Latest news with #KarlKrushelnick
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
University of Michigan researchers develop nation's most powerful laser
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Researchers at the University of Michigan have developed the nation's most powerful laser. The latest design has nearly doubled the peak power of any other laser in the country. The team recently conducted its first successful experiment measured at 2 petawatts — 2 quadrillion watts — which is more than 100 times the global electricity output. Sign up for the News 8 daily newsletter That giant number is matched with something almost equally as small. The power surge is an extremely brief pulse, lasting just 25 quintillionths of a second. The laser, known as the Zettawatt-Equivalent Ultrashort pulse laser system or , is managed by U-M's and supported by the National Science Foundation. Karl Krushelnick, the director of the CUOS, said this latest milestone 'marks the beginning of experiments that move into unexplored territory for American high field science.' Researchers expect the advancements could be applied to several different fields, including medicine, national security and astrophysics. Since it is supported by the NSF, research teams from all over the world can submit experiment proposals for ZEUS. Franklin Dollar, a professor at the University of California-Irvine, is set to lead an experiment at the new power level. 'One of the great things about ZEUS is it's not just one big laser hammer. You can split the light into multiple beams,' he said in a . 'Having a national resource like this, which awards time to users whose experimental concepts are most promising for advancing scientific priorities, is really bringing high-intensity laser science back to the U.S.' University of Michigan launches new $7 billion fundraising campaign CUOS says 'the road to 2 petawatts' has been a long one. The previous laser system, HERCULES, got up to 300 terawatts. ZEUS helped them jump to 1 petawatt. The ZEUS team has already spent more than a year running experiments at that level. ZEUS requires many special pieces to make it work, including a 7-inch sapphire crystal that is infused with titanium atoms. ZEUS project manager Franko Bayer says they are already working on another one that will help them get even stronger. 'The crystal that we're going to get in the summer will get us to 3 petawatts, and it took four-and-a-half years to manufacture,' Bayer said in the blog post. 'The size of the titanium sapphire crystal we have, there are only a few in the world.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Gizmodo
20-05-2025
- Science
- Gizmodo
ZEUS Is Officially America's Most Powerful Laser, With 2-Petawatt Blast
The ZEUS laser, tucked away (as much as a giant laser can be) at the University of Michigan, just cranked out a pulse that makes it the most powerful laser beam in the country. ZEUS' peak power topped out at 2 petawatts, or a staggering 2 quadrillion watts, roughly 100 times the entire planet's power output. Of course, that level of energy is fleeting; the pulse lasts just 25 quintillionths of a second—just enough time for researchers to do some pretty revolutionary science. 'This milestone marks the beginning of experiments that move into unexplored territory for American high field science,' said Karl Krushelnick, director of the Gérard Mourou Center for Ultrafast Optical Science, where ZEUS is housed, in a Michigan release. ZEUS is short for Zettawatt Equivalent Ultrashort laser pulse System, and its power (at the risk of blasphemy) rivals that of the king of the Greek gods, who famously wields a lightning bolt as a symbol of his power. ZEUS is funded by the National Science Foundation, and scientists from around the world can apply to run experiments there—similar to the Linac Coherent Light Source II (or LCLS-II) at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Like LCLS-II—whose domain ranges from understanding photosynthesis and the cores of stars—the applications of ZEUS' laser range from plasma and quantum physics to medical imaging, particle acceleration, and materials research. 'The energy of the individual photons in a pulse from LCLS is about 20,000 times greater than the photons from the ZEUS laser—but the peak power is 100,000 times lower,' Krushelnick told Gizmodo in an email. Krushelnick added that the use cases of ZEUS are manifold, but measuring physics at extreme intensities, the development of new radiation sources, laboratory astrophysics and imaging small-scale materials are a few of its principal scientific uses. Franklin Dollar, a physicist at UC Irvine, will run the first 2-petawatt user experiment, aiming to produce electron beams with energies comparable to those from long particle accelerators. Should he and his team succeed, the electron beam energies will be between 5 and 10 times higher than any beams ZEUS has yet produced. ZEUS will accelerate electrons using wakefield acceleration, by which electrons essentially surf on plasma to accelerate to extremely high speeds. 'The quest for higher peak power lasers enables studies of the fundamental nature of light in the limit of extremely high instantaneous electromagnetic fields,' said Vyacheslav Lukin, program director in the NSF Division of Physics, which oversees the ZEUS project, in an email to Gizmodo. 'Just as ocean waves begin to break and foam as they get higher, electromagnetic waves act differently when the light becomes very intense and the electromagnetic field gets extremely strong.' The beam isn't just powerful—it's quite large. At its biggest, the laser pulse is one foot (0.3 meters) across and several feet long, according to the Michigan release. But the pulse is ultimately focused down to just 0.8 microns wide, to maximize the number of laser pulses available for experiments on ZEUS. But the big show is set for later this year, when the facility will get a titanium-infused sapphire crystal that will increase the laser's power to three petawatts. The crystal took nearly five years to manufacture and is about 7 inches (0.18 m) across. ZEUS' electrons will smash into laser pulses from the opposite direction, increasing the experiment's pulse to essentially zettawatt-scale in the frame of reference of the particle beam. About 15 months of user experiments have already been conducted on ZEUS' single petawatt laser, but now the facility is capable of hitting much more powerful energy pulses. With the new and improved laser, the team can better interrogate some of the universe's most fundamental physics, with implications across the sciences.
