• Question: What is the laser intensity and what is the greatest 'thing' it can penetrate?

    Asked by Im Mr Khan's Botoi to Chris on 16 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Chris Armstrong

      Chris Armstrong answered on 16 Jun 2015:

      Laser intensity is W/cm^2 or at least in the units we chose, but in more general terms its Power/Area. With power being Energy/Time.

      So in terms of lasers its the amount of energy delivered to a focal spot of a certain area in a defined amount of time. We have relatively low total energies (1-1000j) but deliver it to the target in incredibly short amounts of time (10^-15 – 10^-12 seconds) to very small areas (10^-6 – 10^-7 metres) resulting in incredible intensities.

      Greatest thing it can penetrate becomes an argument of which laser. For example we struggle to penetrate a mm of Tantalum despite the incredible intensities, buuut theres a laser I heard of in america that can melt through a truck at two miles.

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