New tabletop particle accelerator

[John Futter]

Interesting
anyone got a pentawatt laser lying around

http://phys.org/news/2014-12-world-comp ... tml#ajTabs

lesser particle power might be achievable with a nitrogen laser like the one published years ago using pcb board material

[Richard Hull]

Sure! Table top accelerator...Giant, aircraft hanger sized laser....The ultimate in compact accelerator systems.

Richard Hull

[jjwest]

Never seen this before. Amazing.

[prestonbarrows]

Sure! Table top accelerator...Giant, aircraft hanger sized laser....The ultimate in compact accelerator systems.

Richard Hull

Still a bit smaller than the 5 square kilometers or so needed for a comparable booster ring. Blame the click-bait writing usually found on Phys-org...

[Richard Hester]

The petawatt lasers are extremely small compared to the monster in Livermore - their high wattage is derived from extremely short pulse width (femtoseconds), generated by a big table full of expensive optics using frequency chirp/pulse compression techniques. The Ti-sapphire laser that drives the mess ain't all that cheap either.

As an aside, one research team is trying to put together a system with extremely high peak power in order to observe vacuum breakdown.

[Richard Hester]

Here's the reference to vacuum breakdown and other experiments contemplated for ultrashort pulse high-intensity lasers. Vacuum breakdown was mentioned as far back as the early 70's - laser technology is finally getting to the point where it's capable - a matter of finesse rather than brute power/energy (take that, Livermore).

http://www.laserfocusworld.com/articles ... acuum.html

[Werner Engel]

I just went through the laserfocusworld article you mentioned and also browsed through the ELI website:
It might be true; generating extremly high field intensities has to be tested once. But I see several Inhibitors there: The countries where they do want to build these devices are not famous for turning every € the receive from the EU into science - they are more known for corruption and private benefits hidden behind governmental decisions.
This seems to be truer, as all these facilities are still in the process of planning and buildings - since 2011!
On the other hand, ITER was not planned to be built in a day either …

I whish them good luck!