World's Most Powerful Laser Diode Arrays Deployed 63

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday March 17, 2015 @12:08AM from the aside-from-the-secret-white-house-defense-lasers dept.

Zothecula writes: The High-Repetition-Rate Advanced Petawatt Laser System (HAPLS) under construction in the Czech Republic is designed to generate a peak power of more than 1 petawatt. The key component to this instrument – the laser "pump" – will be a set of solid-state laser diode arrays recently constructed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. At peak power, this electronic assemblage develops a staggering 3.2 million watts of power and are the most powerful laser diode arrays ever built.

World's Most Powerful Laser Diode Arrays Deployed

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Don't look at the... (Score:4, Informative)

by Prof.Phreak ( 584152 ) writes: on Tuesday March 17, 2015 @12:10AM (#49272895) Homepage

Laser Diode Arrays with remaining eye.

- Re: (Score:2)
  
  by jimmydevice ( 699057 ) writes:
  
  Laser in your next life.
- - Re:Don't look at the... (Score:5, Funny)
    
    by bolek_b ( 246528 ) writes: on Tuesday March 17, 2015 @03:53AM (#49273413) Homepage
    
    Don't worry, we don't have any sharks in Czech Republic, we are a landlocked country. At best, we could come up with laser-bearing carps or catfish.
    
    - Re: (Score:1)
      
      by whopub ( 1100981 ) writes:
      
      A leaked Pentagon memo I had access to states that the ultimate weapon will be laser-turtles. Stability is a huge concern, to maximize accuracy and prevent friendly fire incidents. The fact that they already have armor was also factored in.
- - Re: (Score:3)
    
    by some old guy ( 674482 ) writes:
    
    You go first.
    - Re: (Score:2)
      
      by LifesABeach ( 234436 ) writes:
      
      I was just thinking of any silos holding corn that are in the beam path; the YouTube videos will be epic!
- Re: (Score:1)
  
  by Anonymous Coward writes:
  
  I'm pretty sure this would blind you so hard that your children would inherit blindness. Even the ones already born.
- Re: (Score:2)
  
  by necro81 ( 917438 ) writes:
  
  Don't look at the Laser Diode Arrays with remaining half of skull.
- Re: (Score:2)
  
  by d34thm0nk3y ( 653414 ) writes:
  
  Don't look at the Laser Diode Arrays with remaining eye.
  
  More like: Don't look at the Laser Diode Arrays with remaining head.
  
  Yes Zaphod, you.
I can now (Score:2)

by invictusvoyd ( 3546069 ) writes:

Finally have my shark tank with lazer beams attached to their heads ... mwahahhaha
- - Re: (Score:1)
    
    by The Grim Reefer ( 1162755 ) writes:
    
    According to an article posted yesterday it can be either. Your stylistic convention [slashdot.org] is just different from the GP. ;-)
    - - Re: (Score:1)
        
        by The Grim Reefer ( 1162755 ) writes:
        
        She probably hadn't watched Dr. Strangelove.
        
        Re: (Score:2)
        
        by LifesABeach ( 234436 ) writes:
        
        The one thing I keep thinking is, "why would a U.S. research group put a peta watt anything somewhere far away for testing; and in this case, a place with lots of rocky mountains?"
- Re: (Score:1)
  
  by Duvzo ( 221790 ) writes:
  
  It's a LASER - the A stands for Amplification
- Re:Consistency (Score:5, Interesting)
  
  by joe_frisch ( 1366229 ) writes: on Tuesday March 17, 2015 @04:37AM (#49273551)
  
  the pump is probably 3.2MW for a long pulse (100s of microseconds), and the output is petawatts for a short time (femtoseconds).Diodes are often used to pump solid state laser materials that store energy for many microseconds, then release it much more quickly. (along with chirp pulse amplification to get even larger power compression).
  
- Re: (Score:1)
  
  by aliquis ( 678370 ) writes:
  
  It doesn't draw 3.2 gigawatt from the power grid but fires 1 petawatt of light energy (or used by the lasers?) when it's actually fire.
  As in at most fire 1/300 of the time.
- Re: (Score:1)
  
  by aliquis ( 678370 ) writes:
  
  Sorry. Didn't cared about the units here.
  The point was more important than being correct =P
  1/300 000 of the time :)
Lost Opportunity (Score:3)

by deek ( 22697 ) writes: on Tuesday March 17, 2015 @12:38AM (#49272953) Homepage Journal

If only they had called it the High-repetition-rate Advanced Petawatt Laser Emission SyStem.

