Lasers Approach Their Ultimate Intensity Limit

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday August 11, 2010 @07:20AM from the biggest-pointer dept.

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."

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once again by hyperion2010 · 2010-08-11 07:41 · Score: 0, Offtopic

I will wait patiently until someone realizes that all they have to do to get around this is modulate the phase of the laser. They might even call it a phased laser, or phaser if you like abbreviations.
Re:Maybe, maybe not by mcgrew · 2010-08-11 08:51 · Score: 1, Offtopic

A mooooovie? Isn't that what cows watch?

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