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Texans Build World's Most Powerful Laser

By Alexis Madrigal April 08, 2008 | 6:13:09 PMCategories: Lab Life, Physics

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Scientists have switched on the world's most powerful laser, which for one-trillionth of a second is 2,000 times more

powerful than all the power plants in the United States. The laser's output tops a petawatt, which is a quadrillion

(1,000,000,000,000,000) watts of power.

In the basement of the physics building at the University of Texas at Austin, the school's High Intensity Laser Science

Group built a petawatt laser in hopes of recreating astronomical phenomena like supernovae in miniature.

"We can put materials into states that you can't access here on earth," said Mikael Martinez, the laser project's manager.

"You'd have to go out into space and hang out with an exploding star to observe what we plan to observe here in Texas."

When the scientists turned on the laser on March 31, it became the world's most powerful operational laser, but it doesn't

yet hold the record for the most powerful laser ever built. That honor, at least for a few more months, belongs to the now

mothballed Nova laser built at Lawrence Livermore National Lab. The Nova produced 1.25 petawatts of power when it was

first switched on in 1996. Martinez said he expected his project to break that record within the year, reaching between 1.3

and 1.5 petawatts.

Below, we take a virtual walk through the tech -- amplifiers, compressors and crystals -- that make this Texas-size laser so

powerful.

The power of a laser, its output in watts, is determined by the energy of the laser pulse, measured in joules, divided by its

duration, measured in seconds (tiny fractions of a second in this case). So, to get high power, you can either turn up the

energy or cram the same amount of energy into a shorter duration pulse -- or do both. The problem is that turning up the

energy makes it more difficult to get short pulses.

The solution to this problem require an almost Rube-Goldberg setup inside a 1,500-square-foot cleanroom. The most

powerful laser in the world starts, poetically enough, with a "seed laser" that puts out a wimpy nanojoule of energy for a

couple hundred femtoseconds (that's 10-15 seconds). It must be run through a series of amplifiers, compressors, and

stretchers before it can recreate the conditions inside the sun for a trillionth of a second.

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.

The seed laser is run through what is known as a stretcher. The device uses a diffraction grate that works like a prism does

for standard light to separate the laser into its constitutent wavelengths. This, in effect, lengthens the pulse from the

femtosecond range (10-15 second) to the nanosecond range (10-9 second). Doing so, however, reduces its energy even

further from nanojoules to picojoules. Scientists go through this process because it makes the pulse easier to manipulate in

the next step: amplification.

First, the newly elongated seed pulse is juiced by entirely different lasers using special crystals in a process called optical

parametric amplification. This takes the power of the laser all the way to one joule. Then, it hits the rod amplifier, which is

a 24-centimeter-long piece of glass that gets pumped with lights that the laser pulse can absorb. The scientists run the

laser through these rods eight times to bring the energy of the laser to 20 joules. Below, we see what is called the "laser

chain," with a green pump lamp running.

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Finally, that pulse is fed through a disk amplifier, which can be seen below. Inside this amplifier, two disks of glass are

juiced with pump lights that, after four passthroughs, bring the laser up to about 250 joules of energy.

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The final step is to recompress the pulse, which the stretcher had previously elongated, for maximum power. Below, we

see the compressor chamber.

Another diffraction grate inside this chamber, seen in the very top picture, recombines the spread-out wavelengths into a

short pulse about 150 femtoseconds long, although with considerable energy loss. But even at 1 joule of energy, the setup

yields that whopping petawatt of power.

Martinez summed up the whole process, saying, "We play a trick on the laser. We take the short pulse and stretch it wider.

Then we go and amplify the pulse. Then the very last thing we do is recompress that pulse back."

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The actual laser pulse will come out of the round hatch seen at the left of the chamber, where it will be directed at a target

to mimic a nuclear explosion or an exotic dense star.

The work is sponsored by the National Nuclear Security Administration and totaled about $7 million in equipment costs.

Images courtesy Mikael Martinez and the Texas Petawatt Project, led by Todd Ditmire.

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And still no ray gun? Pfft.

