Researchers are exploring the world’s most powerful laser, which is now functional in a research centre in Romania. The equipment holds the potential to bring about significant advancements in various fields, including space exploration and health.
The French technology company Thales uses ideas that have won Nobel prizes to run the laser at the European Union’s Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) centre, located close to Bucharest.
The equipment at ELI produces the shortest and strongest laser pulses the world has ever seen by amplifying, compressing, and extending an extremely brief laser pulse over time. This has helped researchers overcome a crucial limitation with lasers: boosting power while keeping the intensity safe.
The technology has already been used in corrective eye surgery, but it has also made it possible for researchers to keep increasing the power of lasers.
Furthering laser technology
Despite being around for more than 60 years, experts opine that lasers still offer vast unrealised potential. If their energy efficiency can be further increased, they could open up incredible new potential in the energy, healthcare, and industrial sectors.
Berkeley Laboratory in California received a laser accelerator from Thales in 2012, referred to as BELLA (Berkeley Lab Laser Accelerator). By concentrating all of its energy into a pulse lasting about thirty femtoseconds, BELLA was the first laser to produce a petawatt of power or one million billion watts.
Six years later, Gérard Mourou – a longtime power laser research collaborator of Thales and Donna Strickland, shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for developing the method known as chirped pulse amplification, which produces ultra-short, extremely high-intensity laser pulses with a peak intensity of about one terawatt.
The laser system developed by Thales at ELI boasts an unprecedented peak power of 10 petawatts (equivalent to an incredibly short flash from a hundred thousand billion light bulbs), achieved in less than a femtosecond, thanks to meticulously installed equipment weighing 450 tonnes.
This exceptional level of performance is housed in a state-of-the-art building valued at €320m, predominantly financed by the European Union. Thales asserts that this investment represents Romania’s largest foray into scientific advancement.
Potential for application in critical fields
High-power lasers find diverse medical applications, offering precise cancer treatment through proton or electron beam therapy and utilising the 'flash' effect for less harmful yet effective treatment. Additionally, researchers claim that they play a crucial role in medical imaging and isotopic tracer production.
“We will use these ultra-intense pulses to produce much more compact and less expensive particle accelerators” to destroy cancer cells, said Mourou in a conversation with AFP.
In industry, these lasers are invaluable for detecting sub-millimetre defects in thick components and for cargo scanning to identify hazardous substances. Moreover, high-power lasers hold great promise in revolutionising the energy sector.
“Nuclear fusion offers hopes of delivering clean, safe, waste-free energy, and it is now clear that short-pulse, very high-power lasers will play a key role in future energy plans,” said Christophe Simon-Boisson, product line manager for scientific and industrial lasers at Thales, in a statement, earlier.
Furthermore, such powerful lasers could be used to clean up the junk accumulating in space or treat nuclear waste by shortening its radioactive decay time. According to Mourou, the laser will rule the 21st century, just as the electron did the previous one.