100kW Laser + 1,000,000,000 Volts = Godly Weapon (Electrolaser)

[pianoman2011]

Recent UK Arcticle

Wikipedia Article

Old PopSci Arcticle

:evil:

-Jakob

 

[Crazy Jay]

hmm reminds me of Tesla

 

[rathat]

I wish i had a 100 kw laser lol.
also you cant add volts to watts, watts are volts x amps lol

 

[pianoman2011]

I wish i had a 100 kw laser lol.
also you cant add volts to watts, watts are volts x amps lol

Haha I think you know I meant combining a 100kW laser with a shock of 1,000,000,000 volts, not adding volts and watts

-Jakob

 

[Schrecken_Licht]

Apparently it's much easier said than done....the company failed the first time around so that doesn't bode well. But it would be cool if it worked. Somewhere out there used to be a video of this sort of thing being demonstrated in a hallway. I used to have it bookmarked but can't find it.

Anyway, here's another, more recent article on this:
Lightning-gun tech 'approaching weaponisation' • The Register

 

[pianoman2011]

Apparently it's much easier said than done....the company failed the first time around so that doesn't bode well. But it would be cool if it worked. Somewhere out there used to be a video of this sort of thing being demonstrated in a hallway. I used to have it bookmarked but can't find it.

Anyway, here's another, more recent article on this:
Lightning-gun tech 'approaching weaponisation' • The Register

Thanks for the link, I edited it into the first post. The only time I remember reading about this was in a Popular Science Mag a few months ago, and I just remebered about it today and decided to post it up here. I gotta fine that video you're talking about

-Jakob

 

[Cyparagon]

watts are volts x amps lol

ONLY in a purely resistive load! I bought a 105W CFL last month, but it was actually 105VA, and only 55W. Many people don't know the difference between watts and volt-amps.

 

[Schrecken_Licht]

There are some vids on the mfg's new site but the hallway vid is a different one and not as good, but you can still see it:

Video Gallery - Applied Energetics

 

[pianoman2011]

There are some vids on the mfg's new site but the hallway vid is a different one and not as good, but you can still see it:

Video Gallery - Applied Energetics

Thanks for the link! I'll check it out when I have access to some non-dial-up internet.

-Jakob

 

[AnselmoFanZero]

I always SUPPOSED you could make a stream of lighning. Must be a USP laser...100kW is a joke for a Ti:Sapphire laser.

 

[MickyP]

Oh this technology again.
I remember reading this some decades back and at that time the company/D.O.D (not really sure who were doing it now) were calling it an "electron mace".
Its actually very solid theory and viable as a "technology demonstrator", but perhaps not very viable as a weapon. Not sure if the article covers it in sufficient detail but essentially using a laser beam to heat and ionise the air, the device thus creates a horizontal column of air (or whatever direction the laser points) thats much less resistive than the surrounding air, then the device dumps a very high potential voltage (hundreds of Kv) into the less resistive air and it the high voltage arcs to earth, somewhere along the column of heated ionised air where it finds a low resistive path to earth. Think of it like a horizontal lightning bolt.

This is the same practical science which makes a "Jacobs ladder" spark gap "rise" between the two vertical conductors, because the heated ionised air that the arc is travelling through is rising, thus the arc rises with it because of the lesser resistance.

But, as I always get cynical and "naysaying" about such weapon concepts because I must ask: "where are you ganna get THAT much energy from?" Its utter horseshit that such weapons will "supercede small arms" as the investment companies like to claim. There simply is NO better technology now and not likely to be for many many decades to deliver lethal force than the modern gas operated chemically powered small arms.
All this sci-fi weapons concepts are pretty much just that, fiction.

 

[AnselmoFanZero]

Hey
Just guessing: Youre not one of those teens with pointer-videos on utube ;-) am I right?

Dont know when you heard first about this, but these days its a bit different I guess. Disc-lasers, fibre-lasers, USP lasers.....should be possible to ionize air on a considerable distance dont you think?

Is it actually possible to use a Nd:YAG laser for heating up the air?

 

[charliebruce]

Hold on...

Isn't this guy supposed to use ionised plasma channels to transmit huge currents? Or was it just me that was paying attention to the geeky bits of that film?

In all seriousness, I'd love to see a real demonstration of this kind of technology - if done well, this would offer the accuracy of a laser, the reliability of a bullet (ish), and the non-lethality of a Taser, all (eventually) portable. This is still quite a way off though, and you still have the risk of it arcing back on the user if the channel isn't established, verified and maintained - which could get messy, and very fast.

 

[AnselmoFanZero]

WHIPLASH xD
Gotta go see this movie.........cant wait. Had no time yet!
Anyways:
Ionizing is tough. You need UV light....250 or so nm to kick electrons out of the air. No idea why a 800nm beam only 0.3µm long is capable of doing this...
Anyone?

 

[charliebruce]

The pic is from Iron Man 2.

The process of creating the plasma channel is called blooming - look here: Directed-energy weapon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[AnselmoFanZero]

Dude I know....thats why I have written: Gotta go see this movie....

Regarding ionisation: Just tried to explain how its done and what is needed.
Ti:Sapphire is a femtosecond laser....the beam fired in 30fs is only 0.3µm long. Dont get how the short pulses hit molecules hard enough without just bounsing off!