1 00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:07,120 Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how 2 00:00:07,200 --> 00:00:13,840 Speaker 1: stuff Works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 3 00:00:13,880 --> 00:00:17,040 Speaker 1: I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with 4 00:00:17,079 --> 00:00:19,160 Speaker 1: how Stuff Works in a lot of all things tech, 5 00:00:19,800 --> 00:00:22,479 Speaker 1: and today we're going to revisit a topic I have 6 00:00:22,600 --> 00:00:25,959 Speaker 1: talked about numerous times. I've covered the topic of lasers 7 00:00:26,040 --> 00:00:28,680 Speaker 1: on quite a few episodes of tech Stuff. In fact, 8 00:00:28,960 --> 00:00:30,840 Speaker 1: if you've been listening long enough, you know I used 9 00:00:30,840 --> 00:00:37,240 Speaker 1: to always bust out the laser kind of dr evil 10 00:00:37,240 --> 00:00:39,839 Speaker 1: pronunciation at least once in every episode. So we got 11 00:00:39,840 --> 00:00:41,760 Speaker 1: that all the way good to know we can go 12 00:00:41,880 --> 00:00:45,120 Speaker 1: right into the actual meat of this episode. So I 13 00:00:45,159 --> 00:00:48,239 Speaker 1: thought today we were going to cover some specific lasers 14 00:00:48,640 --> 00:00:52,559 Speaker 1: and explain what people are doing with those lasers. And 15 00:00:52,560 --> 00:00:54,480 Speaker 1: I think most of us are familiar with the general 16 00:00:54,520 --> 00:00:57,040 Speaker 1: concept of lasers, but we're gonna talk a little bit 17 00:00:57,080 --> 00:00:59,760 Speaker 1: about how they work because it's important to understand the 18 00:00:59,760 --> 00:01:04,080 Speaker 1: Bay six in order to get a deeper appreciation for 19 00:01:04,319 --> 00:01:06,800 Speaker 1: the high powered lasers I'm going to talk about today, 20 00:01:06,800 --> 00:01:09,280 Speaker 1: because we're talking about some of the most powerful lasers 21 00:01:09,360 --> 00:01:13,039 Speaker 1: in the world in this episode. So lasers are focused 22 00:01:13,080 --> 00:01:16,319 Speaker 1: beams of light they're used in you know, wicked light 23 00:01:16,360 --> 00:01:20,119 Speaker 1: shows like with Pink Floyd, or they're used to frustrate 24 00:01:20,160 --> 00:01:23,760 Speaker 1: household pets. In science fiction, they're used either by or 25 00:01:23,800 --> 00:01:28,279 Speaker 1: against robots and aliens or both. In the real world, 26 00:01:28,720 --> 00:01:32,360 Speaker 1: they're used for all sorts of stuff, from conducting experiments too, 27 00:01:33,200 --> 00:01:34,880 Speaker 1: in order to learn more about stuff like you know, 28 00:01:34,959 --> 00:01:39,520 Speaker 1: quantum effects, all the way to you know, removing unwanted hair. Now, 29 00:01:39,560 --> 00:01:41,880 Speaker 1: it would not be an episode of tech stuff if 30 00:01:41,920 --> 00:01:44,080 Speaker 1: I didn't take the opportunity to at least go over 31 00:01:44,080 --> 00:01:46,240 Speaker 1: the basics of how a laser works. So tuck in 32 00:01:46,360 --> 00:01:50,960 Speaker 1: here we go. The word laser used to be an acronym, 33 00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:54,120 Speaker 1: so I guess technically it's still kind of is an acronym, 34 00:01:54,240 --> 00:01:57,400 Speaker 1: but we recognize laser as being a noun all on 35 00:01:57,480 --> 00:01:59,480 Speaker 1: its own, so you don't have to capitalize all the 36 00:01:59,520 --> 00:02:02,000 Speaker 1: letters the way you would with a typical acronym. The 37 00:02:02,120 --> 00:02:07,880 Speaker 1: letters do stand for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. 38 00:02:07,960 --> 00:02:11,360 Speaker 1: But what the heck does that mean? All right, this 39 00:02:11,480 --> 00:02:14,640 Speaker 1: requires us to go back into some basic elementary school 40 00:02:14,680 --> 00:02:18,400 Speaker 1: science stuff. You remember the structure of an atom, right, 41 00:02:18,480 --> 00:02:20,480 Speaker 1: you that you got the nucleus in the middle. It's 42 00:02:20,480 --> 00:02:24,480 Speaker 1: made up of protons and neutrons. Around that nucleus orbit 43 00:02:24,639 --> 00:02:28,919 Speaker 1: one or more electrons, depending upon which element you're talking about, 44 00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:31,760 Speaker 1: whether or not it's an ion, the electrons and have 45 00:02:31,919 --> 00:02:35,800 Speaker 1: it a space around the nucleus that we call the 46 00:02:35,800 --> 00:02:39,680 Speaker 1: electrons orbital or its energy shell or energy level. So 47 00:02:39,720 --> 00:02:44,480 Speaker 1: electrons can only have certain discrete values of energy. They 48 00:02:44,480 --> 00:02:50,280 Speaker 1: cannot be you know, any value between two. It's one value, 49 00:02:50,320 --> 00:02:53,080 Speaker 1: and then the next layer level up is another value, 50 00:02:53,080 --> 00:02:56,519 Speaker 1: and so on. They are discreet. Each energy shell can 51 00:02:56,560 --> 00:03:00,960 Speaker 1: only hold a certain number of electrons. The shell closest 52 00:03:01,080 --> 00:03:03,560 Speaker 1: to the nucleus is what we would call the K 53 00:03:03,840 --> 00:03:07,680 Speaker 1: shell or the one shell. It can hold two electrons. 54 00:03:08,639 --> 00:03:11,600 Speaker 1: Next out is an orbital that can hold an additional 55 00:03:11,840 --> 00:03:14,239 Speaker 1: six electrons, so now you have up to eight total. 56 00:03:14,520 --> 00:03:17,800 Speaker 1: The third shell can hold an additional ten electrons, so 57 00:03:17,880 --> 00:03:22,120 Speaker 1: you could have a possibility of eighteen electrons with three 58 00:03:22,120 --> 00:03:26,760 Speaker 1: electron shells are orbiting an atom or nucleus, I should 59 00:03:26,760 --> 00:03:30,240 Speaker 1: say not not orbiting an atom, because the atoms the 60 00:03:30,240 --> 00:03:34,600 Speaker 1: whole thing. Anyway, each of those energy shells are important. 61 00:03:34,600 --> 00:03:38,120 Speaker 1: It tells you the ground state for any given electron. 