ZEUS Is Officially America’s Most Powerful Laser, With 2-Petawatt Blast

The ZEUS laser, tucked away (as much as a giant laser can be) at the University of Michigan, just cranked out a pulse that makes it the most powerful laser beam in the country. ZEUS’ peak power topped out at 2 petawatts, or a staggering 2 quadrillion watts, roughly 100 times the entire planet’s power output. Of course, that level of energy is fleeting; the pulse lasts just 25 quintillionths of a second—just enough time for researchers to do some pretty revolutionary science. “This milestone marks the beginning of experiments that move into unexplored territory for American high field science,” said Karl Krushelnick, director of the Gérard Mourou Center for Ultrafast Optical Science, where ZEUS is housed, in a Michigan release. ZEUS is short for Zettawatt Equivalent Ultrashort laser pulse System, and its power (at the risk of blasphemy) rivals that of the king of the Greek gods, who famously wields a lightning bolt as a symbol of his power. ZEUS is funded by the National Science Foun ... Read full article.