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Gari_305 OP t1_j26e99c wrote

From the Article

>For the first time, scientists were successful at driving at a thousand shots per second a so-called plasma mirror in the relativistic regime, i.e. with a laser field so strong that hurls the plasma electrons back and forth at nearly the speed of light. The feat was accomplished at the LOA (Laboratoire d’Optique Appliquée) in France.
>
>When an intense laser pulse ionizes the surface of a solid target, it creates plasma so dense that it is impenetrable to the laser, even if the target was initially transparent. The laser now gets reflected off this “plasma mirror.” In the relativistic regime, the mirror surface no longer just sits stills but is driven to oscillate so fast that, through a process called relativistic surface high-harmonic generation (SHHG), it temporally compresses the laser’s electromagnetic field cycles. This concentrates the laser energy further in time and makes plasma mirrors a promising path for the generation of ever more intense and shorter laser pulses.

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TerpenesByMS t1_j29vx5m wrote

How small are these systems? Can the plasma be held in place for a meaningful period of time? This screams weaponry. It would have ammo - solid ablation targets. Possibly a charge time. Probably tunable to some degree. High enough power just vapes the clouds - ultimate air defense.

I wonder then if the ablation material could also be used as armor to the same kind of laser?

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Rakshear t1_j272x4t wrote

Someone eli5 the application for this? It’s cool but I don’t understand it enough to see where it could applied to.

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Dizzycactus3 t1_j28xwd0 wrote

Sounds like a light capacitor. Charge it up with dim light for a long time, discharge the brighter, shorter laser beam

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0ldPainless t1_j27ddli wrote

Well whoop-de-doo, but what does it all mean, Basil?

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invent_or_die t1_j280b8n wrote

Seems applicable to EUV light generation, which is now done by vaporizing lead droplets via laser and focusing the created light. This extreme ultraviolet light is used in the lithography of the latest semiconductors.

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FuturologyBot t1_j26j5z5 wrote

The following submission statement was provided by /u/Gari_305:

From the Article

>For the first time, scientists were successful at driving at a thousand shots per second a so-called plasma mirror in the relativistic regime, i.e. with a laser field so strong that hurls the plasma electrons back and forth at nearly the speed of light. The feat was accomplished at the LOA (Laboratoire d’Optique Appliquée) in France.
>
>When an intense laser pulse ionizes the surface of a solid target, it creates plasma so dense that it is impenetrable to the laser, even if the target was initially transparent. The laser now gets reflected off this “plasma mirror.” In the relativistic regime, the mirror surface no longer just sits stills but is driven to oscillate so fast that, through a process called relativistic surface high-harmonic generation (SHHG), it temporally compresses the laser’s electromagnetic field cycles. This concentrates the laser energy further in time and makes plasma mirrors a promising path for the generation of ever more intense and shorter laser pulses.

Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/zykw6e/relativistic_plasma_mirror_driven_at_a/j26e99c/

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Coronasirus t1_j28p0nr wrote

So this is what sci-fi writers have been talking about when their characters “raise the shields” in their spacecrafts (Star Trek/Star Wars etc)

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