The new laser.

[gary350]

We are finally on the verge of real star war weapons. I have known for 50 years some day it would be possible. If this newly invented laser can conduct electricity it can conduct an EMP pulse from a giant capacitor bank. If you shot 2 parallel lasers at a target you can blast it with 100,000. million gig watts of power from a capacitor bank. When the 2 beams hit a metal object, tank, ship, airplane, it short circuits the 2 beams and the capacitor bank discharges on the enemy weapon. COOL. Far out man. Groovy. Up tight and out of sight.

 

[ronsimpson]

this newly invented laser

What laser?

 

[AnalogKid]

100,000 x 1,000,000 x 1,000,000,000 = 10^23 W, or 100 Zettawatts. To put this in context, that equals 10 million Petawatts. There is a Petawatt laser at the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore Labs. Here's what Wikipedia has to say:

"The petawatt is equal to one quadrillion (10^15) watts and can be produced by the current generation of lasers for time-scales on the order of picoseconds (10−12 s). One such laser is the Lawrence Livermore's Nova laser, which achieved a power output of 1.25 PW (1.25×1015 W) by a process called chirped pulse amplification. The duration of the pulse was roughly 0.5 ps (5×10−13 s), giving a total energy of 600 J, or enough energy to power a 100 W light bulb for six seconds."

So, for a continuous firing weapon, 30 kW makes more sense:
https://www.newsmax.com/SciTech/athena-laser-weapon-truck/2015/03/06/id/628699/

ak

 

[be80be]

He's from Tn got to over look him just kidding but a link to this would be nice.

 

[alec_t]

If this newly invented laser can conduct electricity

Eh? Lasers emit light.

 

[Tony Stewart]

CO2 lasers are routinely used for burning thru thick steel. THe EMI would be the step pulse current required to drive this Zetawatt non-inductive load not the light. If they could do this then they could finally succeed in capturing the energy in a lightning bolt... which isn't likely to happen for a long time.

 

[Les Jones]

It sounds like Gary's claim is that the laser beams will ionise the air to provide two electrically conductive paths to the target connecting it to the capacitor bank.

Les.

 

[Tony Stewart]

A lightning bolt fantasy.

 

[gary350]

I saw this laser on the TV NEWS a few days ago. They claim it can conduct electricity. What kind of laser can do that??? Assume this is true this opens the door to star war type military weapons. In the past the military has rejected laser weapons because they can not rapid fire and they have no destructive power like an explosive device but what if 2 parallel lasers discharge a large capacitor bank into an airplane or army tank. I have never experimented with lasers but I assume it wont require a high power laser to conduct the power of a cap bank to a metal object where it can be discharged. I pull #30 copper wire into the sky with Estes model rockets and discharge lightning to my back yard during thunder storms so the same thing should be true for a capacitor bank. Only difference copper wire will vaporize in the air and still provide a conductive path for lightning but maybe a laser is different? High voltage is much different than a lower voltage capacitor bank.

 

[AnalogKid]

I saw this laser on the NEWS a few days ago.

Where? When? What news source? Citing what source within the military? Link to their website? No cred (credentials), no cred (credibility).

ak

 

[Tony Stewart]

Lightning works by having UHV ( xx megaV) to ionize the air to make the dielectric high conductance , followed by the cloud capacitor discharge.

As long as the laser doesn't focus on moisture and reflect back and blow up ( poor return loss) it might be safe. I suspect this focusing is one of the major problems.

ref https://www.gizmag.com/laser-induced-plasma-channel/23117/

Partial Discharge (PD in HV transformers have arcs in contaminants similar to ESD finger pulse in the sub-nanosecond range. ( ~5ps)
Lightning stretches out to ~ 1us due to the distance involved at the speed of light.

 

[JimB]

 

[Musicmanager]

Is that a Jack handle in your hand Jim ?

 

[AnalogKid]

Naw... I'm just glad to see you.