Solid State Laser News

Iron Beam
www.spacedaily.com

Israeli air force deploys first laser interception system

Israel’s defence ministry said on Sunday it had deployed a new “Iron Beam” laser system for the air force to intercept aerial threats. The laser system’s main developers, the ministry’s research and development department and defence contractor Rafael, delivered it to the air force at a ceremony...
www.spacedaily.com www.spacedaily.com

Laser tech

Laser effect on electron...
phys.org

Ultrafast light-driven electron slide discovered

When an intense laser pulse hits a stationary electron, it performs a trembling motion at the frequency of the light field. However, this motion dies down after the pulse, and the electron comes to rest again at its original location. If, however, the light field changes its strength along the...
phys.org phys.org
phys.org

Ultrafast electron diffraction captures atomic layers twisting in response to light

A pulse of light sets the tempo in the material. Atoms in a crystalline sheet just a few atoms thick begin to move—not randomly, but in a coordinated rhythm, twisting and untwisting in sync like dancers following a beat.
phys.org phys.org
phys.org

Scientists make dark exciton states shine through nanotube engineering

A research team at the City University of New York and the University of Texas at Austin has discovered a way to make previously hidden states of light, known as dark excitons, shine brightly, and control their emission at the nanoscale. Their findings, published today in Nature Photonics, open...
phys.org phys.org
toughsf.blogspot.com

The Laser Revolution Part II: Ground, Sea and Grid

A blog dedicated to helping Science Fiction authors create and discuss worlds where a realistic setting can still serve the fiction.
toughsf.blogspot.com toughsf.blogspot.com

Accelerator and plasmas

Light detection

AI and optics

45 foot reach Tazer 10 to NYPD
 
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ukdefencejournal.org.uk

British laser weapon downs drones off coast of Scotland

Britain’s DragonFire laser has destroyed high speed drones during recent trials at the Hebrides range, with the Ministry of Defence announcing a £316m contract for MBDA UK to deliver the first ship fitted systems from 2027.
ukdefencejournal.org.uk ukdefencejournal.org.uk

Dragonfire due to go to sea on Type 45 from 2027.
 
Forest Green said:

UK Royal Navy to equip MBDA’s drone-frying lasers by 2027​

www.defensenews.com

UK Royal Navy to equip MBDA’s drone-frying lasers by 2027

The company won a contract worth the equivalent of $414 million to make it so.
www.defensenews.com www.defensenews.com

UK Contracts for DragonFire Naval Laser Capability to Help Build Cost-effective Ship-based Defence​

www.navalnews.com

UK Contracts for DragonFire Naval Laser Capability to Help Build Cost-effective Ship-based Defence - Naval News

The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has contracted MBDA UK to deliver two DragonFire laser-based directed energy weapon (DEW) fits for the UK Royal Navy (RN).
www.navalnews.com www.navalnews.com
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Tangentially related:

Faraday Effect Reveals Magnetic Role of Light in New Study​

www.spacewar.com

Faraday Effect Reveals Magnetic Role of Light in New Study

London, UK (SPX) Nov 20, 2025 - Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have established that the magnetic field component of light actively influences the Faraday Effect. The team, led by Dr. Amir Capua and Benjamin Ass
www.spacewar.com

Physics of light and magnetism rewritten after almost two centuries​

www.newscientist.com

Physics of light and magnetism rewritten after almost two centuries

An experiment 180 years ago first demonstrated a connection between light and electromagnetism – but the link is deeper than we thought
www.newscientist.com www.newscientist.com
 
Lasing modes

Other news

Laser used to break fullerines
For the first time, the experiment carried out at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory could image strong-laser-driven molecular dynamics in C₆₀ directly.

The work is published in the journal Science Advances.

