Re:Pulsed terawatt lasers have surprising effects when shone...
by noobermin on Friday May 27, 2016 @04:09PM
(#11788595)
Yes, I'd think the Schwinger limit[0] would be reached first, which is currently the dream of most of us in this field. The Irradiance for the Schwinger limit is 10^29 W/cm^2.
By contrast, the planned ELI[1] experiment will have pulse with a intensity of 10^24 W/cm^2. The current state of the art lasers of high peak intensity is ~10^21 W/cm^2 (current record I believe is 10^22 W/cm^2). There are proposals to getting to the Schwinger limit but they are still in the hypothetical stage.
By contrast, the planned ELI[1] experiment will have pulse with a intensity of 10^24 W/cm^2. The current state of the art lasers of high peak intensity is ~10^21 W/cm^2 (current record I believe is 10^22 W/cm^2). There are proposals to getting to the Schwinger limit but they are still in the hypothetical stage.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwinger_limit
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_Light_Infrastructure