62 00:03:38,360 --> 00:03:41,560 Speaker 1: It will always be at the lowest energy shell it 63 00:03:41,680 --> 00:03:45,040 Speaker 1: can inhabit. So if an energy shells full, so if 64 00:03:45,080 --> 00:03:47,840 Speaker 1: that burst energy shells full, the electron has to be 65 00:03:47,840 --> 00:03:51,480 Speaker 1: in the second shell or or higher, depending on how 66 00:03:51,520 --> 00:03:55,560 Speaker 1: many there are there. Now, if you add energy to 67 00:03:55,720 --> 00:03:59,000 Speaker 1: an atom, that energy would cause those electrons to move 68 00:03:59,040 --> 00:04:02,640 Speaker 1: into higher in G shells, to move further out from 69 00:04:02,720 --> 00:04:06,440 Speaker 1: the nucleus. So if you pump energy into atoms, the 70 00:04:06,480 --> 00:04:09,320 Speaker 1: electrons begin to move further out. And if you pump 71 00:04:09,480 --> 00:04:12,880 Speaker 1: enough energy, and you could actually strip electrons away from atoms, 72 00:04:12,920 --> 00:04:16,039 Speaker 1: at least temporarily, but you would then have a charged 73 00:04:16,200 --> 00:04:19,240 Speaker 1: nucleus and you probably have some free electrons running everywhere. 74 00:04:19,240 --> 00:04:21,840 Speaker 1: They would quote unquote want to get back together because 75 00:04:21,839 --> 00:04:25,360 Speaker 1: those opposite charges would attract one another. But what happens 76 00:04:25,360 --> 00:04:29,719 Speaker 1: if you stop adding energy to the atom, Well, the 77 00:04:29,800 --> 00:04:35,560 Speaker 1: electrons will return to their normal ground energy states. However, 78 00:04:36,240 --> 00:04:39,159 Speaker 1: they cannot do that while still holding on to that 79 00:04:39,520 --> 00:04:42,240 Speaker 1: energy you pumped into them. So first they have to 80 00:04:42,320 --> 00:04:46,039 Speaker 1: release that excess energy in some way, and electrons do 81 00:04:46,160 --> 00:04:50,960 Speaker 1: this by releasing photons, the particles of light. That's one 82 00:04:51,040 --> 00:04:54,000 Speaker 1: part that's really important to remember with lasers. The other 83 00:04:54,040 --> 00:04:58,240 Speaker 1: big important thing to remember is that frequency or wavelength, 84 00:04:58,360 --> 00:05:02,000 Speaker 1: and thus the color of light released is dependent upon 85 00:05:02,120 --> 00:05:05,480 Speaker 1: both the lasing medium itself, what that material is made 86 00:05:05,480 --> 00:05:09,080 Speaker 1: out of, and the energy difference between the excited state 87 00:05:09,200 --> 00:05:12,159 Speaker 1: of the electron and its ground state. How much energy 88 00:05:12,200 --> 00:05:16,200 Speaker 1: did you pour into this thing. Different atoms will release 89 00:05:16,279 --> 00:05:20,880 Speaker 1: different frequencies or colors of light. So, for example, if 90 00:05:20,920 --> 00:05:25,200 Speaker 1: you excite the electrons in a ruby lazing medium that 91 00:05:25,279 --> 00:05:28,240 Speaker 1: has a lot of chromium ions in it, it will 92 00:05:28,320 --> 00:05:31,840 Speaker 1: produce a red light assuming you're doing the normal amount 93 00:05:31,839 --> 00:05:35,440 Speaker 1: of energy pouring into this. Other lasing media will produce 94 00:05:35,520 --> 00:05:38,760 Speaker 1: different wavelengths of light and thus different colors. That can 95 00:05:38,800 --> 00:05:41,800 Speaker 1: include light that's actually outside the visible spectrum, so you 96 00:05:41,839 --> 00:05:45,279 Speaker 1: can have lasers that are infrared lasers or ultraviolet lasers. 97 00:05:45,600 --> 00:05:48,320 Speaker 1: Those would be invisible to the human eye. But as 98 00:05:48,400 --> 00:05:51,520 Speaker 1: I mentioned, the wavelength also also depends upon how much 99 00:05:51,600 --> 00:05:54,400 Speaker 1: energy you pumped into the electrons before they return to 100 00:05:54,440 --> 00:05:57,640 Speaker 1: their ground state. Now, unlike the light we would get 101 00:05:57,760 --> 00:06:01,240 Speaker 1: from an incandescence source like a light bulb, all the 102 00:06:01,279 --> 00:06:04,640 Speaker 1: photons from a lasing medium will be of the exact 103 00:06:04,800 --> 00:06:09,480 Speaker 1: same wavelength, so they'll all be the same color. Moreover, 104 00:06:09,960 --> 00:06:14,400 Speaker 1: the photons are in are are coherent. That means that 105 00:06:14,960 --> 00:06:17,200 Speaker 1: if you were to chart the waves of a laser, 106 00:06:17,680 --> 00:06:20,760 Speaker 1: all the photons would match up with their crests and 107 00:06:20,839 --> 00:06:25,040 Speaker 1: troughs in lockstep with one another. Normal visible light consists 108 00:06:25,080 --> 00:06:28,480 Speaker 1: of photons of different wavelengths and they are not coherent. 109 00:06:28,520 --> 00:06:33,080 Speaker 1: They are not moving at the same lockstep pace. The 110 00:06:33,160 --> 00:06:36,200 Speaker 1: coherence of a laser allows it to remain focused in 111 00:06:36,240 --> 00:06:40,400 Speaker 1: a tight beam over great distances. Directionality is another important 112 00:06:40,839 --> 00:06:44,800 Speaker 1: fact factor with lasers. Now that's in sharp contrast to 113 00:06:44,839 --> 00:06:48,599 Speaker 1: the light from an incandescence source, which is diffuse not coherent. 114 00:06:49,279 --> 00:06:53,720 Speaker 1: For your typical, you know, laboratory laser, the way you 115 00:06:53,760 --> 00:06:57,160 Speaker 1: would stimulate the lasing medium is you would expose the 116 00:06:57,240 --> 00:07:01,840 Speaker 1: lasing medium to an extremely intent flash of white light 117 00:07:01,960 --> 00:07:06,160 Speaker 1: from powerful flash lamps for a fraction of a second. Typically, 118 00:07:06,520 --> 00:07:09,640 Speaker 1: this is called pumping the lasing medium. As you are 119 00:07:09,680 --> 00:07:14,400 Speaker 1: pouring energy into the medium the collection of atoms and 120 00:07:14,440 --> 00:07:18,120 Speaker 1: thus exciting the electrons in those atoms to higher energy states, 121 00:07:18,440 --> 00:07:22,280 Speaker 1: and when they come back down they release these photons 122 00:07:22,320 --> 00:07:26,640 Speaker 1: of the same wavelength and energy level. This process happens 123 00:07:26,680 --> 00:07:29,520 Speaker 1: so fast that it's really hard to wrap your mind 124 00:07:29,560 --> 00:07:31,720 Speaker 1: around it all or at least, it's very hard for 125 00:07:31,760 --> 00:07:34,440 Speaker 1: me to do that because we're talking about times that 126 00:07:34,480 --> 00:07:38,000 Speaker 1: are at one million of a second or even shorter 127 00:07:38,080 --> 00:07:41,320 Speaker 1: than that. So typically the goal is to excite electrons 128 00:07:41,360 --> 00:07:45,320 Speaker 1: to an energy level two or three levels higher than 129 00:07:45,360 --> 00:07:48,920 Speaker 1: their normal ground state. That increases what is called the 130 00:07:49,040 --> 00:07:53,160 Speaker 1: population inversion. That is the relationship between the number of 131 00:07:53,200 --> 00:07:56,360 Speaker 1: atoms that are in an excited state compared to those 132 00:07:56,440 --> 00:08:00,320 Speaker 1: in the ground state. So we call it inverted because 133 00:08:00,320 --> 00:08:04,360 Speaker 1: typically most atoms are in a ground state, but now 134 00:08:04,400 --> 00:08:07,840 Speaker 1: we've inverted that where most atoms are in an excited state. 