Display

DIY


For blue light

Amplifier

New use for particle accelerators:
https://phys.org/news/2025-11-particle-cancer-materials.html
https://phys.org/news/2025-11-rapid-ray-pulses-enable-efficiency.html
https://phys.org/news/2025-12-radiofrequency-stability-reliability.html
https://phys.org/news/2025-12-lhc-particle-collisions.html

On what can be done to metals with electron beams *
They were able to increase the number of defects by focusing the electron beam and so control the number of stationary atoms within the liquid. Researchers have discovered that not all atoms in a liquid are in motion and that some remain stationary regardless of the temperature, significantly impacting the solidification process, including the formation of an unusual state of matter—a corralled supercooled liquid.

hackaday.com

Step Into My Particle Accelerator

If you get a chance to visit a computer history museum and see some of the very old computers, you’ll think they took up a full room. But if you ask, you’ll often find that the power su…
hackaday.com hackaday.com
 
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bcredman said:
Although the Facebook post was meant to be tongue in cheek, I'm afraid that it will be used as evidence that the congressperson's "Jewish Space Lasers" conspiracy theory is plausible since Israel has tested an operational laser weapon system which the conspiracy theorists might claim the Israeli's may have put into orbit. Hence my pointing out that the video in the post is not about space lasers, but just a ground-to-air laser weapon system.
Click to expand...
I don't think anybody really takes the "Jewish Space Laser" thing seriously.

First: Solaren doesn't appear to have put anything in space: So, the idea kind of stops there, unless somebody tried to argue the project "went black", then...

Second: The satellite system worked by capturing solar-radiation in space; then converting it to microwaves and transmitting that down to Earth. The reasoning for this is that microwave radiation gets less losses traveling through the atmosphere than solar-radiation. The upshot of this is that microwaves are invisible and that runs directly contrary to her claims that people saw a blue beam coming from the sky.

Of course Greene wasn't focused on facts...
By the way, the congressperson in question, Marjorie Taylor Greene, did not actually use the term "Jewish Space Lasers" in her post suggesting that the 2018 Camp Fire in California might have been caused by lasers beamed down from space. Because she tied the alleged space lasers to the international banking firm Rothschild Inc., the phrase "Jewish space lasers" became the shorthand used by others to describe her conspiracy theory...
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It's not even her theory: There are some far-right groups who had talked about space-lasers before Greene's November, 2018 post––she just used this fact to resonate with certain people who she figured would see it her way.
 
1:40 - States that it intercepts long-range BMs.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqmV-dTCwiw

Forest Green said:

Army eyeing laser weapon capability for new large drone, official says​

breakingdefense.com

Army eyeing laser weapon capability for new large drone, official says - Breaking Defense

“We’re not trying to blow up the Death Star. You can blind the optics, start fires, melt plastic, disrupt targeting, overheat electronics. All of that is possible now,” said General Atomics spokesperson C. Mark Brinkley.
breakingdefense.com breakingdefense.com
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Laser modes

An improvement?
Thulium fiber lasers, operating at a wavelength of 2 micrometers, are valued for applications in medicine, materials processing, and defense. Their longer wavelength makes stray light less damaging compared to the more common ytterbium lasers at 1 micrometer. Alternatives like etched or laser-processed fibers can withstand higher powers but struggle to remove low-angle light—a critical issue for pump lasers. Multimaterial CLS designs exist, aligning layers with increasing refractive index along the fiber to spread heat, but they are complex and hard to implement.

As reported in Advanced Photonics Nexus, researchers at Fraunhofer IOF in Germany have developed a simpler solution: a single-material CLS with self-adapting behavior.

The material's refractive index starts slightly above that of glass and decreases as temperature rises, thanks to a strongly negative thermo-optical coefficient. At low power, the CLS strips light efficiently. As power increases, the heated sections become less effective, passing remaining light to cooler regions. This spreads heat along the fiber length instead of concentrating it at the start, preventing catastrophic overheating.

"This is a game-changer for quick lab experiments at medium powers," says lead author Dr. Tilman Lühder.

similar stories
Researchers at the University of Sydney have cracked a long-standing problem in microchip-scale lasers by carving tiny "speed bumps" into the devices' optical cavity in their quest to produce exceptionally "clean" light. This exquisitely narrow spectrum light could be used in future quantum computers, advanced navigation systems, ultra-fast communications networks and precision sensors.

After a few femtoseconds, the double excited state decays by electron emission, generating a higher charge state. Compared to simple photoionization, the doubly resonant pathway leads to a more than 100x increased absorption of photons, greatly boosting efficiency.

An international team has published an overview of synchrotron methods for the further development of quantum materials and technologies in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.

