The University of Michigan test fired the Zettawatt-Equivalent Ultrashort pulse laser System (ZEUS), producing 2 petawatts of power, exceeding the electricity output of the entire planet.
ZEUS is a successor to the HERCULES system and its recent demonstration involved firing a laser pulse at helium to produce plasma and accelerate electrons through wakefield acceleration.
Future experiments with ZEUS will involve accelerating electrons to collide with laser pulses, making the 3-petawatt laser appear much more powerful.
The ZEUS project aims to advance scientific research in fields like soft tissue imaging, cancer treatment, and exploring phenomena like positron jets from black holes and gamma ray bursts.