What is the most powerful laser today?

[AlexGT]

What is the most powerful laser in the world, period? I've seen lasers blow missiles out of the sky, but I want to know what is the bleeding edge in this technology?

How many MW or GW have we achieved?

Alex

 

[kongfuchicken]

"The most powerful ultraviolet laser in the world, (the 60-terawatt Omega, at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics at the University of Rochester, New York) is used to test fusion experiments (the same nuclear energy that powers the sun). In less than a billionth of a second, the laser sends the temperature in a tiny pellet from just a few degrees above absolute zero to nearly 30 million degrees Celsius -- twice as hot as the core of the sun. For this brief period of time the laser power is about 100 times the peak power of the entire U.S. power grid. An even more powerful laser is under construction at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California."

From Simon's website (megalaser.com)

 

[Steve_Chism]

Wow...that's insane. I'm going to stop complaining about how warm it gets during the summer /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/drool.gif

 

[Lux Luthor]

[ QUOTE ]
kongfuchicken said:...An even more powerful laser is under construction at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California...

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes. It's called the National Ignition Facility. It will dwarf the one in Rochester.

 

[kakster]

How about an X-ray laser ?

 

[Frangible]

The most powerful laser in the US that can lase continously and not just as a millionth of a second pulse is the MIRACL, a chemical laser developed under the SDI program.

http://www.fas.org/spp/military/program/asat/miracl.htm