U.S. · Ars Technica
That’s the part they don’t show in movies: sitting in silence, waiting to try again
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Two floors below ground, behind heavy double doors stamped with a logo that most students have never noticed, sits one of the most powerful lasers in the United States.
Key facts
- The reporter was the lead laser scientist on the Texas Petawatt, or TPW as they called it, from 2020 to 2024
- For example, one afternoon in 2023, they'd spent three hours preparing for a high-priority shot
- This anticipation is all part of the job: hours of patience for 10 seconds you never get used
- Ahmed Helal, research scientist, The University of Texas at Austin
Summary
If you walk across the open yard in front of the Physics, Math, and Astronomy building at the University of Texas at Austin, you’ll see a 17-story tower and a huge L-shaped building. The reporter was the lead laser scientist on the Texas Petawatt, or TPW as they called it, from 2020 to 2024. This type of laser takes a tiny pulse of light, stretches it out so it doesn’t blast optics to pieces, and amplifies it until, for a brief instant, it carries more power than the entire US electrical grid. On a typical shot day, the target might be a piece of metal foil thinner than a human hair, a jet of gas or a tiny plastic pellet—each designed to answer a different scientific question. Scientists from across the country applied for time on TPW to study everything from the physics of stellar interiors and fusion energy to new approaches for cancer treatment.