A team of Czech and British scientists has managed to break a "magical barrier" and create the most powerful laser on Earth. This "super laser" is believed to be 10 times more powerful than any other laser of its kind in the world.
The new laser was developed through a collaboration between HiLASE (High average power pulsed laser), a Czech state research and development project, and Britain's Central Laser Facility.
"It is good for putting things on the map, but the more important point is that the underlying technology that has been developed here is going to transform the application of these high power, high energy lasers," CLF director John Collier said.
The super laser called Bivoj is capable of giving a 1000-watt average output. A regular handheld laser is capable of generating 75 milliwatts to 300 milliwatts.
The breakthrough is expected to have a major impact on several areas such as processing semiconductors, micro-machining different substances, and hardening metal surfaces.
The laser machine weighs nearly 20 tons. It took $48 million worth of investments to create the machine. The specialists working on this laser have noted that it is different from peak power lasers.
Currently, there are two peak power lasers in the world. These are one-petawatt Texas Petawatt Laser in Austin, and the other one is two-petawatt Laser for Fast Ignition Experiments (LFEX) located in Osaka, Japan. A petawatt denotes one million billion watts.
The scientists explained that the latest super laser has the highest average power, which is a combination of the repetition rate and the energy. The lasers in Austin and Osaka have a significantly lower repetition rate and are capable of reaching their high peak power only a couple of times a day.
The laser will be tested at the Dolni Brezany facility later this month. It is expected to be commercialized during the latter half of this year.