STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
Heriot-Watt University

High energy pulsed lasers have the potential to transform industrial materials processing, deliver new diagnostics and treatments for healthcare, open up new regimes of fundamental science and even drive the production of clean energy.

Over the last 20 years, proof-of-principle demonstrations of these applications have been carried out with lasers generating only a few pulses per day in a highly inefficient manner, clearly unsuitable for day-to-day operation in industry and medicine.

This talk discusses recent technological breakthroughs overcoming such limitations and leading to the development of the Extreme Photonics Applications Centre, a new research centre to stimulate new solutions to challenging problems to help advance UK science and technology.

This presentation was recorded in conjunction with our 1851 Virtual Alumni Science Evening 2021