6g
The research team led by Professor Mathias Weiler is working on establishing the physical foundations for next-generation miniaturized sound-based microwave components. The key to this is the interconnection of established SAW technology with spin phenomena.

Weiler explains, "Sound waves can propagate not only in air, but also in matter. In the process, the lattice atoms of the material oscillate." Since the electrons of the lattice atoms have a quantum mechanical angular momentum, the spin, this can also be excited to oscillate. The sound waves then generate spin waves in magnetically ordered materials.

The research team investigated such collective acoustic excitations of spins in the ferrimagnetic insulator yttrium iron garnet (YIG). YIG has an extremely long spin wave lifetime, making it an ideal object of study. The recently published work shows that hybrid excitations—so-called magnon-polarons—can form in a nanostructured surface acoustic wave resonator.

Cosmic scale lasers

Science Fiction

laserstars.org laserstars.org

Special launchers located within the asteroid belt could send into the sun a precisely timed sequence of asteroids. They impact the sun on the side directly facing us. Although they don't exactly 'hit' the sun, as the sun has no solid surface, the parts we can see are actually regions of hot gas that have become transparent enough that we can see through the thin plasma. Before each asteroid enters the solar photosphere it encounters strong frictional forces in the denser outer layers of the sun, and just like the meteors you see at night they usually burn up before the reach the sun's hot surface. The energy required to vaporize the asteroid comes from its own potential energy high up in the solar gravitational well.

We don't want to send matter from the planet, as we would have to expend too much energy to raise it out of its gravitational well. Even from the lighter moons, the effectiveness of matter sent into the sun would be 10 times less than from the asteroid belt.

Laser bubble

Photochemistry

Useful to break down CO2...in space perhaps. I wonder if a nuclear lightbulb could use that somehow.

Optics
"Scientists at the University of Oxford demonstrate an approach to interpreting how materials interact with polarized light, which could help advance biomedical imaging and material design. Their work, reported in Advanced Photonics Nexus, focuses on improving how researchers analyze a key optical property known as the retarder." (UH! that a bad word!--shut up Billy)

Small acoustics

More
phys.org

Physicist's model and predictions may have applications in the new generation of superradiant lasers

Theoretical physicist Farokh Mivehvar has investigated the interaction of two collections of atoms emitting light inside a quantum cavity—an optical device consisting of two high-quality, tiny mirrors facing each other that confine the light within a small area for an extended time. The model...
phys.org phys.org
 
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A true ray-gun

Optics

New LED

Tiny laser

Hologram

Gamma rays

Magnetic vortices

X-Ray coherence?
 
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Israel fields first Iron Beam 100kW laser defense system:

The IDF [...] received its first operational Iron Beam laser system this week, which is expected to enter operational service in early 2026. The system was developed by Rafael and was tested during the Iron Swords War, with successful interceptions of rockets, mortars and drones from Lebanon.

The Iron Beam laser will be integrated as part of Israel’s multi-layered air defense alongside the Iron Dome, David’s Sling and the Arrow air defense systems.

The Iron Beam creates a laser beam of approximately 100 kilowatts designed to operate up to 10 kilometers. The laser is able to sight in on a target using a thermal sensor. It then sends a beam to heat the threat and destroy it in one of two ways: by activating the fuse and exploding it in the air or by hitting critical parts of the target and neutralizing it.
Click to expand...

www.defensenews.com

Israel fields new SIGMA artillery cannon, Iron Beam laser system

Israel's Iron Beam laser system is expected to enter operational service in early 2026.
www.defensenews.com www.defensenews.com
 
The random laser
hackaday.com

The Random Laser

When we first heard the term “random laser,” we did a double-take. After all, most ordinary sources of light are random. One defining characteristic of a traditional laser is that it em…
hackaday.com hackaday.com

Steer light
www.nanowerk.com

Dynamically reconfigurable topological routing in nonlinear photonic systems

Scientists developed a reconfigurable topological photonic system that steers light in real time using optical pumping, enabling ultrafast adaptive control.
www.nanowerk.com

On lasers and particle acceleration

Muon manip’

Soliton pulse

Ions

OLED

Cheap yellow display
hackaday.com

Building An Escape Room Lockbox With The ESP32 Cheap Yellow Display (CYD)

