Engineering TV visited The Center for Ultrafast Optical Science at the University of Michigan to take a closer look at HERCULES, a high-field petawatt class laser. The beam measures 20 billion trillion watts per square centimeter, contains 300 terawatts of power (300 times the capacity of the entire U.S. electricity grid), and is capable of producing this intense beam once every 10 seconds. Applications include optical communications at the terabit level, studies involving the behavior of electrons in quantum structures, and biomedical fields such as eye surgery , subcellular "nanomachining", and in vivo sensing (for example in vivo cytometry of circulating cancer cells). The National Science Foundation through the Physics Frontier Center FOCUS supports the development and construction of this laser. Also watch these episodes:
Inside HERCULES - Part 1 and
Inside HERCULES - Part 2. For more information, go to:
Center for Ultrafast Optical Science.
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