The development of laser weapons first began in March 1964, but greater progress was made after the reform and opening up. The “High-Tech Research and Development Program (863 Program)” was launched in March 1986, and laser pointer technology is one of the subjects in the 863 Program.
Recently, researchers from the latest issue of “Optics Letters” biweekly wrote an article that they have created the most powerful laser so far, which may be widely used in nuclear physics and high-tech weapons in the future. This laser has a peak power of 5.13 petawatts (a petawatt) and a duration of 30 femtoseconds (1 femtosecond is equal to one trillionth of a second).
Starting from Star Wars, lasers with simple principles have such a wide range of applications. Next time you walk into the movie theater, can you think about the physics behind the popular movie props?
Having said so much, can a laser sword be made? ? In fact, the answer is very simple. If you try to intersect two beams of light, will they collide like an iron sword? Not only will it not, if there are no obstacles (opaque objects), two strong laser beams can also travel through the sky, and will not only stay more than one meter in the air.
In fact, lightsabers and green laser pointer have nothing to do with each other. Plasma is a magic horse, we will talk about it later. But the editor is very responsible to tell you that a cool lightsaber like the one in Star Wars cannot be made by laser alone. So when you watch Star Wars next time, don’t say “Laser Sword” again!