135 00:08:08,360 --> 00:08:11,080 Speaker 1: As the electrons calm the heck down, they release these 136 00:08:11,080 --> 00:08:14,760 Speaker 1: photons of the same wavelength. Since that lasing medium is 137 00:08:14,760 --> 00:08:17,480 Speaker 1: obviously made out of all the same stuff, these photons 138 00:08:17,520 --> 00:08:21,040 Speaker 1: are locked together, so their wavefront's launching unison. That's what 139 00:08:21,120 --> 00:08:24,000 Speaker 1: makes them coherent, and they are very directional. And this 140 00:08:24,120 --> 00:08:28,240 Speaker 1: happens because of the stimulated emission part of lasers. So 141 00:08:28,560 --> 00:08:31,800 Speaker 1: you've got an excited electron, it returns to its ground state, 142 00:08:31,880 --> 00:08:35,240 Speaker 1: it releases a photon of a certain wavelength. If that 143 00:08:35,280 --> 00:08:38,840 Speaker 1: photon happens to run into an atom that also has 144 00:08:38,880 --> 00:08:42,200 Speaker 1: an electron that was in that same excited state, the 145 00:08:42,240 --> 00:08:45,840 Speaker 1: photon can stimulate that atom so that the photon the 146 00:08:45,920 --> 00:08:49,439 Speaker 1: atom will emit when it's electron returns to its ground state, 147 00:08:50,000 --> 00:08:52,240 Speaker 1: is going to vibrate the same as that first photon, 148 00:08:52,360 --> 00:08:54,559 Speaker 1: and it will also move in the same direction as 149 00:08:54,600 --> 00:08:58,680 Speaker 1: that first photon. Mirrors make up another important component in 150 00:08:58,720 --> 00:09:02,160 Speaker 1: your typical laser. So let's think of a very simple laser. 151 00:09:02,200 --> 00:09:06,080 Speaker 1: Imagine you've got a tube and this tube is your laser. 152 00:09:06,800 --> 00:09:10,240 Speaker 1: On either end of the tube, you have mirrors that 153 00:09:10,280 --> 00:09:13,520 Speaker 1: are facing into the tube's center, and in the middle 154 00:09:13,559 --> 00:09:16,199 Speaker 1: of the tube, you've got the lazing medium and you've 155 00:09:16,240 --> 00:09:21,920 Speaker 1: got a big flash lamp pointed at this tube and 156 00:09:22,040 --> 00:09:27,720 Speaker 1: it can shoot extremely intense white light at the lasing medium, 157 00:09:27,920 --> 00:09:33,600 Speaker 1: which then ends up inducing this this uh laser to 158 00:09:33,800 --> 00:09:37,560 Speaker 1: to begin this this you know, this stimulated a mission 159 00:09:37,600 --> 00:09:41,640 Speaker 1: process to begin, and so you get photons that are 160 00:09:41,720 --> 00:09:45,680 Speaker 1: emitted by these excited atoms. They traveled down the tube, 161 00:09:45,840 --> 00:09:48,959 Speaker 1: they hit a mirror, bounces back, and it passes through 162 00:09:49,000 --> 00:09:52,559 Speaker 1: the lasing medium again and that gives it the opportunity 163 00:09:52,640 --> 00:09:55,079 Speaker 1: to stimulate some more of the atoms that they too 164 00:09:55,120 --> 00:09:59,760 Speaker 1: will release photons that will be in the same um wayfront, 165 00:10:00,200 --> 00:10:04,720 Speaker 1: same direction as the initial photons. They'll continue down the tube, 166 00:10:04,880 --> 00:10:08,360 Speaker 1: hit the mirror, bounce back, and this creates a cascade 167 00:10:08,360 --> 00:10:13,000 Speaker 1: effect that can create more and more photons generating through 168 00:10:13,040 --> 00:10:16,360 Speaker 1: this laser. Now, one of those two mirrors is what 169 00:10:16,400 --> 00:10:19,679 Speaker 1: we would call half silvered, which means the mirror will 170 00:10:19,720 --> 00:10:22,800 Speaker 1: actually allow some of that light to pass through a 171 00:10:22,920 --> 00:10:25,920 Speaker 1: reflecting the rest of it back in. So some of 172 00:10:25,920 --> 00:10:29,280 Speaker 1: the laser light escapes through that and then can be 173 00:10:29,920 --> 00:10:33,200 Speaker 1: in a focused beam, while other photons would still bounce 174 00:10:33,200 --> 00:10:36,200 Speaker 1: back into the tube and continue the propagation of photons. 175 00:10:36,240 --> 00:10:39,439 Speaker 1: So that's how lasers work. From a very very high level. 176 00:10:39,520 --> 00:10:41,920 Speaker 1: There are a lot of different details we could get into, 177 00:10:42,320 --> 00:10:44,120 Speaker 1: like the fact that there are so many different types 178 00:10:44,120 --> 00:10:50,120 Speaker 1: of lasing media like their solid state, there's gas lasing media, etcetera, etcetera. 179 00:10:50,200 --> 00:10:55,680 Speaker 1: But what makes one laser more powerful than another, Well, 180 00:10:56,840 --> 00:10:59,640 Speaker 1: that's a tricky question. What makes one laser a fun 181 00:10:59,720 --> 00:11:02,840 Speaker 1: toy a like a laser pointer and another one powerful 182 00:11:02,920 --> 00:11:06,520 Speaker 1: enough to etch metal? Well, first, the energy level of 183 00:11:06,520 --> 00:11:11,280 Speaker 1: photons produced by a lasing material is inversely proportional to 184 00:11:11,400 --> 00:11:14,880 Speaker 1: the wavelength of the light produced when it is stimulated. 185 00:11:14,880 --> 00:11:17,920 Speaker 1: When that lasing material is stimulated, So the higher the 186 00:11:18,040 --> 00:11:22,840 Speaker 1: energy of the photon, the shorter the wavelength of that photon, 187 00:11:23,760 --> 00:11:27,200 Speaker 1: and the wavelengths of visible light range from around the 188 00:11:27,280 --> 00:11:32,400 Speaker 1: three range that would be in the violet part of 189 00:11:32,400 --> 00:11:35,920 Speaker 1: the spectrum all the way up to seven nimes which 190 00:11:35,960 --> 00:11:37,720 Speaker 1: would be in the red part of the spectrum. So 191 00:11:38,280 --> 00:11:41,960 Speaker 1: the further down roy g BIV you go, the higher 192 00:11:42,000 --> 00:11:46,040 Speaker 1: the energy levels of the associated photons. So one thing 193 00:11:46,040 --> 00:11:49,560 Speaker 1: that determines the power of a laser is the energy 194 00:11:49,640 --> 00:11:52,520 Speaker 1: level of the photons, which depends upon the lasing medium 195 00:11:52,679 --> 00:11:55,600 Speaker 1: and the amount of