Over two years ago, we heard about the High-Repetition-Rate Advanced Petawatt Laser System (HAPLS) with the nickname Biwoj (from the legendary Czech knight and strongman), a laser developed by our southern neighbors, which ultimately had to achieve 10 petawatts and revolutionize science. HAPLS is the laser equivalent of the Large Hadron Collider of the European Organization for Nuclear Research CERN. We now have a continuation of the Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) project funded by the European Commission.

The laser has enough power to evaporate the matter. However, to better show the power of 10 petawatts, it is roughly one tenth of the energy produced by the sun on Earth. What's more, 1-petawas lasers were called Death Stars some time ago, so it's easy to imagine what 10 PW can do.

The laser will allow you to carry out a whole range of innovative physics experiments, such as simulation of pulsars or preservation of matter on brown dwarfs or very massive exoplanets, the reaction of a cold fusion. However, this is not all, because it will also be used in other areas, such as medicine, where it will allow research on cancer therapies, etc. - and not without reason, the European Union has decided to spend 850 million euros on the ELI project.

In summary, currently powerful lasers are already in three European countries, and eventually one more will be created, although its location has not yet been chosen. Today's protagonist is to focus on photonuclear physics, the one in Hungary experiments with attosecond pulses, and the Biwoj mentioned above allows shooting with beams of light at a frequency of 10 hertz, providing in each femtosecond pulse 1023 watts per square centimeter, which is synonymous with concentration for a small fraction of a second of all solar energy into one beam with a diameter of a few centimeters.

Source: GeekWeek.pl/techspot