Lasers Approach Their Ultimate Intensity Limit

Flash Modin writes "Death Star style superlasers? Don't bet on it. High-power lasers currently in development appear to be nearing the theoretical laser intensity limit, according to new research set to be published in the journal Physical Review Letters. Ultra-high-energy laser fields can actually convert their light into matter as shown in the late '90s at the Stanford Linear Accelerator (SLAC). This process creates an 'avalanche-like electromagnetic cascade' (also known as sparking the vacuum) capable of destroying a laser field. Physicists thought it might be a problem for lasers eventually, but this work indicates the technology is much closer to its limit than researchers believed. A preprint is available here."

Comments

No death star :(

[Reibisch]

Simply :(

Re:No death star :(

[Anonymous Coward]

I find your lack of faith disturbing.

Re:No death star :(

[butterflysrage]

maybe we just need to hold them differently?

Re:No death star :(

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't worry. They didn't read the fine print. The Death Star uses turbolasers, not regular lasers. Sometimes turbolaser is shortened to the more common term "laser", but they mean "turbolaser".

Re:No death star :(

[TrisexualPuppy]

Don't be too proud of this technological terror. The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the, erm, slashdot mods.

Re:No death star :(

[Americium]

Maybe the death ray isn't a laser, just a very high powered flashlight, like focusing all of the sun's rays at a planet

Re:No death star :(

[jdb2]

"Death Star style superlasers? Don't bet on it."

People using their imagination to go beyond the limits of current technology? Don't bet on it.

But seriously, anything with the firepower of the Death Star would probably be using high intensity anti-neutronium particle beams or something to that effect.
Reminds me of a Star Trek TNG episode where the Enterprise-D was threatened by a ship armed only with high power lasers -- the crew thought it was quaint of course.

jdb2

We are reaching the limit already?

[ihatejobs]

Where are my sharks with laser beams then!?

Seems like there's a simple solution.

[PotatoFarmer]

Have they considered relabeling their laser intensity dials so they go up to 11?

Re:Seems like there's a simple solution.

[Anonymous Coward]

You must be a theorist.

Unforeseen Consequences

[Anonymous Coward]

We all know how avalanche-like electromagnetic cascades wind up.

Death Star style superlasers? Don't bet on it.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Death Star style superlasers? Don't bet on it."

Uh, you mean a bunch of laser beams that come out straight, stop for a fraction of a second, turn a few degrees and then join up and all go off in the same direction?

I wasn't exactly holding my breath for that, anyway!!

Re:Death Star style superlasers? Don't bet on it.

[jd]

At the speed of light, the car would have zero length but infinite mass. At infinite mass, it would convert itself into a black hole. Since a black hole won't allow light to escape, the light would eventually shine back on you. Since the amount of power needed in a headlight to move a typical car (plus the batteries needed to power said headlight) would be in the trillions of watts, you would be totally atomized as you were being crushed by the gravity.

Re:Avalanche-like Cascade

[Drakkenmensch]

We'll be fine as long as we pre-order a crate of red crowbars from Home Depot.

Re:Maybe, maybe not

[badboy_tw2002]

Its true. We don't really know how the Death Star works. That's always been my biggest pet peeve with the "Star Wars" movies in that they really played up the "rebel vs. empire" theme (with a real bias towards the rebels IMO) and didn't focus on the technology or culture of that era. It really makes the documentary as a whole seem more like a fictional tale or something. Maybe Ken Burns will revisit that period of the galactic history and we'll get a more neutral viewpoint of the conflict.

Hold everything

[jewishbaconzombies]

Can convert light into matter?

Sooooo PewPewPew, eventually becomes SplatSplatSplat?

That's an interesting kind of awesome right there.

Matter creator

[hoggoth]

Henchman: "Professor, I've increased the laser's power to a new incredible limit, and something remarkable has happened. It is creating new matter! I can tune the beam to create any matter in any configuration we need!"
Professor: "Darn. We needed a big laser. Oh well, throw it all out, that was a dead end."

Re:Matter creator

[Gilmoure]

Good news everyone! You'll all hear my voice in your head now.

Re:I have a hypothesis

[Megane]

>Anonymous Coward
>sharks

Apparently not.

Re:Maybe, maybe not

[camperdave]

I count ten lasers colliding.

http://www.jedisaber.com/SW/wallpaper/death%20star%20firing.jpg

Remind me not to call on you when it's time to do inventory.

Re:Limits? Ha!

[buback]

No no no. Broken are made to be limits.

Also, Limits are broken to be made

Re:lighter fluid.

[Anonymous Coward]

you guys are all virgins, right ?

Re:Maybe, maybe not

[ShakaUVM]

So if you have a 33% efficient laser of 1MW, you have to be able to dissipate 2MW yourself. This means everyone on the Death Star would cook, and it would blow itself up twice as fast as Alderan. (Assuming Alderan's the DS's thermal properties are the same, etc)

Well, thank goodness we just installed that thermal exhaust port up on the top layer then.

The Stanford Linear Accelerator is a Liberal Plot!

[cmholm]

The researchers at the SLAC need to recheck their results, because Andy Schlafly, Conservapedia founder and a Eagle Forum "University" instructor has noted that E=mc^2 is a liberal plot.

Yet more experimental evidence that reality has a "liberal" bias.