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Boffins double laser beam intensity
A LASER measuring 20 billion trillion watts per square centimetre focused on a 1.3 micron wide speck for 30 femtoseconds has been “pulsed” in the University of Michigan in the US.
Karl Krushelnick, a physics and engineering professor, told Sciencedaily.com, "I don't know of another place in the universe that would have this intensity of light. We believe this is a record."
Apparently it’s all done with mirrors as the boys in the lab store up the energy needed and then, using the well known chirped pulse amplification method, they bounce the light around to build up its intensity before shooting it off for a “microscopic fraction of a second.”
It is thought that there may be medical applications for the beam as well as pointing the giant “laser” at empty space and using its power to bring matter into creation. How intense is that? µ
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DEATH RAY.
Please don't look at the light !
I think a better application would be focusing it on some unsuspecting physics undergrad and setting fire to him.
By using that power/area rating it's difficult to work out the true power of this laser.

Power is a measure of energy/time - one watt is one joule/second so...

20 billion, trillion watts = 2x10^22 watts
30 femtoseconds = 3x10^-14 seconds

so the total energy = 6x10^10 joules

But...

1 cm^2 = 1x10^8um^2

so does it mean that that 2x10^22*1x10^8 watts was focused on 1 um^2 or does it just mean an absolute total of 2x10^22/1x10^8 watts?

A big difference, but either way it's still quite a lot.

Better check my maths.

the alan parsons project is getting out of hand
Mount two of these lasers on sharks, and have them fight.
So when's Val Kilmer going to create some popcorn in my house with this thing?
The total energy is actually = 6x10^8 J(or 600MJ) [22 - 14 = 8)

It's still a lot...
There were a few here but now there are none. Why's that?
Any application for generating fusion perhap?
Actually the value quoted here is the peak intensity of the focussed pulse - not the average power of the laser in total.

Given that it was focussed to approximately 1.3 microns diameter, an estimate of the peak power of the laser beam going in is approximately 265 Terawatts. Given that the pulses are 30 femtoseconds long this gives an approximate energy per pulse of 8 Joules.

Whilst this may seem a small amount to all you no ultrashort-laser experts out there, it is actually extremely large. Consider that a microjoule pulse at 30 fs is easily able to completely ionise air and therefore turn it into a plasma, you may get an idea of what an 8J pulse is capable of.