With mirrors and finesse, labs domesticate the x-ray laser
Space beam weapons and unlimited energy from fusion may have been pipe dreams of the 1980s. But today these dreams are giving birth to practical laboratory tools: tabletop x-ray lasers that may open up whole new areas of chemistry and biology. The first x-ray lasers were energized by nuclear explosions or jolts of light from giant glass lasers built for fusion experiments-hardly bench-top equipment. Now, says Joseph Nilsen, a physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), {open_quotes}several small university-size places are actually making a lot of progress toward tabletop lasers people can use every day.{close_quotes} This article highlight progress towards cheap ubiquitous X-ray lasers as described at the 5th International Conference on X-ray Lasers.
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- OSTI ID:
- 387423
- Journal Information:
- Science, Vol. 273, Issue 5271; Other Information: PBD: 5 Jul 1996
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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