• DENVER-(BUSINESS WIRE)-Xcimer Energy announced today that its researchers and collaborators have removed a major scientific bottleneck to commercializing laser fusion energy by experimentally validating a long-overlooked physics regime which enables next-generation fusion lasers. • In apeer-reviewed paper published in APL Photonics, researchers from Xcimer, the University of Illinois, and the University of Alberta reported the first absolute, high-resolution measurements of Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS) gain and spectral behavior in low-pressure noble gases. • The results overturn half a century of assumptions embedded in standard nonlinear optical physics models and textbooks, confirming that there is a regime of SBS physics not modeled by the conventional literature which provides unique advantages for fusion-scale systems. • Laser fusion requires generating enormous amounts of laser energy and delivering it in nanosecond-scale, precisely shaped pulses. • SBS-a nonlinear optical process that can transfer energy between laser pulses in a gas-is one of the few techniques capable of achieving this without subjecting large volumes of delicate, expensive glass optics to damaging energy fluences. • Overlooked no longer Major research institutions, including Los Alamos National Laboratory and the UK’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, have been studying SBS for decades.
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