I’ve fired one of America’s most powerful lasers—here’s what a shot day looks like

I’ve fired one of America’s most powerful lasers—here’s what a shot day looks like

The laser was used to study the physics of stellar interiors and fusion energy, among other things.

Inside America’s Petawatt Laser Firing: A Day of Tension, Precision and Stellar Fire

Two floors underground, beneath the Physics, Math, and Astronomy building at the University of Texas at Austin, Ahmed Helal coaxed a pulse of light from nanojoules to petawatt power. That’s more juice than the entire U.S. electrical grid delivers, crammed into a trillionth of a second. For years as lead laser scientist at the Texas Petawatt facility, Helal fired one of America’s most potent lasers. His account reveals the grueling rhythm of a sh…