Posted by: hellos | Apr 8, 2008 4:40:04 PM

At least they can cook toast with it.

Posted by: Thesmarts | Apr 8, 2008 6:25:17 PM

yeeeeehawww!

Posted by: ed | Apr 8, 2008 7:09:30 PM

why not change the frequency to one that generates more energy (blue light?), in fact why not just go nuts and start will gamma rays and just start pumping in more at the same frequency. In a similar way to that of industrial which pump laser light with more laser light in a single tread of the beam.

Posted by: | Apr 8, 2008 7:53:22 PM

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isn't this laser a little big for our pocket.... book

Posted by: joe d goff | Apr 8, 2008 8:14:37 PM

Does it sound like a Stormtrooper Blaster?

Posted by: Carlos | Apr 8, 2008 9:23:52 PM

I heard of a light lunch, but this is nuts. Are we still trying to find the "conjoined" particles, i.e those funny little buggers that when split apart communicate with each other faster than c (speed of light). Can we use to make a really funky Quantum computer ?

Posted by: Adam Fakes | Apr 8, 2008 9:25:58 PM

Speak softly and carry a big laser; you will go far

Posted by: Theodore R. | Apr 8, 2008 9:36:12 PM

Is this laser powerful enough to start a fusion reaction? I read somewhere that they were having trouble using chemical lasers and that they might need a gamma laser to do it. It would be sweet if they could, fusion is such cool tech.

Posted by: kevin | Apr 8, 2008 9:37:37 PM

And the government begs us to turn off the lights in our homes and to turn the A/C off during the summer heat and this thing uses more energy than all of us combined? WTF.

Posted by: CDA DUDE | Apr 8, 2008 9:43:10 PM

"And the government begs us to turn off the lights in our homes and to turn the A/C off during the summer heat and this thing uses more energy than all of us combined? WTF."

Did you even read the article? The total max amount of energy in the laser is 20 joules. That's rather paltry. In fact the total energy in the final product is only 1 joule. It's the fact that that energy occurs in a trillionth of a second that it's a big deal.

A watt is a measurement of work done/unit of time. 1 joule of energy in 1 trillionth of a second is approx. 1 petawatt.

It can be expressed as P = W/t

Where: W = Work (in joules), t = time (seconds), P = power (watts)



Hence if you crank of the energy you can get a more powerful laser or you can reduce the period in which that work is being done and get the same result.

Posted by: Adam | Apr 8, 2008 10:13:24 PM

CDA DUDE: WTF? RTFA! Yes it does, for one-trillionth of a second. The rest of us, however, use this power for 31,536,000 whole seconds a year.

Assuming they don't fire it a billion or so times per second, I don't see it having much of an impact on the world's total power consumption.

Posted by: Bas Scheffers | Apr 8, 2008 10:16:59 PM

things may be big in Texas, but don't discount one of the late great industrial cities in this country

Rochester NY home of the marshmallow, and the University of Rochester OMEGA EP laser.

~1petawatt by itself, it actually uses a kilojoule or more of energy per shot.

they also have the option of combining it with the 'small' laser which is in the same building (built a while back, it was the precursor to OMEGA EP) OMEGA 60 is capable of shooting 40000J from 60 beamlines.

http://www.lle.rochester.edu/index.php

Posted by: ibored | Apr 8, 2008 10:20:40 PM

Every time I give a talk, someone always asks, “That’s all good and nice that helping users learn is the key to creating passionate users… but who’s going to do all that extra work? Who’s going to make the extra tutorials and better docs?” http://flowers-worldwide.blogspot.com/ Answer: your user community. Think about all the things a strong user community can do for you: tech support, user training, marketing (evangelism, word of mouth), third-party add-ons, even new product ideas. And that’s not including any extra sales you might make on community/tribe items like t-shirts, stickers, and other gear.

