This page contains a list of petawatt-level lasers in operation, under construction, or proposed. The list is compiled from existing academic reviews.
A petawatt laser is typically defined as a laser system whose pulse energy divided by its pulse duration reaches an order of magnitude of 1015 W, or 1 petawatt. These high-power laser pulses are capable of driving a strong electromagnetic field, giving rise to a number of novel applications. For instance, focusing large numbers of petawatt level lasers on a target containing deuterium and tritium creates enough energy density to drive inertial confinement fusion. Another potential application is using strong electric fields from petawatt laser pulses to drive steep density gradient structures in a plasma, which then creates field gradients capable of accelerating particles in a much shorter distance than linac; such concept is known as laser wakefield acceleration. In addition, as the laser pulse itself reaches extremely high field intensity, interaction of the high-energy particle beam with a petawatt laser pulse can achieve interactions with intensity beyond the Schwinger limit, enabling possible observation of effects such as vacuum polarization and Breit-Wheeler process.
Generation of a petawatt laser pulse requires the pulse duration to be extremely short: to reach 1 petawatt of power, a 1 joule laser pulse will require a duration of <1 fs (< 10−15 seconds). All petawatt systems (with the exception of the National Ignition Facility) use the technique of chirped pulse amplification, which amplifies chirped, temporally stretched laser pulses before compressing them into femtosecond, ultra-high intensity pulses. For laser systems with large pulse energies, Nd:glass is typically used as a gain medium, as they can be grown into very large crystals. For laser pulses with duration near the femtosecond range, Ti:Sapphire is widely used to take advantage of its wide lasing spectrum; only such lasers can be compressed into ultrashort pulses, due to Fourier relations between the temporal and spectral widths of the pulse signal.
Petawatt lasers The following list contains laser systems with petawatt-class peak power. Although there is not a precise definition for "petawatt-class" lasers, the list include all systems with peak power >=0.5 PW.
FacilityInstitutionLocationClassificationPulse energy(J)Pulse duration(fs)Peak power(PW)StatusNovaLawrence Livermore National Laboratory Nd:glass6604401.5DecommissionedNIF-ARCLawrence Livermore National Laboratory Nd:glass400–17001300–38 0001.5OperationTexas Petawatt LaserUniversity of Texas, AustinNd:glass1861671.1SuspendedZ-PWSandia National LaboratoriesNd:glass5005001OperationSG-II-PWShanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics,The Chinese Academy of Sciences (SIOM)Nd:glass100010001OperationVulcanCentral Laser Facility, Rutherford Appleton LaboratoryNd:glass5005001OperationOptical Parametric Chirped Pulse Amplification (OPCPA)4002020DesignOrionAtomic Weapons EstablishmentNd:glass5005001OperationPHELIXGSI HelmholtzNd:glass2504000.625OperationLMJ-PETALCEA CestaNd:glass8507001.15OperationGEKKO XII-LFEXOsaka UniversityNd:glass300015002OperationELI-B L4Extreme Light InfrastructureNd:glass150015010CommissionELI-NPExtreme Light InfrastructureOPCPATi:sapphire24222.310.9OperationELI-B L3 HAPLSExtreme Light InfrastructureLawrence Livermore National Laboratory Ti:sapphire30301 at 10 HzCommissionELI-ALPS HFExtreme Light InfrastructureOPCPA34172 at 10 HzCommissionApollonCNRSÉcole polytechniqueOPCPATi:sapphire1501510CommissionDRACOHelmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-RossendorfTi:sapphire30301OperationATLASTechnical University of MunichLMU MunichTi:sapphire60252.4 at 1 HzOperationPENELOPEHelmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-RossendorfYb:glass/CaF21501501 at 1 