The University of Michigan is now home to the world’s most powerful laser. It enables researchers to focus an immense amount of light on a very small space in short pulses.
U-of-M lab director and engineering professor Karl Krushelnick says federal funds have helped fund the laser.
“The facility takes up basically an entire building,” Krushelnick said. “This takes up 10,000 or 15,000 square feet of the laser system and the beam is all separate from where the experiments take place. So, you don’t ever want to be in the laser area when it’s operating, and you don’t want to be in the experiment area when there are experiments going on. That’s a lot of radiation in there.”
The laser has been more than 30 years in the making. Backers say it could be used to study the universe and benefit us here on Earth.
A grand opening for the laser was held Monday.
