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Station of Extreme Light

Coordinates: 31°22′42″N 121°14′13″E / 31.378428°N 121.23689°E / 31.378428; 121.23689
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Example of petawatt laser

The Station of Extreme Light (SEL, 极端光物理线站) is laser facility aimed at producing a laser with 100 petawatts (PW) of peak power. The station is currently under construction in Shanghai, China.[1] The laser may be powerful enough to produce matter and antimatter directly from a vacuum[2] (the Schwinger effect).

Upon completion, the laser will be the most powerful on Earth, with an instantaneous power 10,000 times the power of all the world's electrical grids combined, and a trillion trillion times more intense than sunlight, albeit only for a tiny fraction of a second.[3] The facility is scheduled for completion in 2023 and will be able to provide focused intensity of more than 1023 W/cm2.[4]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Cartlidge, Edwin (2018-01-24). "Physicists are planning to build lasers so powerful they could rip apart empty space". Science | AAAS. Retrieved 2021-02-18.
  2. ^ Berboucha, Meriame. "This Laser Could Rip Apart Empty Space". Forbes. Retrieved 2021-02-18.
  3. ^ "Chinese laser project 'could rip apart empty space'". NewsComAu. 2018-01-28. Retrieved 2021-02-18.
  4. ^ "The Laser at 60: Ruxin Li".

31°22′42″N 121°14′13″E / 31.378428°N 121.23689°E / 31.378428; 121.23689