energy you're pouring into that medium 196 00:11:55,720 --> 00:11:58,240 Speaker 1: to produce the laser in the first place. So your 197 00:11:58,240 --> 00:12:01,800 Speaker 1: power source is another factor to consider, and there's also 198 00:12:01,840 --> 00:12:05,520 Speaker 1: the question of whether your laser is constant or a 199 00:12:05,600 --> 00:12:09,800 Speaker 1: pulse laser that also affects the power of the laser beam. 200 00:12:09,840 --> 00:12:12,520 Speaker 1: I'll talk more about pulse lasers a little bit later 201 00:12:12,520 --> 00:12:15,760 Speaker 1: in this episode because it's a very important component of 202 00:12:16,000 --> 00:12:19,439 Speaker 1: the really powerful lasers we're going to talk about. So 203 00:12:19,840 --> 00:12:22,600 Speaker 1: when we come back, I'm going to start talking about 204 00:12:22,640 --> 00:12:25,120 Speaker 1: some of these really powerful lasers and what they're used for. 205 00:12:25,160 --> 00:12:28,680 Speaker 1: But first let's take a quick break to thank our sponsor. 206 00:12:36,360 --> 00:12:41,480 Speaker 1: At the University of Nebraska, there is an extreme Light laboratory, 207 00:12:41,880 --> 00:12:44,880 Speaker 1: and in that lab there's an enormous device called the 208 00:12:45,160 --> 00:12:49,599 Speaker 1: Diacles laser. It's named after the inventor of the parabolic reflector. 209 00:12:50,120 --> 00:12:54,679 Speaker 1: The parabolic reflector increases the intensity of reflected light. It's 210 00:12:54,720 --> 00:12:57,800 Speaker 1: the most efficient way of doing it, the most powerful 211 00:12:57,840 --> 00:13:01,480 Speaker 1: way of increasing the intensity of selected light that we've 212 00:13:01,480 --> 00:13:07,520 Speaker 1: ever discovered. So according to the labs website quote, Diacles 213 00:13:07,840 --> 00:13:11,400 Speaker 1: begins with a modest amount of energy with a short pulse, 214 00:13:11,880 --> 00:13:14,960 Speaker 1: then stretches the pulse and sends it through a series 215 00:13:15,000 --> 00:13:19,840 Speaker 1: of amplifiers and titanium sapphire crystals to pump up its power. 216 00:13:20,160 --> 00:13:23,760 Speaker 1: The secret to Diacles is high power. Is a compression 217 00:13:23,840 --> 00:13:28,160 Speaker 1: stage where the stretched amplified pulse is compressed back into 218 00:13:28,200 --> 00:13:32,560 Speaker 1: a very short, extremely powerful pulse. This trick prevents damage 219 00:13:32,559 --> 00:13:35,800 Speaker 1: to the amplifiers. Then the powerful beam hits a parabolic 220 00:13:35,840 --> 00:13:40,560 Speaker 1: reflector that focuses its power to extreme intensities. I'll go 221 00:13:40,640 --> 00:13:43,640 Speaker 1: more into this approach a little bit later with one 222 00:13:43,640 --> 00:13:46,800 Speaker 1: of the other lasers, but the result of this is 223 00:13:46,840 --> 00:13:49,240 Speaker 1: that you get a laser beam so powerful that it 224 00:13:49,320 --> 00:13:53,920 Speaker 1: reportedly can produce light that is one billion times brighter 225 00:13:54,160 --> 00:13:57,560 Speaker 1: than the light produced at the surface of the Sun itself. 226 00:13:58,200 --> 00:14:00,920 Speaker 1: So what would you use the kind of a laser for. 227 00:14:01,440 --> 00:14:04,280 Speaker 1: Would you use it to to blast a planet into 228 00:14:04,280 --> 00:14:10,880 Speaker 1: a billion pieces because it was in Alderon places rim shot. No, 229 00:14:11,160 --> 00:14:14,079 Speaker 1: because that would actually require way more energy than even 230 00:14:14,160 --> 00:14:19,280 Speaker 1: this beast could produce. The DIACLES is designed for scientific research, 231 00:14:19,360 --> 00:14:24,320 Speaker 1: particularly in the realm of studying the interactions between light 232 00:14:24,600 --> 00:14:27,920 Speaker 1: and matter. It's mostly used in an area called high 233 00:14:28,040 --> 00:14:32,120 Speaker 1: field science. So what the heck is that? Well, the 234 00:14:32,160 --> 00:14:34,400 Speaker 1: University of Nebraska is not the only place that does this. 235 00:14:34,480 --> 00:14:36,880 Speaker 1: There's also the University of Michigan. They have a Center 236 00:14:36,920 --> 00:14:40,960 Speaker 1: for Ultra Fast Optical Science. They break down high field 237 00:14:41,000 --> 00:14:45,920 Speaker 1: science as science revolving around conditions that include high energy density, 238 00:14:46,120 --> 00:14:50,560 Speaker 1: and that involves getting a better understanding of non equilibrium 239 00:14:50,600 --> 00:14:55,000 Speaker 1: systems as well as a deeper understanding of electron behaviors. 240 00:14:55,040 --> 00:14:58,160 Speaker 1: So this has the potential to have many different applications 241 00:14:58,160 --> 00:15:02,400 Speaker 1: in the future relating to cool stuff nanotechnology. Plus, well, 242 00:15:03,040 --> 00:15:05,120 Speaker 1: we don't even know what we don't know yet, so 243 00:15:05,160 --> 00:15:07,480 Speaker 1: we might find other really nifty things to do with it. 244 00:15:08,160 --> 00:15:12,080 Speaker 1: One thing, this laser can do right now? Is vapor 245 00:15:12,200 --> 00:15:15,840 Speaker 1: us stuff real good? Actually, I should say it can 246 00:15:15,880 --> 00:15:20,120 Speaker 1: excite matter to convert it to plasma. Plasma is the 247 00:15:20,160 --> 00:15:24,680 Speaker 1: most plentiful form of matter in the universe. Matter heats 248 00:15:24,760 --> 00:15:29,920 Speaker 1: up to incredible temperatures under the intensity of this laser, 249 00:15:30,480 --> 00:15:35,520 Speaker 1: and it also has its pressure increased dramatically, and at 250 00:15:35,560 --> 00:15:39,640 Speaker 1: that point the material converts into a gas through which 251 00:15:39,840 --> 00:15:45,000 Speaker 1: free electrons can flow. That is plasma. So plasma is 252 00:15:45,040 --> 00:15:46,440 Speaker 1: sort of you can think of it as almost a 253 00:15:46,480 --> 00:15:50,240 Speaker 1: subtype of gas. It's more than just gas because you 254 00:15:50,280 --> 00:15:52,880 Speaker 1: have this condition where you have high energy in there, 255 00:15:52,880 --> 00:15:55,240 Speaker 1: so you've got a lot of free electrons flowing around. 