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US researchers have announced that a high-powered laser described as the most powerful and fastest ever developed in the country is ready for use in scientific experiments.
Called Zeus — short for Zetawatt Equivalent Ultrashort Pulse Laser System — the light amplification technology was developed to aid research in areas such as quantum physics, space, medicine (like future cancer treatment), electronics, and national security.
According to the researchers involved, this will allow a new level of insight into plasma (the physical state of a gas-like substance) and particles.
The power of the laser
The laser was developed by astrophysicists and engineers at the University of Michigan, who point out that it has the ability to generate ultra-short pulses of Zeus 25. femtoseconds, a unit of time in the International System of Units (SI). A value equal to one One fourth Second.
In other words, A Femtosecond One second is one second for 31.71 million years, highlights the Science Alert website. I mean, it’s really fast.
“Zeus will be the highest power laser in the United States and one of the most powerful laser systems in the world,” said the astrophysicist and director of the Center for Ultra-Fast Optical Science at the University of Michigan. Karl Krushelnik.
The researcher added that the laser is available to researchers around the world. “We look forward to growing the research community and bringing in people with new ideas for experiments and applications.”
Initially, not all of this power is used. It will be little by little. A laser uses 30 terawatts (30 trillion watts) of power (1% of its capacity), for example, to read a type of X-ray image.
The first researcher to use Zeus was Franklin Dollar, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California. He and his team are investigating how to create and use new types of X-ray sources that do not need to emit large amounts of radiation.
“They will use Zeus to send pulses of infrared light at a target of helium gas, turning it into a plasma. That plasma accelerates electrons to higher energies, and these electron beams move to produce more powerful X-ray pulses,” the University of Michigan brief said. In its press release.
By the end of 2023, the expectation is that high-power lasers will be able to support more complex, large-scale experiments such as quantum physics phenomena, data protection, medical diagnosis and diagnostics. Nuclear weapons.
Check out the video below for images and more details on how the technology works.
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