Russian scientists have proposed a novel way to accelerate a spaceship while in flight – firing a ground-based laser up its backside. The new technique uses a plasma flow caused by laser ...

An artist’s conception shows a Magbeam station emitting a plasma beam to propel a target ... Is there a better way to power a spaceship? The basic tools of the rocket trade have been refined ...

The breakthrough represents a significant advancement in laser-plasma acceleration, a promising technique for creating small, high-energy particle accelerators with potential uses in materials ...

Laser plasma acceleration is a potentially disruptive technology: It could be used to build far more compact accelerators and open up new use cases in fundamental research, industry and health.

Military researchers are today working on a way to defend soldiers with ultra-quick laser pulses and mid-air plasma bursts. But similar technology may have been floating around the Defense ...

The ZEUS laser facility at the University of Michigan has roughly doubled the peak power of any other laser in the U.S. with ...

DESY's new flagship laser, KALDERA, has now made a decisive step forward: Driving the compact plasma accelerator MAGMA, the innovative laser has been shown to accelerate 100 particle bunches per ...

This builds on many years of laser-plasma research and offers a game-changing method of protecting aircraft from heat-seeking missiles. It may also provide a clue about the source of some recent ...