256 00:15:55,560 --> 00:16:00,600 Speaker 1: You have a typically a net neutral electric charge plasma, 257 00:16:00,640 --> 00:16:04,680 Speaker 1: but it means it can actually conduct electricity itself. This 258 00:16:04,760 --> 00:16:09,040 Speaker 1: is the stuff of stars. Stars are made of plasma, 259 00:16:09,120 --> 00:16:14,920 Speaker 1: So you're talking incredibly high temperatures and pressures in the 260 00:16:15,040 --> 00:16:19,480 Speaker 1: research team at Nebraska used this particular laser to conduct 261 00:16:19,560 --> 00:16:22,680 Speaker 1: a super interesting experiment. They wanted to find out what 262 00:16:22,720 --> 00:16:27,400 Speaker 1: would happen if you bombarded the same electron with numerous photons. 263 00:16:28,560 --> 00:16:32,680 Speaker 1: And this is I have to stress wicked hard to do. 264 00:16:33,400 --> 00:16:37,600 Speaker 1: An electron is a pretty darn tiny target. Now. I'm 265 00:16:37,640 --> 00:16:39,600 Speaker 1: not going to get into the size of electrons here 266 00:16:39,640 --> 00:16:43,640 Speaker 1: because that alone is a complicated issue and involves things 267 00:16:43,680 --> 00:16:46,560 Speaker 1: like wave functions. But anyway, it's it's really really super small. 268 00:16:46,920 --> 00:16:51,520 Speaker 1: Near typical electron rarely encounters a photon. It might get 269 00:16:51,560 --> 00:16:55,920 Speaker 1: struck by a photon three times a year, so every 270 00:16:55,960 --> 00:16:59,520 Speaker 1: four months or so, this electron might run into a photon, 271 00:16:59,560 --> 00:17:03,520 Speaker 1: but otherwise eyes know. The team, however, wanted to pelt 272 00:17:03,560 --> 00:17:06,480 Speaker 1: the heck out of electrons. They wanted to study the 273 00:17:06,520 --> 00:17:11,040 Speaker 1: scatter effect that the electron would have on photons. The 274 00:17:11,080 --> 00:17:13,800 Speaker 1: scatter effect is what happens when light strikes a surface. 275 00:17:13,840 --> 00:17:16,679 Speaker 1: The light scatters after it hits a surface, and our 276 00:17:16,720 --> 00:17:20,200 Speaker 1: eyes can pick that light up, and that's how vision works. 277 00:17:20,520 --> 00:17:22,800 Speaker 1: You can see stuff because light scatters off of it 278 00:17:22,840 --> 00:17:26,920 Speaker 1: in various ways. Now, the team was doing the same thing, 279 00:17:27,000 --> 00:17:29,399 Speaker 1: except instead of using a general light source like a 280 00:17:29,480 --> 00:17:32,639 Speaker 1: lamp and a macro sized object like say a couch 281 00:17:32,760 --> 00:17:36,280 Speaker 1: or something, they were using this super powerful laser as 282 00:17:36,320 --> 00:17:40,639 Speaker 1: the light source an electron beam as their target. Now, 283 00:17:40,640 --> 00:17:43,959 Speaker 1: according to the University of Nebraska's newspaper, the team was 284 00:17:44,000 --> 00:17:49,640 Speaker 1: able to scatter nearly one thousand photons off the same electron, 285 00:17:50,160 --> 00:17:52,919 Speaker 1: and according to the team, the behavior of both the 286 00:17:52,960 --> 00:17:58,440 Speaker 1: photons and the electron fell outside the normal reactions, which 287 00:17:58,480 --> 00:18:01,840 Speaker 1: is pretty interesting in science. Anything that is outside the 288 00:18:01,880 --> 00:18:06,280 Speaker 1: normal result is interesting. Now, if you're unlucky, if you 289 00:18:06,359 --> 00:18:09,719 Speaker 1: haven't been super careful or or something has gone wrong, 290 00:18:10,040 --> 00:18:14,640 Speaker 1: your observations might be indicative of an experimental error somewhere, 291 00:18:15,000 --> 00:18:17,919 Speaker 1: like maybe you made a mistake, maybe some of your 292 00:18:17,920 --> 00:18:20,720 Speaker 1: equipment wasn't working. But if you are lucky, you did 293 00:18:20,760 --> 00:18:23,919 Speaker 1: everything properly, all your equipment works. What you were actually 294 00:18:23,920 --> 00:18:27,840 Speaker 1: seeing is legitimately a new observation of a real phenomenon. 295 00:18:28,359 --> 00:18:31,199 Speaker 1: So the team discovered that once laser light passed a 296 00:18:31,320 --> 00:18:35,640 Speaker 1: certain power threshold, it would scatter off of electrons in 297 00:18:35,640 --> 00:18:40,240 Speaker 1: interesting ways. Now, typically light from a source will scatter 298 00:18:40,320 --> 00:18:43,800 Speaker 1: in a predictable way at the same angle and energy 299 00:18:43,840 --> 00:18:47,520 Speaker 1: it possessed before the collision, no matter how intense the light. 300 00:18:47,960 --> 00:18:50,320 Speaker 1: So think of it as a dimmer switch. If you 301 00:18:50,560 --> 00:18:54,480 Speaker 1: have a dimmer switch on installed, and you're looking at 302 00:18:54,600 --> 00:18:58,520 Speaker 1: say a table and low light, As you intensify the light, 303 00:18:58,680 --> 00:19:01,639 Speaker 1: the table's shape doesn't change, its color doesn't change, it 304 00:19:01,760 --> 00:19:05,160 Speaker 1: it brightens, so you might get more of a view 305 00:19:05,160 --> 00:19:07,280 Speaker 1: of what the color is, but it doesn't change in 306 00:19:07,280 --> 00:19:12,240 Speaker 1: any real phenomenal way. Uh, that was not what they 307 00:19:12,280 --> 00:19:15,520 Speaker 1: were seeing. They were getting a totally different result. So 308 00:19:15,680 --> 00:19:18,359 Speaker 1: if we could scale this up like their results and 309 00:19:18,480 --> 00:19:21,399 Speaker 1: observe it with our eyeballs instead of with super sensitive 310 00:19:22,119 --> 00:19:24,560 Speaker 1: you know, sensors, it would mean that if you were 311 00:19:24,600 --> 00:19:27,520 Speaker 1: to use that same dimmer switch, you could see that 312 00:19:27,680 --> 00:19:31,439 Speaker 1: as you turned the light past a certain level of intensity, 313 00:19:32,000 --> 00:19:34,879 Speaker 1: the thing you're looking at that table would actually appear 314 00:19:34,960 --> 00:19:39,400 Speaker 1: to change shape and color because you were using light 315 00:19:39,600 --> 00:19:42,520 Speaker 1: that was of that great intensity. That's essentially what they found, 316 00:19:42,560 --> 00:19:46,160 Speaker 1: except again, they weren't using diffuse light. They were using 317 00:19:46,400 --> 00:19:50,000 Speaker 1: a super focused, very high powered laser, and they weren't 318 00:19:50,080 --> 00:19:52,520 Speaker 1: looking at a macro object. They were looking at electrons. 