 "Photo: Paul Chouy")
 "Photo: Paul Chouy")
The UT Tower shone a vivid orange glow Thursday evening even though the football season has yet to begin.
The lighting of the Tower ended a day-long celebration that honored the Texas Petawatt Laser Facility's March demonstration of 1.1 petawatts of power. The demonstration established the laser as the most powerful in the world and made UT the first university to reach the petawatt milestone.
Todd Ditmire, physics professor and director of the Texas Petawatt project, said U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison was instrumental in lobbying Congress to fund the project, which began in 2004 when the University first granted Ditmire and company the funds to renovate the laboratory and build the historic laser. Hutchison and UT President William Powers spoke at Thursday's event.
The ceremony included a symposium with several speakers followed by an open house where researchers displayed the 150-square-foot laser.
The facility, now at the disposal of University students, creates an opportunity for internationally unique academic research.
"With it, we're going to be able to make some of the most extreme states of matter in the universe, and studying that stuff is pretty interesting," Ditmire said. "We'll have something that's internationally unique. There really is no other laser that is quite like this one."
Matt McCormick, a fourth-year physics graduate student and graduate research assistant, is one beneficiary of the availability of the laser facility. He is working on his graduate thesis, with which the Texas Petawatt Laser will help.
He said the potential of the laser is immense and will allow for University researchers to "explore new regimes of matter and reach temperatures and densities found at the center of the sun and other stars."
Laser physics and the implementation of the Texas Petawatt facility also hold implications for the attainment of alternative energy sources, specifically fusion energy.
It is unclear whether fusion will replace fossil fuels, but the energy source is veritably cleaner than alternatives with its output being helium, he said.
Ditmire contextualized the potential of fusion power by stating that "one gallon of water would have the same amount of energy as 800 gallons of gasoline."
However, the main challenge of fusion energy is efficiency. Because laser facilities suffer a net loss of energy, fusion power is not yet a viable energy source. But Ditmire said he is optimistic that a fusion power plant will be established within the next 10 to 20 years.
Livermore, Calif. currently houses the world's largest laser, the National Ignition Facility, which is making the most headway in attaining fusion ignition, where the energy released is greater than the energy expended. The project is 98 percent finished and slated for completion by March 2009.
"This is going to shake up the world and put our field on the map," said Edward Moses, principal associate director for the National Ignition Facility. "The long-sought goal of achieving self-sustained nuclear fusion and energy is close to realization."
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