Posted by: Nora | Apr 8, 2008 10:29:10 PM

"and this thing uses more energy than all of us combined? WTF"

Learn to do simple math. The output of the laser is one joule (burned in about one-trillionth of a second). A 60W light bulb wastes 60 joules every second. Their laser system just burns joules a lot faster than your bulb. It's not some magical power-sucking monster (unless you have secret knowledge that it can fire half a billion times a second)

Yes, I know it probably takes some large amount of power to fire the whole system, but the comparison wasn't about that, and it's silly to complain about the energy usage of the entire system unless you actually


http://www.lle.rochester.edu/index.phphttp://flowers-worldwide.blogspot.com/


know what it is (and the article didn't provide that info, as far as I can see)

Posted by: That Guy | Apr 8, 2008 10:48:00 PM

Check out the National Ignition Facility. https://lasers.llnl.gov/

Posted by: | Apr 8, 2008 11:39:33 PM

If only the Japanese can miniaturize it...... Photon Torpedo anyone?

Posted by: Wishful | Apr 8, 2008 11:45:40 PM

We are buy virtual currency gold. If you want sell it. you can choose us. we will give you a suitable price. Welcome to http://www.mmofly.com

Posted by: MMORPG | Apr 8, 2008 11:58:54 PM

All that text and usual lab images, but no explosion image... Let's call this a coitus interruptus :)

Posted by: Louis | Apr 9, 2008 12:01:54 AM

I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with CDA guy, but I do think everyone is missing one important point. Everybody is talking about the output of the laser. What about the power needed to make that laser work? Electricity is needed to power the buildings lights, the laser's computers, the huge HVAC and clean air system. It may not be more than what we use during the summer, but it is a lot. Just food for thought.

Posted by: Trey | Apr 9, 2008 12:09:47 AM

Check out the last picture, the leg closest to the viewer. The chamber is held up on bits of wood! :)

frickin' lasers man

Posted by: Bobby | Apr 9, 2008 12:25:05 AM

http://www.geocities.com/poi243/

Posted by: rick | Apr 9, 2008 1:55:11 AM

Trey, the energy used for this laser might actually bring benefit to research. Much unlike that used to power up that XBox360.


http://www.mmofly.com/http://www.geocities.com/poi243/


Posted by: eclectoplasm | Apr 9, 2008 1:59:03 AM

I believe there's a typo as I know the folks at UT, the uncompressed laser beam (long in time ~ 2 ns) is 250 J (500 GW), and the compressor is usually 40-80% efficient so the output is more like 100-150J J (@ 150 fs = 1 PW).

Yes these laser do require a ridiculous amount of energy to operate but that's the price you pay to create conditions (like those in supernova or stars) on earth but one of the prime motivators to building such power lasers is to use them to create ignition beams for Fast Ignition Inertial Confinement Fusion (the work at Omega and Omega EP) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inertial_confinement_fusion.

Posted by: | Apr 9, 2008 3:38:55 AM

only $7 million!? more government agencies need to be like this one!

Posted by: John | Apr 9, 2008 4:17:47 AM

only $7 million!? more government agencies need to be like this one!

Posted by: John | Apr 9, 2008 4:18:43 AM

$7 million on a government scale is $1 to private business!

http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com

Posted by: steveballmer | Apr 9, 2008 4:43:46 AM

This is absolutely interesting! http://www.spymac.com/details/?2356073

Posted by: Loklar Stevens Miller | Apr 9, 2008 5:08:22 AM

Now if they could just figure out a way to attach it to a freekin' shark's head! If there's one thing I ask for...

Posted by: Dr. Evil | Apr 9, 2008 5:21:28 AM

Keep in mind... 7 million dollar project... with a daily electric bill of 1 million :P

Posted by: daimi | Apr 9, 2008 6:41:13 AM

What they didn't mention, is that the same building also has a fission reactor in the basement. See? No power draw on the grid! Everybody's happy!


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inertial_confinement_fusion.http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com/http://www.spymac.com/details/?2356073


Posted by: ANON | Apr 9, 2008 6:41:42 AM

I took a look at the 2nd pic and realized that there's nothing odd with the bystanders right by the Death Star laser....BTW, I'm suing you.

Posted by: George Lucas | Apr 9, 2008 7:21:23 AM

So, the power input (including water chiller) if it fired one pulse per second (unlikely) would cost less than $5 dollars a day

Posted by: R10000 | Apr 9, 2008 7:25:27 AM

I still prefer a light saber. Much easier to carry around and use.

