A 6.2-Gigawatt tabletop laser packs the power of several nuclear reactors into a device small enough to fit in a standard lab.
April 23, 2026
Original Paper
6.2-GW tabletop attosecond light source
arXiv · 2604.20084
The Takeaway
High-power physics experiments usually require massive, building-sized facilities to generate attosecond light pulses. This new source achieves extreme peak power by using a unique compression method on a much smaller scale. It allows scientists to watch the movement of electrons inside atoms in real-time without needing a national laboratory. The intense pulses are short enough to freeze the motion of the fastest subatomic particles. Bringing this level of power to the tabletop will accelerate the development of next-generation electronics and medical imaging.
From the abstract
The generation of attosecond pulses (1 as=10-18 s) has enabled real-time observation and manipulation of coherent electron dynamics, yet their low peak power has hindered the development of advanced attosecond pump-probe spectroscopy and attosecond nonlinear metrology. Here we overcome this limitation by generating 1.64 uJ, 263 as isolated attosecond pulses with a peak power of 6.2 GW, the highest pulse energy and peak power reported for a tabletop isolated attosecond source. This is achieved by