Scientists create ultra-high power compact lasers with special "mirrors"

Recently, researchers at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland, UK, have created a laser-driven "mirror", which can reflect or manipulate light.

At present, the volume of building space occupied by some ultra-high power lasers is almost the size of aircraft hangar. Although this "mirror" only exists for a short time, it can help reduce the size of ultra-high power laser to the size of university basement.

This new method of producing mirrors and other optical elements points the way for the development of the next generation of high-power lasers - from hundreds of petawatts (1015 watts) to watts (1018 watts). The new research was published in the journal Communications Physics.

The scientists said that in the future, they might develop this "mirror" into a variety of high damage threshold optical elements based on plasma, so as to create an ultra-short pulse laser system with smaller footprint and ultra-high power.

(Image source: University of Strathclyde)

More stable and powerful, more widely used
Professor Dino Jaroszynski, from the Department of Physics of the University of Siclade, who led the research, said: "High power lasers are tools for research in many fields, such as medicine, biology, material science, chemistry and physics. A university can create a more compact tool at a reasonable price; making high power lasers more widely used will change the way of scientific research."

"This work has greatly improved the most advanced level of high power lasers by proposing new methods of manufacturing optical elements. These optical elements are more stable and powerful than existing elements, and are transient, which makes them unique. High power lasers become more compact and stronger, which will bring new research directions. The research team is currently planning further principle verification experiments to prove the robustness of plasma optical elements Sex and fidelity. "

"New Hope" of optical elements with high damage threshold

In this new study, a layered plasma mirror is fabricated by using a back propagation laser beam. The back-propagating laser beam generates vibration waves in the plasma, driving electrons and ions into regular layered structure, which is like a very stable and high reflectivity mirror. This "mirror" exists for a short time, only a few picoseconds (less than 1/100000000000 seconds), but it can make very strong laser reflected or manipulated.

The transient layered plasma is called volume Bragg grating, which is similar to the Bragg structure in crystals and has a diameter of only a few millimeters. It has the potential to be developed into various high damage threshold optical elements based on plasma, thus forming a laser system with small floor area, ultra-high power and ultra-short pulse.

Dr. Gregory Vieux from the University of Stratford and Professor Jaroszynski designed and conducted experiments at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) of the British Council for Science and Technology Facilities (STFC), He said: "This new method of producing transient intense plasma mirror may completely change the accelerator and light source, because it will make them very compact and can produce ultra-intense light pulse with ultra-short duration, which is much shorter than the light pulse easily produced by any other method."

"The plasma can withstand the intensity of up to 1018 watts per square centimeter, which exceeds the threshold of traditional optical damage by 4-5 orders of magnitude. This will reduce the size of optical elements by 2-3 orders of magnitude, and reduce the size of optical elements in meters to the level of millimeters or centimeters."

Source: OFweek