Here’s something fun from [Chad Kapper] over on HackMakeMod: Escape Room Lockbox with the Cheap Yellow Display. You may have heard of the “cheap yellow display” (CYD), so-called d…
hackaday.com hackaday.com

Optics

Gamma rays

Magnon
www.nanowerk.com

Team discovers unexpected oscillation states in magnetic vortices

Magnon frequency combs could enable coupling across different physical systems.
www.nanowerk.com

Fabric like
 
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Broader suspicion that Directed Energy weapons were used to incapacitate Maduro personal guard during raid in Caracas:

Guard: At one point, they launched something—I don't know how to describe it... it was like a very intense sound wave. Suddenly I felt like my head was exploding from the inside. We all started bleeding from the nose. Some were vomiting blood. We fell to the ground, unable to move.

Interviewer: And your comrades? Did they manage to resist?

Security Guard: No, not at all. Those twenty men, without a single casualty, killed hundreds of us…. I swear, I've never seen anything like it. We couldn't even stand up after that sonic weapon or whatever it was.

This might all seem like a far-fetched excuse for why Maduro’s guards failed to protect him, taking heavy casualties while a small force abducted the man they were supposed to defend with their lives.
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And a confirmation of DOW acquiring the device through a third party and covert action:

A division of the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations, purchased the device for millions of dollars in the waning days of the Biden administration, using funding provided by the Defense Department, according to two of the sources. Officials paid “eight figures” for the device, these people said, declining to offer a more specific number.
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The acquisition of the device has been treated by some victims as potential vindication.

“If the [US government] has indeed uncovered such devices, then the CIA owes all the victims a f**king major and public apology for how we have been treated as pariahs,” Marc Polymeropoulos, one of the first CIA officers to go public with injuries he says he sustained in an attack in Moscow in 2017, said in a statement to CNN.
Click to expand...
 
TomcatViP said:
Broader suspicion that Directed Energy weapons were used to incapacitate Maduro personal guard during raid in Caracas:



Click to expand...
In my opinion, it is more likely to have been a concussion or stun grenade, such as a MK3 or M84, instead of a sonic or EM beam weapon. The MK3 has been around since 1918, and the M84 entered service in 1995.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MK3_grenade and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M84_stun_grenade

The description of the M84 states: "Upon deflagration, it emits an intensely loud "bang" of 170–180 decibels and a blinding flash of more than one million candelas within 5 feet (1.5 meters) of initiation, sufficient to cause immediate flash blindness, deafness, tinnitus, and inner ear disturbance. Exposed personnel experience disorientation, confusion and loss of coordination and balance. While these effects are all intended to be temporary, there is risk of permanent injury. Consequently, the M84 is classified as a less-lethal weapon.

It is intended to be thrown into enclosed spaces to distract and temporarily incapacitate enemy personnel for easier capture, or when risk of collateral damage during urban warfare or hostage rescue operations contravenes the employment of traditionally lethal and destructive fragmenting high explosive ordnance...

US Army doctrine calls for the M84 to be deployed "during building and room clearing operations, when the presence of noncombatants is likely or expected and the assault element is attempting to achieve surprise."
 
Sorry @bcredman but the large number of soldier allegedly incapacitated at once before the SF ran in doesn´t fit a scenario were stunt grenades would be thrown at individuals or small groups of soldiers. That if we believe what was reported.
 
Tiny laser

Researchers in Japan report the world's first continuous-wave UV-B semiconductor laser diode operating at room temperature on a low-cost sapphire substrate.

This breakthrough advances compact, energy-efficient UV light sources, potentially replacing bulky gas-based lasers in health care, industrial, and scientific research applications worldwide.

Small but powerful magnet

A research team led by Kuang Guangli and Jiang Donghui at the High Magnetic Field Laboratory of the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CHMFL), has developed a "pocket-type" high-temperature superconducting (HTS) coil, achieving a record combined magnetic field of 44.86 tesla.
 
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Another report summarizing what´s known about Directed Energy weapons (as a wide sense of the term) used in Caracas operation to snatch Maduro:

The outlet also quotes one of Maduro’s former guards, who says that during the night of the US raid, “suddenly all our radar systems shut down without any explanation.”