319 00:19:53,280 --> 00:19:56,040 Speaker 1: The team also observed that the electron being pummeled by 320 00:19:56,080 --> 00:20:00,000 Speaker 1: photons would release its own photon, so the electron would 321 00:20:00,040 --> 00:20:03,960 Speaker 1: become stimulated in other words, but that this ejected photon 322 00:20:04,160 --> 00:20:07,840 Speaker 1: would begin to absorb the energy of the scattered photons 323 00:20:08,119 --> 00:20:12,000 Speaker 1: from the laser. This transformed the energy and wavelength of 324 00:20:12,040 --> 00:20:16,239 Speaker 1: the ejected photon, and it would turn into an X ray. Now, 325 00:20:16,240 --> 00:20:18,960 Speaker 1: according to the researchers. Such an X ray could have 326 00:20:19,080 --> 00:20:23,639 Speaker 1: useful applications in nanotechnology. The X ray only lasts for 327 00:20:23,720 --> 00:20:26,480 Speaker 1: a short moment, but has an extreme amount of energy, 328 00:20:26,840 --> 00:20:29,639 Speaker 1: and it could be used to help create three dimensional 329 00:20:29,720 --> 00:20:33,000 Speaker 1: images of stuff on the nanoscopic scale, and that would 330 00:20:33,000 --> 00:20:37,040 Speaker 1: be phenomenal because the nanoscale is so small that at 331 00:20:37,040 --> 00:20:39,240 Speaker 1: the lower end of it, you're dealing with stuff that's 332 00:20:39,240 --> 00:20:42,520 Speaker 1: actually smaller than the wavelength of visible light, which is 333 00:20:42,720 --> 00:20:45,880 Speaker 1: why you cannot use an optical microscope to look at 334 00:20:45,880 --> 00:20:48,600 Speaker 1: stuff that's on the nanoscale. The wavelengths of light are 335 00:20:48,640 --> 00:20:51,040 Speaker 1: just too big to pick up the objects you're actually 336 00:20:51,040 --> 00:20:54,200 Speaker 1: looking for, so that's kind of crazy. But this could 337 00:20:54,200 --> 00:20:59,400 Speaker 1: potentially allow people to create three dimensional visualizations of objects 338 00:20:59,440 --> 00:21:02,200 Speaker 1: that are on the scale. It could also have other 339 00:21:02,200 --> 00:21:05,520 Speaker 1: practical applications, including medical ones. It could allow X ray 340 00:21:05,560 --> 00:21:09,400 Speaker 1: technicians to create images at a much higher resolution, which 341 00:21:09,440 --> 00:21:12,919 Speaker 1: would be really useful to look for stuff like micro fractures. 342 00:21:13,040 --> 00:21:15,919 Speaker 1: For example, the standard X ray machine might not be 343 00:21:15,960 --> 00:21:18,800 Speaker 1: able to detect because it wouldn't have that level of resolution. 344 00:21:19,280 --> 00:21:21,400 Speaker 1: It could also be used in other applications, such as 345 00:21:21,400 --> 00:21:24,480 Speaker 1: in security systems to scan for potential weapons or other 346 00:21:24,520 --> 00:21:28,439 Speaker 1: security threats, and it's increasing our understanding of physics in general, 347 00:21:28,520 --> 00:21:31,800 Speaker 1: which could lead to practical applications we can't even anticipate. 348 00:21:32,480 --> 00:21:35,200 Speaker 1: So that's Diacles. But we have more to talk about 349 00:21:35,240 --> 00:21:38,080 Speaker 1: in just a moment. Let's take a quick break to 350 00:21:38,160 --> 00:21:49,200 Speaker 1: thank our sponsor. Earlier I mentioned the University of Michigan's 351 00:21:49,200 --> 00:21:53,320 Speaker 1: Center for Ultra Fast Optical Science. That's the home of 352 00:21:53,359 --> 00:21:58,479 Speaker 1: another incredibly powerful laser. This one is called the Hercules laser. 353 00:21:58,880 --> 00:22:02,320 Speaker 1: It's a high field pedal what class laser? A pedal? What, 354 00:22:02,440 --> 00:22:07,280 Speaker 1: by the way, is a billion million whats and a 355 00:22:07,400 --> 00:22:10,760 Speaker 1: what corresponds to the power and electric circuit in which 356 00:22:10,840 --> 00:22:13,600 Speaker 1: the potential difference is one vault and the current is 357 00:22:13,640 --> 00:22:18,440 Speaker 1: one amp here. So we're talking very high energy laser here. 358 00:22:18,880 --> 00:22:21,439 Speaker 1: This laser is used in the LABS research programs to 359 00:22:21,560 --> 00:22:27,119 Speaker 1: quote explore the ultra relativistic intensity regime of laser matter interaction. 360 00:22:27,200 --> 00:22:32,200 Speaker 1: In to quote, huh, what the heck does ultra relativistic mean? 361 00:22:32,720 --> 00:22:35,400 Speaker 1: While as you might guess, it does refer to the 362 00:22:35,400 --> 00:22:38,840 Speaker 1: theory of relativity, A particle is said to be ultra 363 00:22:39,080 --> 00:22:44,000 Speaker 1: relativistic when it is advanced to the speed that's really 364 00:22:44,040 --> 00:22:45,919 Speaker 1: close to the speed of light when you get it 365 00:22:46,040 --> 00:22:48,359 Speaker 1: super super fast, about as close to the speed of 366 00:22:48,440 --> 00:22:51,640 Speaker 1: lights you can possibly manage. Einstein, of course, told us 367 00:22:51,880 --> 00:22:54,600 Speaker 1: the speed of light is essentially the speed limit for 368 00:22:54,680 --> 00:22:58,320 Speaker 1: all the stuff in our universe. In two thousand seven, 369 00:22:58,480 --> 00:23:02,600 Speaker 1: the engineering team at the University of Michigan generated a 370 00:23:02,680 --> 00:23:06,080 Speaker 1: laser with the power of three hundred terra wats, and 371 00:23:06,119 --> 00:23:09,560 Speaker 1: it started off an era of ultra powerful laser experiments. 372 00:23:09,880 --> 00:23:13,520 Speaker 1: The team holds the world records for highest focused intensity 373 00:23:13,560 --> 00:23:18,240 Speaker 1: of a laser and the amplified spontaneous emission temporal contrast. 374 00:23:19,480 --> 00:23:22,520 Speaker 1: I have no idea what that second thing means, if 375 00:23:22,520 --> 00:23:25,520 Speaker 1: I'm being honest, but it does sound wicked dope. Remember 376 00:23:25,520 --> 00:23:28,080 Speaker 1: earlier when I talked about how a laser's power depends 377 00:23:28,160 --> 00:23:31,400 Speaker 1: partly on whether it is pulsed or a constant. Well, 378 00:23:31,440 --> 00:23:34,920 Speaker 1: the Hercules laser relies upon a type of amplification called 379 00:23:35,240 --> 00:23:40,159 Speaker 1: chirped pulse amplification. So this gets super technical, and I, 380 00:23:40,240 --> 00:23:43,160 Speaker 1: frankly I do not understand all of it. So we're 381 00:23:43,160 --> 00:23:46,280 Speaker 1: gonna go super high level because that's all my primitive 382 00:23:46,280 --> 00:23:48,960 Speaker 1: reptile brain can handle. I'm gonna do my best to 383 00:23:48,960 --> 00:23:52,199 Speaker 1: explain it as I understand it. So many apologies to 384 00:23:52,320 --> 00:23:55,480 Speaker 1: all the high high field physics experts out there, all 385 00:23:55,480 --> 00:23:58,159 Speaker 1: the laser engineers out there, give me a whole lot 386 00:23:58,160 --> 00:24:01,720 