Thales wins terawatt laser contract

November 30, 2004, Orsay, France--Thales Laser has been awarded a $1.8 million contract for a 100-terawatt class laser. The laser will be installed at the Physics Department at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2005. The system will be the first commercial 100 TW class system operating at 10Hz in a research facility.

According to the company, the laser is based on Ti:Sa Chirped Pulse amplification and produces sub 40 femtosecond pulses; the energy released in a single pulse equals the output of all the power plants in the world in the same amount of time. The system will be used for the study of high energy physics.

The originality of this solution lies in its high beam quality architecture without cryogenic cooling, thanks to a patented amplification system, limiting costs, system complexity and maintenance. The pulses will be recompressed in a special vacuum chamber in order to prevent plasma generation in the air, because of the peak powers involved.