- Re: (Score:2)
  
  by Brad1138 ( 590148 ) writes:
  
  I see what you did there.
- Re: (Score:3)
  
  by Rei ( 128717 ) writes:
  
  Haven't even read the article, but I can tell you that such a thing is pretty much an essential requirement to have a chance of commercializing any sort of laser-driven inertial confinement fusion. A fusion reactor that can only fire off a pulse once every day or so is pretty worthless ;) The other high repetition rate component that you need is a high repetition precision injection of holhraums.
  There's two main types of reactors in particular to which this would apply. First you have your pure inertial co
  - What's it for (Score:1)
    
    by Nathan Piper ( 3544235 ) writes:
    
    Or in layman's terms "They'll use it for doing fusion reaction experiments more quickly"
    - Re: (Score:2)
      
      by LifesABeach ( 234436 ) writes:
      
      That's cool; so where are they getting the H3?
- Re: (Score:2)
  
  by fractoid ( 1076465 ) writes:
  
  It goes 'pew pew'.
- Re: (Score:2)
  
  by PPH ( 736903 ) writes:
  
  Popcorn.
  - Re: (Score:2)
    
    by Erbo ( 384 ) writes:
    
    "Making enormous Swiss cheese?"
In other news... (Score:5, Funny)

by wonkey_monkey ( 2592601 ) writes: on Tuesday March 17, 2015 @04:02AM (#49273439) Homepage

World's largest cat goes mental

- Re: (Score:2)
  
  by Grench ( 833454 ) writes:
  
  My mod points lapsed; if they hadn't, you'd have got a "Funny" from me because I laughed. Thanks for that! :D
  - Re:In other news... (Score:4, Funny)
    
    by wonkey_monkey ( 2592601 ) writes: on Tuesday March 17, 2015 @07:34AM (#49274377) Homepage
    
    A complimentary comment is worth to me than mod points.
    But not as much as cash, so, y'know, if you really want to show your appreciation...
    
Nerdy facts about this pulse (Score:5, Interesting)

by DrTJ ( 4014489 ) writes: on Tuesday March 17, 2015 @04:10AM (#49273459)

T=30fs, P=1PW => E=30J
Each pulse carries about 30 joules of energy.
The pulse only lasts for 30 fs. In that time, it travels s=30fs*300 000 000 m/s = 9 um.
The pulse is thus only 9 microns thick.
They don't state the wavelength in the article, but since they say laser and not maser or IR laser, it's visible.
With a nice green colour, i.e. 500 nm, the pulse is only 18 wavelengths long.
The energy of each (green) photon is E=hc/lamda = 2.2E-20 J. Thus, each pulse packs about
30J/2.2E-20J = 1.36E21 photons. [That's 1.5E26 photons per meter (mass of earth ~5E24 kg).]
Good job, coordinating that rather sizable pack of riotous photons in a timely manner.

How not to edit a story (Score:3)

by Andy_R ( 114137 ) writes: on Tuesday March 17, 2015 @05:57AM (#49273923) Homepage Journal

If you're going to edit an article, don't just cut out the least significant words, or you'll be left with nonsense.
According to the summary, this laser somehow generates power instead of consuming it, and it generates "3.2 million watts of power", which is "more than 1 petawatt".

Things sure have changed... (Score:3, Interesting)

by sabbede ( 2678435 ) writes: on Tuesday March 17, 2015 @06:25AM (#49274055)

When I was a kid, Czechoslovakia was a Soviet satellite hidden behind the Iron Curtain and a fog of evil. Now, one of our government's top research labs is building a big-ass laser (death ray) there.
The future really is a much nicer place than the past.

Quick Call Agent P (Score:2)

by TargetBoy ( 322020 ) writes:

The project lead is one Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz!
Link for further proof: http://phineasandferb.wikia.com/wiki/S%27Winter/Transcript
Big Ole Laser (Score:2)

by jjbenz ( 581536 ) writes:

Is it too late to make a comment about the Death Star?
- Re: (Score:2)
  
  by neo-mkrey ( 948389 ) writes:
  
  No, it is never too late for a Star Wars reference.
Combine that with a large spinning mirror, (Score:2)

by Thatto ( 258697 ) writes:

...and you could vaporize a human target from space.
- Re: (Score:2)
  
  by Erbo ( 384 ) writes:
  
  Or pop a lot of popcorn.
- Re: (Score:2)
  
  by K. S. Kyosuke ( 729550 ) writes:
  
  Combine a lot of these with an ascending rocket and you could have a beam-powered launch vehicle. ;-)
laser pointer (Score:2)

by kimvette ( 919543 ) writes:

when can I buy this in the form of a laser pointer for my cat?

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Don't look at the... (Score:4, Informative)

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Re:Don't look at the... (Score:5, Funny)

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I can now (Score:2)

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Re:Consistency (Score:5, Interesting)

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Lost Opportunity (Score:3)

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What's it for (Score:1)

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In other news... (Score:5, Funny)

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Re:In other news... (Score:4, Funny)

Nerdy facts about this pulse (Score:5, Interesting)

How not to edit a story (Score:3)

Things sure have changed... (Score:3, Interesting)

Quick Call Agent P (Score:2)

Big Ole Laser (Score:2)

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Combine that with a large spinning mirror, (Score:2)

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laser pointer (Score:2)

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