A scientific research team composed of British and Czech scientists announced that they have successfully developed a “super laser pointer” whose energy intensity is 10 times that of equipment of the same level. This high peak power laser has an average output power of 1000 watts and has a continuous, high-energy pulse reference. In the future, it can be used in the aviation, automotive and power sectors, such as hardening metal surfaces, processing semiconductors or micro materials. The laser weighs 20 metric tons and costs $48 million.
The laser was jointly developed by the British Laser Equipment Research Center and a national research project from the Czech Republic—High-Frequency Pulsed Laser Engineering. The director said, “This research is very important and will become a new world record. This technology will change the way high-energy lasers are used.” A research team formed by British and Czech scientists successfully tested the “Super Laser” and proved that its power is 10 times that of other such devices.
Since the average energy intensity of the high peak power laser is 10 times the current world level, the scientific research team named this laser Bivoj, which is the name of a warrior in Czech mythology. HiLASE director Mocek revealed that Bivoj broke the 1,000-watt output power mark on December 16 last year, setting a world record among similar lasers. “This has made the development of lasers a big step forward and won the Olympic gold medal. Just as exciting.”
There are currently two peak power green laser pointer in the world-the Texas laser with 1 petawatt from Austin, and the LFEX laser with 2 petawatts from Osaka (one petawatt equals 1,000 trillion watts). Both lasers have very high power peaks, but they can only be reached several times a day, so the power of these lasers is not average. Bivoj is fundamentally different from ordinary peak power lasers, and its average power is the highest. In contrast, the Austin and Osaka lasers peaked too few times in a day.