Speaker 1: of slacks. So the goal is to use very short 387 00:24:01,840 --> 00:24:06,080 Speaker 1: pulses of energy to create this laser and then amplify 388 00:24:06,119 --> 00:24:09,439 Speaker 1: those pulses to get an output energy level that typically 389 00:24:09,480 --> 00:24:13,080 Speaker 1: would only come from a longer pulse of energy. Now, 390 00:24:13,080 --> 00:24:16,680 Speaker 1: when I say short pulses, i'm talking crazy short. We're 391 00:24:16,680 --> 00:24:20,480 Speaker 1: talking on the femto second scale. A fempto second, by 392 00:24:20,480 --> 00:24:23,840 Speaker 1: the way, is one quadrillionth of a second. It's an 393 00:24:23,920 --> 00:24:27,800 Speaker 1: incredibly short amount of time. The fempto second laser pulse 394 00:24:28,080 --> 00:24:31,399 Speaker 1: that starts things off has a very high peak power 395 00:24:31,480 --> 00:24:33,920 Speaker 1: level and as well as the other stuff that comes 396 00:24:33,920 --> 00:24:38,359 Speaker 1: with that like electric fields and stuff. But these qualities 397 00:24:38,359 --> 00:24:44,200 Speaker 1: actually make those super short pulses potentially harmful to laser 398 00:24:44,200 --> 00:24:47,960 Speaker 1: components like optics, and it can also cause beam distortion. 399 00:24:48,800 --> 00:24:51,520 Speaker 1: So your output, your goal for your output is to 400 00:24:51,520 --> 00:24:55,240 Speaker 1: get the super high powered laser, but the energy representing 401 00:24:55,280 --> 00:24:59,679 Speaker 1: those pulses could end up tearing apart the very components 402 00:24:59,680 --> 00:25:03,680 Speaker 1: of the user that you rely upon. So here's the solution, 403 00:25:03,760 --> 00:25:06,560 Speaker 1: and I mentioned it in the Diocles one as well. 404 00:25:06,640 --> 00:25:11,080 Speaker 1: That description talked about this. It's using a reversible process 405 00:25:11,160 --> 00:25:15,440 Speaker 1: to effectively stretch out the laser pulse for the amplifier. 406 00:25:16,000 --> 00:25:18,960 Speaker 1: And when you stretch out the laser pulse, it's not 407 00:25:19,040 --> 00:25:23,159 Speaker 1: just dealing with a pulse that lasts longer. The energy 408 00:25:23,280 --> 00:25:26,800 Speaker 1: level is reduced as well. So the amplifier, as the 409 00:25:26,880 --> 00:25:30,880 Speaker 1: name suggests, amplifies that incoming signal so that the outgoing 410 00:25:30,920 --> 00:25:33,919 Speaker 1: signal is much greater. It does this by ending up, 411 00:25:34,200 --> 00:25:37,520 Speaker 1: you know, the lasing medium ends up ejecting these photons, 412 00:25:37,560 --> 00:25:41,760 Speaker 1: all of the same wavelength and the same energy level. Uh, 413 00:25:41,800 --> 00:25:44,920 Speaker 1: and they all are going through in the same process. Now, 414 00:25:44,960 --> 00:25:48,439 Speaker 1: before it actually emerges from the laser, it needs to 415 00:25:48,480 --> 00:25:54,480 Speaker 1: go through another system to compress that pulse to intensify 416 00:25:54,560 --> 00:25:57,280 Speaker 1: the peak power of the outgoing laser. So you're doing 417 00:25:57,320 --> 00:26:00,600 Speaker 1: the reverse of the stretching process that I mentioned a 418 00:26:00,640 --> 00:26:05,120 Speaker 1: second ago. And by compressing the pulse back to its 419 00:26:05,119 --> 00:26:09,560 Speaker 1: original length, you also increase its peak power back to 420 00:26:09,640 --> 00:26:13,440 Speaker 1: its original peak power. So such a laser has an 421 00:26:13,440 --> 00:26:16,840 Speaker 1: optical stretcher and an optical compressor in order to do this. 422 00:26:16,880 --> 00:26:21,080 Speaker 1: So how do those work? Beats me, I read a 423 00:26:21,160 --> 00:26:24,640 Speaker 1: whole paper on it, and my brain is still buzzing. 424 00:26:24,760 --> 00:26:29,400 Speaker 1: And I don't even have the beginning levels of comprehension 425 00:26:29,400 --> 00:26:33,119 Speaker 1: for this. This is way outside my level of expertise. However, 426 00:26:33,160 --> 00:26:35,080 Speaker 1: the outcome is that we can now build lasers with 427 00:26:35,119 --> 00:26:39,360 Speaker 1: incredibly high peak power outputs that otherwise would have been impossible. 428 00:26:39,640 --> 00:26:42,960 Speaker 1: So the research team has two different test chambers that 429 00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:47,600 Speaker 1: the hercules can fire a laser into. One test chamber 430 00:26:47,680 --> 00:26:50,920 Speaker 1: is for gases and the other one is for solids. 431 00:26:51,560 --> 00:26:55,240 Speaker 1: Both chambers are surrounded by radiation shielding in the form 432 00:26:55,320 --> 00:26:59,000 Speaker 1: of cement walls, but the gas chamber has a secondary 433 00:26:59,040 --> 00:27:02,440 Speaker 1: level of shielding made up from lead bricks to help 434 00:27:02,480 --> 00:27:06,639 Speaker 1: block any potentially harmful radiation that would result from collision experiments. 435 00:27:07,280 --> 00:27:10,720 Speaker 1: The team is using this UH laser to learn more 436 00:27:10,800 --> 00:27:14,520 Speaker 1: about these high powered interactions between matter and light. Some 437 00:27:14,640 --> 00:27:17,160 Speaker 1: of what they learned might be useful in future applications, 438 00:27:17,280 --> 00:27:21,719 Speaker 1: ranging from studying rapidly changing conditions within a plasma all 439 00:27:21,760 --> 00:27:26,480 Speaker 1: the way to absorption spectroscopy, which is UH the group 440 00:27:26,480 --> 00:27:29,560 Speaker 1: of methodologies we used to determine the measure of radiation 441 00:27:29,600 --> 00:27:33,160 Speaker 1: absorption of various materials and hey while I've been covering 442 00:27:33,200 --> 00:27:36,280 Speaker 1: some super high tech lasers that are pushing our understanding 443 00:27:36,280 --> 00:27:39,880 Speaker 1: of physics into new territory. I'm gonna also mention one 444 00:27:39,920 --> 00:27:43,640 Speaker 1: that might be used for less scholarly applications. That would 445 00:27:43,640 --> 00:27:48,880 Speaker 1: be the Athena laser from Lockheed. This prototype laser quote 446 00:27:48,960 --> 00:27:54,359 Speaker 1: uses Lockheed Martin's thirty kilowatt accelerated laser demonstration initiative, a 447 00:27:54,520 --> 00:27:59,600 Speaker 1: k Aladdin spectral beam combining fiber laser in which multiple 448 00:27:59,640 --> 00:28:04,640 Speaker 1: fiber laser modules form a single, powerful, high quality beam, 449 00:28:04,680 --> 00:28:09,160 Speaker 1: providing great efficiency and lethality in a design that scales 450 00:28:09,200 --> 00:28:15,560 Speaker 1: to higher power levels. End quote. That's terrifying, great efficiency 451 00:28:15,560 --> 00:28:19,760 Speaker 1: and lethality. Now it's a prototype laser weapon system that 452 00:28:19,840 --> 00:28:23,520 Speaker 1: is designed to defeat close in, low value threats such 453 00:28:23,560 --> 00:28:29,600 Speaker 1: as improvised rockets, unmanned aerial systems, vehicles, and small boats. 