Posted on 05/21/2025 6:33:11 AM PDT by Red Badger
Imagine harnessing power on a scale almost unimaginable.
A cutting-edge laser facility called ZEUS at the University of Michigan has reached a groundbreaking level of power. It generated a brief pulse of light with a power output exceeding the entire world’s electricity consumption by a factor of one hundred.
The powerful laser facility has set a new U.S. record by achieving two petawatts (2 quadrillion watts) of peak power, almost doubling that of its closest competitors.
Interestingly, the laser’s immense power lasted just a fleeting 25 quintillionths of a second. Yet, in that fleeting moment, ZEUS can unlock profound scientific discoveries.
“This milestone marks the beginning of experiments that move into unexplored territory for American high field science,” said Karl Krushelnick, director of the Gérard Mourou Center for Ultrafast Optical Science.
Its applications are wide-ranging, including medicine, national security, materials science, astrophysics, plasma science, and quantum physics.
Powerful laser bursts The school gymnasium-sized Zettawatt Equivalent Ultrashort laser pulse System (ZEUS) operates out of the Gérard Mourou Center for Ultrafast Optical Science. BBC reported that the facility’s walls are lined with 24-inch (60 cm) concrete shielding to contain radiation.
Reportedly, the ZEUS laser is the successor to the HERCULES system, which had a maximum power of 300 terawatts.
As a pulsed laser, ZEUS fires incredibly short bursts, just a few quintillionths of a second in duration.
The incredibly robust and concentrated laser energy will allow experts to explore fundamental quantum mechanics, simulate cosmic events, and much more.
The innovative laser approach involves a longer gas cell filled with helium.
When the powerful laser pulse strikes a gas, it generates plasma, a mix of free electrons and ions. These electrons are then accelerated to incredibly high speeds by surfing the laser’s wake, a method called wakefield acceleration.
Using a less dense, longer target allows these electrons more time to accelerate, achieving unprecedented velocities.
This 2-petawatt milestone is a key milestone towards ZEUS’s “signature experiment,” which might happen later this year.
In this experiment, the accelerated electrons will collide head-on with laser pulses traveling in the opposite direction. The 3-petawatt laser pulse will be a million times more powerful — effectively a zettawatt-scale pulse — hence the name ZEUS.
Price tag of $16 million Funded by the National Science Foundation, ZEUS welcomes research teams from across the entire country.
Professor Franklin Dollar’s team at the University of California is leading the first user experiment at ZEUS.
The goal is to generate beams comparable in energy to those from massive, hundreds-of-meters-long particle accelerators, achieving 5 to 10 times higher energy than previously possible at the ZEUS facility.
During his doctoral research, Dollar utilized ZEUS’s predecessor to image a damselfly. This work demonstrated the potential of laser-like X-ray pulses for low-dose imaging of soft tissues.
“The fundamental research done at the NSF ZEUS facility has many possible applications, including better imaging methods for soft tissues and advancing the technology used to treat cancer and other diseases,” said Vyacheslav Lukin, program director in the NSF Division of Physics, which oversees the ZEUS project.
Bkmk
You need to multiply the two numbers, as watts are joules/sec. Joules is the SI unit for energy.
Hi,
What is the relevance of watts/second?
Which planet shall we blow up first?
I have one of these lasers .
Pretty cool.
Works well when driving.
Slow left lane drivers can finally be dealt with decisively
Its applications are wide-ranging, including medicine, national security, materials science, astrophysics, plasma science, and quantum physics.
And maybe controlled fusion? The Argus Laser Fusion Facility set a record with a measly 2 terawatts. :^)
Those coulombs were hand-counted, cleaned, Labled and cal-sticker applyed....due in 6 months. RATS...lost my screwdriver! Grrrr, I hate round screwdrivers....
Need to generate antimatter at scale and be able to store it for a photon torpedo.
Will the cat chase after it?
Bulbhead wants to license the flashlight version
Can it be used to pop a huge box of popcorn in somebody’s house?
Well then, the people working at Area 51 need to stop slacking and get their butts in gear.
A watt is one joule per second. So in total, that’s only 0.00008 joules. Couldn’t even move a feather with that energy.
Wow, for 25 quintillionths of a second we could’ve powered the planet!
Reminds me of a short story I read where a scientist came up with a beam to eliminate all velocity.
He’d been harassed for years by another scientist that it was all nonsense so agreed to an experiment.
He set up a pool table with the beam pointing down and shot a ball into the beam. It created a perfect hole through the chest of his harasser...and the wall behind him... and the building next door....
The assumption was that by eliminating ALL velocity it also eliminated the velocity of earth, solar system, and the galaxy, etc..
Now the question at the end of the story was did he line the shot up with the other guy knowing it would do that or did he make a mistake in his calculations thinking it would only stop the relative motion compared to earth.
Good story
Alderran, obviously!!
That’s a story by Isaac Asimov called “The Billiard Ball”.
One of my favorites................
No doubt China is sending its agents to learn what it is about.
In previous years, they would have been welcomed with open arms. At least now, people are asking questions.
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