Looking for access to a laser that can pump out 500 times the total electrical power output of the United States in 500 quadrillionths of a second? Look no farther! The Laboratory’s TRIDENT Laser facility is available for researchers nationwide to explore high-energy-density physics.
Researchers have until April 30 to submit proposals for allocations of experimental time at the TRIDENT facility between October 2008 and March 2009. To aid in the application process, interested scientists can go to the new TRIDENT Web site.
"The scientific community now has access to what is probably the most-flexible, high-power laser in the world,” said David Montgomery of Plasma Physics (P-24).
Located at Technical Area 35, TRIDENT is comprised of three high-energy laser beams that can be delivered into two independent target experimental areas. At its highest power, TRIDENT’s beam packs 250 trillion watts of power in a fraction of a second. When focused, the beam is one-billion-trillion times brighter than sunlight hitting the Earth.
TRIDENT can deliver its full power over the course of 500 femtoseconds. To get an idea of how short a pulse 500 femtoseconds is, think of light being able to travel seven and a half times around the Earth in one second; light would only travel about the width of a human hair in 500 femtoseconds.
Such intensity and pulses make TRIDENT an ideal tool for creating ultra-hot, ultra-high-pressure environments that don’t normally exist on this planet. A BB-sized target within TRIDENT’s beam can be subjected to temperatures and pressures in excess of those that you might find in the hearts of stars. Under these conditions, materials can act as ignition switches for fusion experiments or can be used to study astrophysical phenomena.
Equally as important, TRIDENT’s target areas come equipped with a host of diagnostic tools designed to help researchers better understand the intense interactions between lasers and matter, how materials behave in extreme environments and what happens when lasers and plasmas collide.
Because of its flexibility, TRIDENT can be configured to produce very long laser pulses to propel tiny bits of materials into other materials—in essence creating a gas gun that works on an extremely small scale. With a change of configuration, an ultra-short pulse beam also can be used to accelerate charged particles close to the speed of light.
Built in 1992, TRIDENT recently was enhanced to improve the facility’s power and diagnostic capabilities. The upgrades make TRIDENT an ideal facility for physicists nationwide to perform fundamental experiments in high-energy-density physics, or to test proof-of-principle techniques for experiments that might be proposed for larger laser facilities such as the Omega facility in Rochester, New York, or the National Ignition Facility at Livermore, California.
For more information about TRIDENT or its user program, see the facility’s new Web site.
