It is trillions of times brighter than the sun. Scientists assemble the world’s most powerful laser: why is it needed?

British scientists will create the world’s most powerful laser, costing $104 million, to test methods of generating energy using nuclear fusion. The Times writes about it.

The Vulcan 20-20 laser, which will be based in Harwell in Oxfordshire, will produce a beam trillions of times brighter than the brightest sunlight. The laser pulse will be capable of delivering more power than the entire National Grid, but will last less than a trillionth of a second and be focused on a target just a few micrometers wide. The laser, which is expected to be produced by 2029, will be used, among other things, to test methods of generating energy through nuclear fusion, the holy grail for physicists, the publication writes.

Scientists at other institutions, most notably the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, are already using high-power lasers to fuse hydrogen atoms. This makes it possible to obtain helium by reproducing the reactions occurring inside the Sun. However, for this type of energy production to become commercially viable, the process needs to be made much more efficient. For these purposes, British scientists need the Vulcan 20-20 laser.

With its help, scientists want to study the so-called “pulse ignition” phenomenon. Roughly speaking, a peppercorn-sized fuel pellet made of deuterium and tritium, two isotopes of hydrogen, is placed inside a plastic capsule. Laser beams transform the capsule into rapidly expanding plasma. This crushes the fuel pellet to one-thirtieth of its original size in a billionth of a second. The pressure reached is six times greater than the pressure inside the Sun. The fuel “ignites” at a temperature of approximately 100 million degrees Celsius, causing a controlled fusion reaction that produces energy.

Physicists will aim to observe different parts of the process separately using Vulcan 20-20. The aim, they say, is to test ideas that can then be used to build experimental power plants.

Vulcan 20-20 will also be used for “laboratory astrophysics,” in which scientists simulate conditions observed in events such as supernova explosions that accompany the death of certain types of stars. It can also be used to create matter from light. This occurs by colliding photons, which can be considered “packets” of light, to form pairs of electrons and positrons. These matter and antimatter particles are thought to form around neutron stars in the far reaches of space, but we know little about how they arise.

Previously Focus He said that scientists developed the electrode using lasers. The special MXene electrode is no longer affected by molybdenum deposits, opening up the possibility of using cheaper components than lithium in batteries.