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World's Newest, Most Powerful Laser Comes Online
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Sat May 17, 2008 05:36 AM
from the now-that's-a-hotspot dept.
from the now-that's-a-hotspot dept.
deglr6328 writes "The OMEGA EP laser at the University of Rochester's Laboratory for Laser Energetics was dedicated today at the Robert L. Sproull Center for Ultra High Intensity Laser Research. The new laser, which has been in design since ~2002 will, at 1 kilojoule per 1 picosecond pulse, be the highest energy petawatt-scale laser ever created by far. For a fleeting fraction of a second, it will deliver a beam of infrared light at 1054 nm that is more powerful than the total energy consumption of all human activity on the planet, to a tiny spot the size of the head of a pin. Previous petawatt scale lasers such as the one created at Lawrence Livermore labs in the late '90s and (dismantled in 1999) were capable of only several hundred joules per pulse. The new OMEGA EP laser will be able to manifest power densities sufficient to examine Unruh and Hawking radiation-like phenomena in the laboratory and will have the capability to directly produce nuclear reactions through ultra high electric field initiated photodisintegration."
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World's Most Powerful Laser 222 comments
mattlary writes "The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reports that the University of Rochester plans on building the world's most powerful laser. The plans include upgrading the University's Omega laser with a pair of petawatt lasers. Sounds a lot like Real Genius to me."
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needs more shark (Score:2, Funny)
Don't be too proud... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Don't be too proud... (Score:4, Funny)
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Re: (Score:3)
don't disparage the slashdot effect (Score:2, Funny)
The most intense is a UK Laser. (Score:4, Informative)
The building to house this laser is like a small house but with a shielded room for the target area.
- Astra- Gemini : 15 J on target in 30 fs : Single Beam Intensity to 10^22 W/cm2.
- OMEGA EP : 1 kJ in 1 ps; on-target intensities of greater than 2 x 10^20 W/cm2.
the pico second ignition should be called slow ignition compared with 30 femtosecond.
Parent
oblig (Score:4, Funny)
Mini-me... (Score:2)
And once again science reporters gets it all wrong (Score:5, Informative)
More powerful than the total ENERGY consumption of all the human activity on the planet? It's only one kilojoule. It would be much more accuracte to say that the POWER output for a picosecond would be greater than the combined POWER consumption of the entire planet.
But that raises another question: Do most people understand the difference between ENERGY and POWER, anyway? the two words seem to be used almost interchangabily by your average Joe.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
You've said "POWER output for a picosecond would be greater than the combined POWER consumption of the entire planet"
I'm not a physicist, but isn't Power Energy per Time, thus Power output for a picosecond is Energy per Time per picosecond? Are you trying to say Energy output for a picosecond (ie 1 kJ)? I think what they are saying is that 1kJ per picosecond (a measure of power) = 10^12 k
Re:And once again science reporters gets it all wr (Score:5, Informative)
You're right in that power is energy per time, in this case the energy is one kilojoule and the time is one picosecond, so the power is one kilojoule per picosecond.
What the GP means is that, during that interval of one picosecond, the thing is emitting more power than is being consumed by all the planet. The total energy emitted by the laser pulse is that power multiplied by one picosecond, and the result of this multiplication is one kilojoule.
An interesting bit of information here is a round figure for the power consumption of all humanity: one kilojoule per picosecond. To get the equivalent in kilowatts, multiply one kilojoule by 1000000000000, because a kilowatt is one kilojoule per second.
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Re:Hey you guuuuuuuuyyyyyssss!!! (Score:4, Insightful)
Volts are the pressure on the water (think length of pipe's worth of water per second. That's pressure. Regardless of the diameter of the pipe, the same length of pipe's worth of water will come out per second at the same pressure. Same thing with Volts).
Watts are volts times amps which in water equivalent would be like volume per time (that's what you get when you multiply area by length/time). Multiply Watts by time and you get energy (measured in Watt-hours or whatever).
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don't forget political power (Score:2)
Re:And once again science reporters gets it all wr (Score:5, Funny)
Step 2: Short the terminals
Step 3: ???
Step 4: You just consumed the total power output of a power plant for a very small fraction of a second.
(The ??? step can be anything, your capacitors might explode and kill you if you have bad karma.)
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Warning Sign (Score:3, Funny)
OT : Coincidence? (Score:4, Interesting)
Is it just a coincidence or does this story have anything to do with the fact that yesterday Google had lasers on its main page (which I assume commemorated to 50 years of the creation of lasers, either that or "first laser!" must be the latest new Internet fad)?
forget the sharks! (Score:2)
World's Newest, Most Powerful Laser Shark Created (Score:3, Funny)
Someone's Sig - It Needs To Be Said (Score:4, Funny)
Not impressed (Score:2)
What about black holes? I refuse to be impressed except if it can create at least a tiny black hole. They seem to be all the rage nowadays.
What do you want to shoot today? (Score:2, Funny)
Manhattan Project (Score:2)
The six most exciting words in the article (Score:4, Funny)
Gawd, I get a chubby just thinking about that.....
In layman's terms (Score:3, Interesting)
Big deal.
Re:Enough stupid shark jokes (Score:5, Funny)
Good jokes die with age. Bad jokes instead, become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.
Parent