Posted by: Obi-Wan | Apr 9, 2008 7:26:41 AM

I want one.

Posted by: Nate | Apr 9, 2008 7:32:32 AM

Frickin' lasers!

Posted by: JohannesMiltoni | Apr 9, 2008 7:36:55 AM

Can it zap all the Red Light Cameras in Cleveland, Ohio? www.clevelandredlightcameras.com

Posted by: Mayor Jackson | Apr 9, 2008 7:37:51 AM

maybe texas can use this for the death penalty instead of lethal injection! would it be more humane? I guess depends where you aim it. Which brings me to my question: if I was standing in front of the target during the pulse, would it shoot a perfect hole through me, or would I be completely vaporized?

Posted by: scott | Apr 9, 2008 8:25:03 AM

still much too large to attach to the forehead of a shark...

Posted by: tony | Apr 9, 2008 8:34:35 AM

I am thinking an imperfect hole. You know, smoking edges, bitter smoke, and you having time to look down at the damage before you die. (Nasty!) Although, now that I am thinking a bit more, the instantaneous



vaporization of the H2O and other materials in the body might cause an explosion at the site of contact. Would the resultant expansion of matter shove the person like a blunt bullet impact? (Short pistol rounds do more damage at short range because faster more streamlined rifle rounds pass through faster and take its energy with it. A short round, even though it has less energy, transfers more of that energy to the target.) I have no idea if such a short and powerful pulse would burn right through, or only partially. Clean through would allow more expansive force to escape out the back. A cavity without an exit wound would probably cause more damage because the energy shockwave would stay in the body and pass on to more adjacent flesh. Either way, "Eewwww!"

Posted by: mikelinpa | Apr 9, 2008 8:50:10 AM

TEXAS SUX!

I love the shark Comment! Good one TONY! Kudos * 10!

Posted by: Andy | Apr 9, 2008 8:54:04 AM

Maybe this will lead to Fusion power, energy independence and electric cars running on an electro-magnetic grid. That way, I wont have to hear anymore whining from the environmental/ global warming A-holes!

Posted by: Mike G | Apr 9, 2008 9:03:36 AM

Needless to say, I was a little despondent about the meltdown. But then, in the midst of my preparation for hara-kiri, it came to me: it is possible to synthesize excited bromide in an argon matrix. Yes, its an excimer, frozen in its excited state.

Posted by: Chris Knight | Apr 9, 2008 9:09:03 AM

As for electricity used, all the other equipment used to modify the seed pulse must use a lot of energy to do their job. Every step added to any process brings waste. But it is genuine research, and will undoubtedly lead to better knowledge of matter and energy itself.

If only Bush's War were only 7 Million bucks. For the money wasted making us more despised world wide, (thereby making us less safe,) we could have solved most of the social and financial problems in the US. Even without "solving" them, that money would have "patched" the problems for a good 25 to 30 years. Homelessness, Social Security, Alternative energy, Health care, Veteran's Benefits, etc... All solvent and in the black for another generation with the 3 trillion the war already cost. These guys in Texas are doing their research work for a measly 7 mil.? I don't have a problem with that. Lets fund more of this research with the money spent providing Section 8 housing to ungrateful scum, and the money spent educating and housing illegal immigrants and lazy welfare frauds. (And the money we spend on police and prisons to keep their offspring from taking over cities and towns all over the country.) *Before anyone accuses me of being a monster, (or worse, a Republican,) I am a Conservative Democrat. (Conservative, as in "to conserve." Conserve resources, conserve money...) I wouldn't mind helping the truly needy, but they are usually the ones not qualified for these wonderful programs. Lets give a helping hand, not a handout. The ones wanting a handout can wait in line... right in front of that spiffy new tera-watt laser!

Posted by: mikelinpa | Apr 9, 2008 9:14:35 AM

I think this just proves that everything has to be bigger in Texas.



Posted by: Matt | Apr 9, 2008 9:31:33 AM

for less than a nanosecond the energy is second to none - bit like me when i wake up then realise its the same crappy life - first thing in the A.M !

