Japan fires world's most powerful laser

LFEX laser at Osaka University passes milestone in nuclear fusion development programme

Japanese researchers have fired the world's most powerful laser.

The LFEX (Laser for Fast Ignition Experiment) at Osaka University's Institute of Laser Engineering fired a 2 petawatt, (2,000 trillion watt) beam for one trillionth of a second (1 picosecond).

The LFEX Laser, which builds upon earlier work with a machine called the Gecko XII at Osaka, amplifies four separate beams by using large diameter vessel technology and what the researchers claim are the world's highest performing multilayer dielectric diffraction gratings. The gratings are placed at different points along the 100m machine to manipulate the beam.

The energy of the laser beam is reported as being the equivalent of the power required to run a microwave for two seconds, but is concentrated to a short pulse to increase the massive output.

The LFEX is part of the FIREX research programme, which aims to develop a laser powerful enough to compress deuterium and tritium sufficiently to achieve nuclear fusion, so called “fast ignition laser fusion”. The research can also be applied to other areas, such as non-destructive inspection and cancer treatments, Osaka University said.

The 2 petawatt level has been achieved “dozens of times” over the last month, and the next step is to increase the output to 10 petawatts.

The second most powerful laser in the world is the 500 terawatts (0.5 petawatt) National Ignition Facility (NIF) at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.