Protons bring fusion into view

Researchers in the US have now developed an imaging technique that could help bring fusion power to fruition. Richard Petrasso and colleagues at the Massachusettes Institute of Technology and Wolfgang Theobold and colleagues at the University of Rochester have used "proton radiography" to map the electromagnetic structure of the extremely hot, dense plasmas in which fusion reactions take place. The technique has revealed hitherto unseen magnetic and electric fields, and could help researchers to get fusion plasmas to ignite—the key to electricity generation.

The MIT-Rochester technique applies to inertial-confinement fusion (ICF), which is one of two possible routes to a fusion reactor. The idea behind ICF is to bombard fuel capsules (typically containing deutrium and tritium) with high-powered laser pulses so that they implode, generating a small volume of hot, dense plasma in which the deutrium and tritium nuclei can overcome their electrical replusion and produce a helium nucleus plus a free neutron. Since these reaction products are lighter than the original nuclei, copious energy is released via Einstein's mass-energy equivalence.

In the new work, the MIT and Rochester researchers used 36 beams at the high-powered OMEGA laser facility at Rochester to symmetrically implode ICF fuel capsules (Science 319 1223). The same beams also struck a different capsule 1 cm away which was filled with deuterium and helium-3 gas. Protons released from this "backlighter" capsule all have the same (known) energy, so by measuring the deflection of the positively charged protons that had transited some plasma the team was able to map the electromagentic fields present in ICF implosions for the first time.

Diagram of the experiment used to image the plasma. Protons from the backlighter capsule (left) travel through the target capsule before their position and energy is determined by a detector. (Courtesy: Science)

Electron filmed for first time ever

Now it is possible to see a movie of an electron. The movie shows how an electron rides on a light wave after just having been pulled away from an atom. This is the first time an electron has ever been filmed, and the results are presented in the latest issue of Physical Review Letters.

Previously it has been impossible to photograph electrons since their extremely high velocities have produced blurry pictures. In order to capture these rapid events, extremely short flashes of light are necessary, but such flashes were not previously available. With the use of a newly developed technology for generating short pulses from intense laser light, so-called attosecond pulses, scientists at the Lund University Faculty of Engineering in Sweden have managed to capture the electron motion for the first time.

View video: avi or mov.

More information: http://www.atto.fysik.lth.se/

The most intense laser pulse in the universe

The people on HERCULES laser at the University of Michigan has claimed to have created the most intense laser pulse in the universe.

The record-setting beam measures 20 billion trillion watts per square centimeter. It contains 300 terawatts of power, about 300 times the capacity of the entire US electricity grid. The laser beam’s power is concentrated to a 1.3-µm speck about 100th the diameter of a human hair. To achieve this beam, the research team added another amplifier to HERCULES (high-energy repetitive CUOS laser system) laser system, which previously operated at 50 terawatts.

Femtosecond laser creates subsurface structures

Reported by optic.org

German researchers have used an ultrashort pulsed laser to create subsurface nanostructures in a sapphire crystal. The team believes that the techniques could be used to fabricate microfluidic devices as well as 3D photonic structures. (Optics Express 16 1517.)

SEM images of the entrance of the modified and etched channel directly after etching (left) and cross section of hollow nanoplanes in 500 μm depth of the same track. Laser beam propagated from top to bottom, three parallel scans with an offset of 3 μm, focused with NA=0.55, f=500 kHz, P=450 mW.

Femtosecond laser produced the colored metals

A tabletop femtosecond laser has been used to change the surface properties of metals to reflect a specific color or combination of colors. Silver, platinum, gold, and other metals have been turned colors such as blue, gray, black, and purple.

Today Photonics.com and Physorg.com reported Unversity of Rochester's Professor Guo's recent research achievement.

The intense blast forces the surface of the metal to form nanostructures -- pits, globules and strands that response incoming light in different ways depending on the way the laser pulse sculpted the structures. Since the structures are smaller than the wavelength of light, the way they reflect light is highly dependent upon their specific size and shape, Guo said. Varying the laser intensity, pulse length, and number of pulses, allows Guo to control the configuration of the nanostructures, and hence control what color the metal reflects.