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Because plasma can shape very intense light without being damaged, it could be used to make components for lasers thousands of times more powerful than the strongest ones that exist

Laser beams could be more powerful when passed through plasma gratings Shutterstock/luchschenF

Laser beams could be more powerful when passed through plasma gratings

Using plasma to make lasers could make them more powerful and more compact.

Matthew Edwards and Pierre Michel at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California proposed a laser design that includes components made from plasma, a state of matter similar to a hot “soup” of charged particles. They calculated that because plasma can reflect and focus very intense light without being damaged by it, this method could help build lasers thousands of times more powerful than the strongest ones …

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