Posted on 08/01/2003 11:47:04 PM PDT by LibWhacker
Han Solo would be right at home
Laser weapons? This may not be as exotic as fans of Han Solo once thought, thanks to recent leaps forward in the development of a powerful free-electron laser, or FEL.
Free electron lasers have been shown to generate very large amounts of power, tunable from the microwave to the visible spectrum.
The Office of Naval Research is part of a team that is developing an electrically driven, tunable laser that could transmit infrared light for use in ship-defense systems.
The research is being performed at the Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Newport News, Virginia. Research paid off in mid-June when Jefferson scientists produced "first light" with a new 10-kilowatt FEL system.
ONR and the Jefferson team hope to use the FEL to generate 10 kW of infrared light and one kilowatt of ultraviolet light by late summer.
The mid-June success followed a demonstration in 1999 of a one-kilowatt FEL with the capacity to generate 2,100 watts of infrared light. During the two and one-half years that this laser operated, it broke all records for tunable high-average power lasers. The FEL has the capability of generating extremely short pulses, sub-picosecond pulses, (less than a billion billionth of a sec) in world record quantities. The pulses are short enough to interact with molecular bonds and result in exciting materials research and chemical synthesis.
These short pulses also give chemists the potential to dial in specific chemical reactions allowing for much more efficient (read cheaper) and less polluting synthesis of important chemicals. The device was used by more than 30 Navy, NASA, university and industry research groups for many applications, including investigation of new cost-effective methods for producing carbon nanotubes; understanding the dynamics of hydrogen defects in silicon; and investigating how proteins transport energy.
In the experiments, electrons were accelerated to higher energies in efficient, highly cost-effective accelerators in order to probe deep inside an atom's nucleus. The savings achieved by the Lab's superconducting electron-accelerating technology permit the FELs to remain on 100 percent of the time instead of only one or two percent. The FEL also can recycle more than 90 percent of the energy that is not converted to useful light in a single pass.
"The original one-kilowatt FEL exceeded the Navy's goals and expectations," says ONR project manager, Gil Graff. "No less is expected from the upgraded FEL. This is exciting."
ONR is teamed with the Air Force Research Lab and the Defense Department's Joint Technology Office to support the work of the Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. The Jefferson Lab is managed for DoE by the Southeastern Universities Research Association, a consortium of universities in the Southeast.
The Navy's interest in this technology is the development and demonstration of an electrically driven tunable laser that can operate at infrared wavelengths (where light is most efficiently transmitted in the atmosphere) for potential applications in shipboard defense.
"What does that mean?" asks Graff. "Think USS Cole. Think what might have been done to prevent such an attack."
| Tuesday, 5 November, 2002, 23:53 GMT US military scores laser success Katyusha rockets are used to target Israel The US army has, for the first time, shot down an artillery shell in flight using a high-powered laser weapon. Tactical high energy lasers have the capacity to change the face of the battlefield US Army Lt Gen Joseph Cosumano The weapon system tracked and locked on to the shell, before firing a beam of light at the projectile and hitting it. The US Army's Space and Missile Defence Command said that "seconds later, at a point well short of its intended destination, the projectile was destroyed". The Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser (MTHEL) is being developed by the TRW Corporation for use by the US military and the Israeli Defence Ministry. Two years ago, it successfully shot down a Katyusha rocket, but in Monday's test it managed to destroy a shell moving at a higher speed. The test took place at the White Sands missile range in New Mexico. Potent weapon A laser is a device that produces and amplifies light of a particular wavelength, or colour, which is then directed at a target with great accuracy. If the laser is powerful enough, it can generate very high temperatures on the spot on which the light falls, melting or vaporising the target. Military scientists are trying to develop lasers and tracking systems that can follow and hit fast-moving objects at distances ranging from tens of kilometres to, in theory, thousands of kilometres. "This shoot-down shifts the paradigm for defensive capabilities," Lieutenant General Joseph Cosumano, head of the missile defence command, said of the latest test. "We have shown that even an artillery projectile hurtling through the air at supersonic speed is no match for a laser." Israeli interest The laser was built as a joint project between the US and Israel. The Israeli Government is interested in the system because Katyusha rockets are used by militant Islamic groups in attacks on Israel. The system stems in part from a commitment former US President Bill Clinton made in April 1996 to then Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres to aid Israel in developing a security system against rockets. Lasers were behind the space-based missile defence shield idea, labelled "Star Wars", first suggested by US President Ronald Reagan in 1983. The Pentagon has been working on a variety of other laser weapon technologies that could be used to shoot down ballistic missiles in flight, although deployment of such weapons is at least a decade away. |
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.