A new pocket-sized particle accelerator has proven capable of projecting ultra-short electron beams with laser light at more than 99.99% of the speed of light. Researchers, led by Lancaster and Manchester Universities, have had to slow down light to match the speed of the electrons using a specially designed metallic structure lined with ultrathin quartz …
Asahi Kasei Corporation succeeded in designing a laser diode that emits deep-ultraviolet light. The laser diode emits the world’s shortest lasing wavelength, at 271.8 nanometers (nm), under pulsed [electric] current injection at room temperature. Previous efforts in the development of ultraviolet laser diodes had only managed to achieve emissions down to 336 nm. Laser diodes …
Peak laser intensity demonstrations have occurred on specific Nd:glass-based lasers: * the Vulcan PW in the UK at 1 × 10^21 W/cm2 (2004); * the Ti:sapphirebased HERCULES laser at the University of Michigan, USA at 1 × 10^22 W/cm2 (2004) * J-KAREN-P in Japan at 1 × 10^22 W/cm2 (2018) * record intensity of 5.5 …
Canadian researchers at the Advanced Laser Light Source (ALLS) facility at INRS, generated 300 terawatt laser pulses (3 joules for a 10-femtosecond pulse). They plan to repeat the experiment with an energy of 3 petawatts (3000 trillion Watts – 13 joules over 5 femtoseconds). ALLS/LSF (Advanced Laser Light Source/ Laboratoire de Sources Femtosecondes) is a …
Kumar, Jin and John L. Reno of Sandia are reporting another terahertz technology breakthrough: they have developed a new phase-locking technique for plasmonic lasers and, through its use, achieved a record-high power output for terahertz lasers. Their laser produced the highest radiative efficiency for any single-wavelength semiconductor quantum cascade laser. This is the first report …
Tesla has not created a Megacybertruck version for the US military. However, Nextbigfuture proposes an obvious ultra-long-range configuration that would totally outclass the JLTV and the combat laser mounted Strykers. Tesla could create a 1-megawatt hour version of the Cybertruck that would have 3500 miles of range and have JLTV level armor. The Cybertruck weighs …
Philip Lubin has led a team at UCSB to create laser arrays for propulsion and asteroid deflection. He has received NASA and Starshot funding. There have 100 students in his programs. They have created hardware components and performed various experiments. The DE-STAR (Directed Energy System for Targeting of Asteroids and ExploRation) has several sizes. DE-STAR-1 …
HB-11 Energy has published its progress towards generating commercial nuclear fusion using a dual laser method. the University of New South Wales reports that HB11 Energy has been granted patents for its laser-driven technique for creating fusion energy. They would use a largely empty metal sphere, where a modestly sized HB11 fuel pellet is held …
The US Department of Energy (DOE) will provide USD10 million over three years to advance particle accelerator technology for medical, security, energy, and industrial applications. The DOE Accelerator Stewardship program has already helped reduce the cost and improve the quality of cancer therapy, advance non-chemical methods of destroying pathogens and toxic chemicals, and enhance security …
$100 million has been put into the Breakthrough Starshot project to push a sail up to 20% the speed of light and send an unmanned probe to Alpha Centauri in about 20 years. There is progress on a stabilizing design for a sail to ride the laser beam. An optical beam rider making use of …
Israel’s Defense Ministry and defense companies Rafael and Elbit Systems and academic institutions made a combat laser breakthrough. It is based on the precision of the laser beam, which can be focused on long-range targets and which can overcome atmospheric disturbances such as clouds and dust storms. They are able to take several laser beams …