HzConstructionCETALINFLPRTi:sapphire25251OperationPEARLInstitute of Applied Physics, Russian Academy of SciencesTi:sapphire24430.56OperationOPCPA4 - 5ConstructionVEGA-3University of SalamancaTi:sapphire30301 at 1 HzOperationGeminiCentral Laser Facility, Rutherford Appleton LaboratoryTi:sapphire15300.5OperationEPAC30301 at 10 HzConstructionALEPHColorado State UniversityTi:sapphire26300.87 at 3.3 HzOperationBELLALawrence Berkeley National LaboratoryTi:sapphire40301.3OperationDIOCLESUniversity of Nebraska-LincolnTi:sapphire20300.7SuspendedZEUSUniversity of MichiganTi:sapphire75253Commission12.5250.5NSF OPALLaboratory for Laser Energetics, University of RochesterOPCPA5502025DesignXL-IIIInstitute of Physics, Chinese Academy of ScienceTi:sapphire32281.16OperationHuairou PW25251OperationCLAPA-IIPeking UniversityOPCPATi:Sapphire60302CommissionBAQIS PWTsinghua UniversityTi:sapphire30301 at 1 HzCommissionCAEP-PWChina Academy of Engineering PhysicsOPCPA91.118.64.9OperationSULFSIOMShanghaiTech UniversityTi:sapphire2162110.3OperationTDLI LAPShanghai Jiao Tong UniversityTi:sapphire80222.5ConstructionSG-II-5 PWSIOMOPCPA150305ConstructionSEL-100 PWShanghai High Repetition Rate XEFL and Extreme Light FacilityOPCPA150015100ConstructionCoReLSCentre for Relativistic Laser Science, Institute for Basic ScienceTi:sapphire8319.44.2OperationJ-KARENNational Institutes for Quantum Science and TechnologyOPCPATi:sapphire28/3033/300.85/1OperationRRCATRaja Ramanna Centre for Advanced TechnologyTi:sapphire25251 at 0.1 HzOperationTRISHULTata Institute of Fundamental Research HyderabadTi:sapphire25251 at 1 HzInstallation
High average power lasers A number of petawatt or sub-petawatt laser systems are notable for being capable of operating at high repetition rates (HRR). These laser systems are high average power (HAP) lasers, delivering high power when averaged over macroscopic time scale yet still maintaining terawatt or petawatt peak power within a single pulse. HAP petawatt lasers are crucial for any future applications of petawatt laser systems such as compact light sources, next-generation accelerators, or proton source for radiotherapy; in scientific research facilities, they also greatly improve experiment efficiency by enabling a much large set of experimental data to be collected within the same amount of beam time. On the other hand, designing and operating petawatt laser systems at high repetition rate presents an immense engineering challenge, as the laser system must handle large amounts of excessive heat when pumped at a much higher frequency as well as thermal effects that degrades beam quality. In recent years, advances in high-power laser technology, such as pumping schemes, pump light sources, and cryogenic cooling, led to the emergence of a new class of HAP laser systems.
The following list includes laser systems with peak power of at least and average power of at least . Some lasers in the list are already petawatt-class lasers.
FacilityInstitutionLocationClassificationPulse energy(J)Pulse duration(fs)Peak power(PW)Repetition rate (Hz)Average power (kW)StatusELI-B L2 DUHAExtreme Light InfrastructureOPCPA3250.12500.15CommissionELI-B L3 HAPLSExtreme Light InfrastructureLawrence Livermore National Laboratory Ti:sapphire30301100.3CommissionELI-ALPS HFExtreme Light InfrastructureOPCPA34172100.34CommissionLAPLACE-HCLaboratoire d'optique appliquéeTi:Sapphire1250.041000.1ConstructionPENELOPEHelmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-RossendorfYb:glass/CaF2150150110.15ConstructionKALDERADESYTi:sapphire3300.110003ConstructionEPACCentral Laser Facility, Rutherford Appleton LaboratoryTi:sapphire30301100.3Constructionk-BELLALawrence Berkeley National LaboratoryTi:sapphire3300.110003DesignSHARCLCLS-IILawrence Livermore National LaboratoryNd:glass1501501101.5Design
Gallery
See also Thales Group Amplitude Lasers
References
External links ICUIL World Map