Posted by: mick | Apr 9, 2008 9:48:00 AM

Texas builds the most powerful laser in the world? I proose, before the decade is out, that Texas endeavours to send an honest man to the White House, and have him return the country safely at the end of his tenure - constitution intact!

Can you spell H-i-g-h-t-o-w-e-r ?

Posted by: Rob K | Apr 9, 2008 9:55:00 AM

I don't think this would really burn you at all actually... the time is just too short

Posted by: Neil | Apr 9, 2008 10:37:20 AM

@CDA DUDE, @Adam, @That Guy: This is why there are no Liberals with Frickin' Laser Beams Attached To Their Heads!!! -They're all too emotional and start whining about Al Gore Inventing Global Warming (after he invented the internet).

-On a side note, if I get a Green Laser pointer, stick it in a CFL and flip the lightswitch on and off real fast, can I make one of them Texas things, too???

Posted by: wonkydonky.net | Apr 9, 2008 10:49:43 AM

Stop hating. Wait until the sun dies out and the only source of heat to keep us alive is laser beacons that give off heat energy. Then will scoff in the face Laser technology? Then will you simply dismiss Dr. Martinez' life work? I DIDN'T WATCH MY FRIENDS DIE FACE DOWN IN THE MUD FOR SOME PUNK KIDS LIKE YOU TO BELITTLE MY WORK IN A GOD DAMN INTERNET FORUM!!!

Posted by: will | Apr 9, 2008 10:59:20 AM

^^Will needs to switch to Decaf!

Posted by: MLG | Apr 9, 2008 11:11:28 AM

Read carefully. The laser is MORE POWERFUL than all the power plants combined, not more energy consuming.

Laser stands for Light AMPLIFICATION by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Lasers use wave phasing principles to amplify power. Because the laser configures photons coherently (in phase), what comes out is



much more than what goes in (and no, it's not an infinite energy machine, it is limited in how much power it can use process, and put out).

This one apparently also uses a trick involving wave compression that I'm not familiar with, that further increases the efficiency of the concept.

Posted by: keithn | Apr 9, 2008 11:14:14 AM

NNSA?

Posted by: Mostly Harmless | Apr 9, 2008 11:31:49 AM

And how is this going to cure overpopulation? What a waste of money.

All that particle physics proves is that the harder you hit something, the smaller the pieces it breaks into. Whoop de doo. What they need to do is a Manhatten Project-like effort to crack gravity.

Posted by: neomonkey | Apr 9, 2008 11:59:45 AM

Chris Knight for the Win!

Posted by: Laslo Hollyfeld | Apr 9, 2008 12:32:20 PM

Was this invented by Al Gore?

Posted by: Terry Thomas, Atlanta | Apr 9, 2008 12:39:58 PM

Dr. Evil would be impressed.

Posted by: Joe Timkin | Apr 9, 2008 1:08:40 PM

This is REAL GENIUS! :D

Posted by: Hashi Jouzu | Apr 9, 2008 1:19:44 PM

they need to make a movable one so that they can use this in defence against meters incase they head towards earth.

Posted by: boo | Apr 9, 2008 4:28:49 PM

Below is a quote... It demonstrates the fact that most Americans do not understand that Texas is not just http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/04/texans-build-wo.html (14 of 15)10/04/2008 14:30:02


'Cowboy land.' Austin (And some of the other cities in Texas) are almost completely liberal. Bush may be from Texas, but in Austin we pretty much make up for his idiocy. Ever used a calculator? Look at the back and see if it's made by Texas Instruments...

"maybe texas can use this for the death penalty instead of lethal injection! would it be more humane? I guess depends where you aim it. Which brings me to my question: if I was standing in front of the target during the pulse, would it shoot a perfect hole through me, or would I be completely vaporized?"

Posted by: ... | Apr 10, 2008 1:34:04 AM

Wow clearly people who live in red states can't do anything other than kick shit and marry cousins am i rite?

Posted by: jim | Apr 10, 2008 5:09:03 AM

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