Lasers are a really cool technology. They are used in many different things ranging from optical data storage (CDs, DVDs, Blu Ray, etc) to military grade weapons to medical devices, and perhaps most popular of all, cat toys.

For the average person, a laser is little more than a cool way to emit a very focused beam of light. Sure, most people know that lasers can be used to cut things and even generate fires, but it doesn’t go much beyond that.

For researchers at the cutting edge (pun intended) of laser technology, however, it is a much more important and complicated science. These researchers have recently announced the most powerful laser ever made in the United States.

It is called ZEUS, which stands for Zettawatt-Equivalent Ultrashort Pulse Laser System. The key term in there is the Zettawatt.

A zettawatt is a measurement of how much electricity is being used. For some context, humans use about 20 terawatts of power each year. 1000 terawatts is equal to one petawatt. 1 million petawatts is equal to one zettawatt.

So, to put it simply, a zettawatt is an almost unimaginable amount of electricity. More than enough to run all the electrical systems on earth for generations.

Well, this laser uses that much electricity…sort of.

It is that term “equivalent” that makes the laser even possible. That is because the laser itself generates pulses that last just 25 quintillionths of a second. Needless to say, something that lasts such a short amount of time is going to take far less electricity than a laser that is operating continuously.

In addition, the laser goes through a number of steps to concentrate it, giving it the effective strength of a much more powerful laser. To put it simply, you don’t have to worry about the lights around the world going out every time they fire off this laser.

In a statement, Karl Krushelnick, the director of the Gerard Mourou Center for Ultrafast Optical Science (where ZEUS is housed), said:

“This milestone marks the beginning of experiments that move into unexplored territory for American high field science.”

To make this incredibly powerful laser, the system creates an infrared light, which then goes through several diffraction gratings and pump lasers. As it goes through these steps, the laser gets more energy. It then passes through a sapphire amplifier that was infused with titanium atoms.

Throughout this process, the laser is narrowed from 30 centimeters (12 inches) down to .8 microns. For context, .8 microns is about 10 times thinner than a piece of paper.

Check out this brief video animation that shows all the steps that the laser goes through to achieve its incredible power:

This technology is undoubtedly amazing. And pushing the envelope with any technology is encouraged, but what is the point? Vyacheslav Lukin is the program director in the NSF Division of Physics, which is the area that oversees the ZEUS program. He explained:

“The fundamental research done at the NSF ZEUS facility has many possible applications, including better imaging methods for soft tissues and advancing the technology used to treat cancer and other diseases. Scientists using the unique capabilities of ZEUS will expand the frontiers of human knowledge in new ways and provide new opportunities for American innovation and economic growth.”

Creating a laser with this much power opens up avenues for new research that could be applied in a variety of fields, including medical, research, and much more.

If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read about a quantum computer simulation that has “reversed time” and physics may never be the same.