454 00:28:30,040 --> 00:28:33,199 Speaker 1: It's also a quote from Lockheed Martin. So essentially, this 455 00:28:33,280 --> 00:28:36,520 Speaker 1: device can can fire an incredibly intense beam of light 456 00:28:36,880 --> 00:28:40,920 Speaker 1: at a target and it has the goal of either dazzling, damaging, 457 00:28:41,040 --> 00:28:45,000 Speaker 1: or destroying the target. So you're either trying to disrupt 458 00:28:45,160 --> 00:28:48,840 Speaker 1: it's it's optical systems so it can't find a target 459 00:28:49,440 --> 00:28:53,440 Speaker 1: or you're disabling it in some way or outright destroying it. 460 00:28:54,240 --> 00:28:58,560 Speaker 1: The system relies on an infrared tracking camera to aim 461 00:28:58,600 --> 00:29:02,200 Speaker 1: the laser at the target. For slower moving targets like 462 00:29:02,280 --> 00:29:06,560 Speaker 1: a boat or an unmanned drone, a human operator would 463 00:29:06,600 --> 00:29:09,360 Speaker 1: be allowed to verify that the target is in fact 464 00:29:09,480 --> 00:29:13,000 Speaker 1: a potential threat before the system would actually fire. For 465 00:29:13,080 --> 00:29:16,680 Speaker 1: more immediate threats like improvised rockets or mortars, where time 466 00:29:16,800 --> 00:29:19,360 Speaker 1: is of the essence, the system would operate in an 467 00:29:19,360 --> 00:29:23,200 Speaker 1: autonomous mode, and the system has been demonstrated a few times. 468 00:29:23,200 --> 00:29:26,640 Speaker 1: I actually watched a video of the Athena targeting system 469 00:29:26,760 --> 00:29:29,200 Speaker 1: and watched as it brought down a drone that was 470 00:29:29,240 --> 00:29:32,480 Speaker 1: designed to look kind of like your standard aircraft had 471 00:29:32,560 --> 00:29:35,760 Speaker 1: wings and a tail section. So Athena would target the 472 00:29:35,800 --> 00:29:40,959 Speaker 1: stabilizing fin on the tail of this unmanned aerial drone 473 00:29:41,720 --> 00:29:47,160 Speaker 1: and using this very high powered laser, it damaged the fin, 474 00:29:47,240 --> 00:29:50,040 Speaker 1: actually burned the fin off in a couple of examples 475 00:29:50,080 --> 00:29:53,400 Speaker 1: pretty quickly, and that caused the drone to plummet to 476 00:29:53,440 --> 00:29:56,560 Speaker 1: the earth and lock. It has also shown that such 477 00:29:56,560 --> 00:29:59,920 Speaker 1: a laser could even melt clean through the engine blow 478 00:30:00,320 --> 00:30:05,360 Speaker 1: of a truck. Now the prototype is a proof of concept, 479 00:30:05,560 --> 00:30:09,400 Speaker 1: and this laser isn't anywhere close to being a handheld weapon. 480 00:30:09,440 --> 00:30:12,360 Speaker 1: This is not something you would give a soldier and 481 00:30:12,400 --> 00:30:15,040 Speaker 1: say head out there and take down that tank. It's 482 00:30:15,040 --> 00:30:19,800 Speaker 1: a pretty big device. It would fit on like a warship, 483 00:30:20,600 --> 00:30:24,280 Speaker 1: but it would require some mantorization to fit on a 484 00:30:24,360 --> 00:30:27,920 Speaker 1: tank or truck and not be so cumbersome and heavy 485 00:30:27,960 --> 00:30:32,120 Speaker 1: that it would make operating the vehicle difficult. So we've 486 00:30:32,160 --> 00:30:34,080 Speaker 1: got a long way to go before this gets deployed 487 00:30:34,520 --> 00:30:37,680 Speaker 1: anywhere beyond very very large platforms, like I said, like 488 00:30:37,720 --> 00:30:41,600 Speaker 1: on warships or something. Still, this could be an indication 489 00:30:41,680 --> 00:30:44,680 Speaker 1: pointing toward the future of warfare where weapons work at 490 00:30:44,680 --> 00:30:47,520 Speaker 1: the speed of light and can burn through solid steel 491 00:30:47,640 --> 00:30:51,040 Speaker 1: in a matter of moments. But while there are destructive 492 00:30:51,120 --> 00:30:53,320 Speaker 1: uses for powerful lasers, a lot of the ones I've 493 00:30:53,320 --> 00:30:56,520 Speaker 1: looked at are meant to conduct scientific research or directly 494 00:30:56,560 --> 00:31:01,360 Speaker 1: help with goals like making a practical fusion reactor or 495 00:31:01,480 --> 00:31:04,880 Speaker 1: majorizing particle accelerators so that you don't have to build 496 00:31:05,240 --> 00:31:08,160 Speaker 1: a facility the size of the large hadron collider in Europe. 497 00:31:08,680 --> 00:31:13,880 Speaker 1: So there are a lot of scientific, constructive methods and 498 00:31:14,160 --> 00:31:17,640 Speaker 1: uses for lasers. So I'm very interested to learn more 499 00:31:17,680 --> 00:31:22,800 Speaker 1: about those and maybe someday getting a better grasp on 500 00:31:22,840 --> 00:31:29,560 Speaker 1: some of the more complicated factors like the lazing methodologies 501 00:31:30,920 --> 00:31:34,360 Speaker 1: Hope springs Eternal. If you guys have any suggestions for 502 00:31:34,520 --> 00:31:38,040 Speaker 1: future episodes of tech Stuff, visit our website. It is 503 00:31:38,240 --> 00:31:42,200 Speaker 1: text stuff podcast dot com. Try does a great job. 504 00:31:42,360 --> 00:31:45,160 Speaker 1: On that website, you can find ways to contact the show, 505 00:31:45,200 --> 00:31:49,400 Speaker 1: including email and our profiles on social media platforms. You 506 00:31:49,400 --> 00:31:53,960 Speaker 1: can also hopefully find a link to the store where 507 00:31:54,000 --> 00:31:57,600 Speaker 1: you can buy merchandise from tech Stuff. If that link 508 00:31:57,640 --> 00:31:59,840 Speaker 1: is not up yet, then just go to te public 509 00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:03,120 Speaker 1: dot com slash tech stuff because every purchase you make 510 00:32:03,200 --> 00:32:06,320 Speaker 1: goes to help the show, and I greatly appreciate it, 511 00:32:06,840 --> 00:32:14,920 Speaker 1: and I'll talk to you again really soon. For more 512 00:32:14,960 --> 00:32:17,600 Speaker 1: on this and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff 513 00:32:17,600 --> 00:32:28,200 Speaker 1: works dot com.