen a presenter show a silde mentioning 37-photon effects...)
This can be used to create hard x-rays, or, of course, as a particle accelerator: You can GeV on ion energyies from them with a relatively simple setup.
This is of course for "normal" FS-Lasers, wich fill not much more than a large optical bank. But something tells me that _this_ one can make even more intersting stuff happen
HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
I guess these researchers don't consider the possibility that there may be advanced extraterrestrial civilization. Perhaps they should say the KNOWN universe
LS
There is a fine line between being a cultivated citizen and being someone else's crop. - A. J. Patrick Liszkie
Do not stare into laser with remaining head.
All you would need is a tracking system and a large spinning mirror, and you could vaporize a human target from space.
Student: What are we going to do with this immensely powerful laser, professor? :D
Professor: We shall commence "Phase 2", we shall place the "la-ser" on something called "the moon"
Student: And then we can hold the world ransom for a horrendously large amount of money
Professor: Hell no! We're going to wipe all other universities off the face of the Earth!
...suddenly begins new research into building even LARGER laser.
I think they were refering to the known universe and alluding to natural lasers.
In contrast the best particle beams on the planet get a few gold atoms to near light speed, while the natural ones can easily get the planet Jupiter moving at that pace.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Inquiring minds want to know... to run this thing, do they have an on-premises nuclear reactor, or just an obscenely high electric bill? TFA is short on details in that department.
I know it's not actually using that full rated 300 terawatts ("300 times the capacity of the entire U.S. electricity grid") in such incredibly short bursts, but nonetheless, it's still got to eat a lot of juice.
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it! --Longbottle
For very large values of shark.
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
Out of honest curiosity, at what do they point such a strong laser? My movie-fed ignorance has me imagining the beam burning through walls.
Yet impressive enough for a Klingon officer to turn and say,
"Commander, this confirms that the inhabitants are hostile. Shall we assume battle stations?"
Commander: "We are Klingons. What other stations do we have?"
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
... 9 Joules delivered in each pulse, one every 10 seconds. Giving an average power of about 1 Watt. Ideal for taking over very small universes.
"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 ..."
Please, won't someone think of the ants?!
Anyway, what can it do?
Discussion so far seems to have missed one little line, where they say it may be powerful enough to boil the vacuum of space, and perhaps bring virtual particles into existence. Think about that for a minute - matter from nothing... kind'a scary, isn't it? Like in those super particle accelerators where they just might end up creating microscopic black holes. So one of these little black holes would start sucking in matter and not stop until the whole world is consumed. Well there we go - this laser could be the antidote for that. We have all these particles popping into existence over there at the that university with the laser, and a little black hole on the other side of the ocean sucking up matter, and an infinite loop between creating and destroying and us all caught in the middle. I think physics is getting into dangerous territory.
Article is wrong. Vulcan in the UK is a 1 petawatt laser, which is 3 times more powerful, and has been running since 2004:
http://www.clf.rl.ac.uk/news/CLF_News/vulcanpetawatt.htm
They even have a plaque from the Guinness book of records.
They are going to focus it on the Horseshoe, and vaporize Jim Tressel.
Watch for the spread offense.
Go Blue!
The Vulcan has more power (wattage). But this UofMI laser focuses the blast onto a smaller area, and it lasts less than 1/10th the time. So, the beam is more intense.
Ah. I see your problem. You're a "High Cinema" snob who's too "good" for an 80's popcorn classic, and you're too stubborn to admit that you were really just piggy-backing on the first post to elevate the attention to your post like some sort of forum remora once someone pointed out your ignorance of the joke.
Congratulations. You have now made a fool of yourself in front of a crowd by trying to prove that you're better than them for being ignorant of "low cinema." Few things are more sad than a defense of ignorance. Also, giving your autobiography in response to questions about your taste on the internet just shows your own insecurity. Lurk more.
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