“The next thing we saw were drones, a lot of drones, flying over our positions. We didn’t know how to react,” he says, adding that US helicopters then appeared overhead, carrying special forces troops.

“At one point, they launched something; I don’t know how to describe it. It was like a very intense sound wave. Suddenly I felt like my head was exploding from the inside,” the guard says.

“We all started bleeding from the nose,” he recounts. “Some were vomiting blood. We fell to the ground, unable to move. We couldn’t even stand up after that sonic weapon — or whatever it was.”
Click to expand...

 
Almost sounds like the Elipton...

In other laser news

A team of engineers and scientists has shown for the first time that a hard-X-ray cavity can provide net X-ray gain, with X-ray pulses being circulated between crystal mirrors and amplified in the process, much like happens with an optical laser. The result of the proof-of-concept at European XFEL is a particularly coherent, laser-like light of a quality that is unprecedented in the hard X-ray spectrum.


Optics

Mazer
hackaday.com

The Amazing Maser

While it has become a word, laser used to be an acronym: “light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation”. But there is an even older technology called a maser, which is the sa…
hackaday.com hackaday.com
 
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Recent advance

Light steering

Sensing

small lasers

laser crossing

Not laser but still for directed energy...a new waveguide
 
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First known Laser anti-drone system usage in CONUS:

The U.S. Army deployed AeroVironment Inc's (AVAV.O), opens new tab LOCUST laser counter-drone weapon system near El Paso International Airport on Wednesday, leading to a seven-hour airspace shutdown, two people briefed on the situation told Reuters.
The use of the 20-kilowatt LOCUST direct-energy weapon, which has not previously been reported, is a rare known example of the U.S. deploying cutting-edge counter-drone technology capable of defeating flying objects at a fraction of the cost of traditional interceptor missiles.
Click to expand...

 
For high power lasers

Plasma study

crystals

glass

Infrared optics

Hyperlens... negative refraction

Accelerators

Radar

Phonon/laser

Hair-width LEDs to replace lasers

Laser effects on matter
 
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TomcatViP said:
First known Laser anti-drone system usage in CONUS:



Click to expand...
Don't lase me bro'.

Airspace Closure Over Laser Weapon Use A Glaring Example Of Drone Defense Policy Struggles​

www.twz.com

Airspace Closure Over Laser Weapon Use A Glaring Example Of Drone Defense Policy Struggles

After years of putting off the drone threat, the U.S. government is trying to do something about it, but policy is struggling to catch up.
www.twz.com www.twz.com

This Is The LOCUST Laser That Reportedly Prompted Closing El Paso’s Airspace​

www.twz.com

This Is The LOCUST Laser That Reportedly Prompted Closing El Paso's Airspace

The U.S. Army has been acquiring multiple versions of the LOCUST laser weapon system to bolster its ability to shoot down hostile drones.
www.twz.com www.twz.com
 
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Feb 14 (Reuters) - U.S. officials investigated a previously unreported experiment in Norway in which a government scientist tested a microwave device and developed neurological symptoms similar to so-called Havana syndrome, the Washington Post reported on Saturday citing people familiar with the matter.
Norway informed the CIA about the incident, prompting at least two visits by Pentagon and White House officials, the report said. People familiar with the test said the results did not prove U.S. diplomats and spies were targeted by a foreign adversary, though they showed pulsed-energy devices can affect human biology.
Click to expand...

 
 
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TomcatViP said:
First known Laser anti-drone system usage in CONUS:



Click to expand...
From Reuters' article: "The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) halted air traffic for more than seven hours in and out of the Texas border city of El Paso earlier on Wednesday after raising concerns that the Army's laser-based counter-drone system, housed at Fort Bliss adjacent to the airport, could pose risks to commercial air traffic, government and airline officials told Reuters."

Thus, LOCUST was located at Fort Bliss, which is an Army base. Typically for any laser firing on a military base, a no-fly zone is established over the base by having air traffic routed away from the airspace over the base. There are procedures and forms for the DoW to inform and work with the FAA in planning the re-routing of air traffic, and that collaboration usually starts several months before the event. The TWZ article that Forest Green posted states, "F.A.A. officials had warned the Pentagon that if they were not given sufficient time and information to conduct their review, they would have no choice but to shut down the nearby airspace." Therefore, it sounds like whoever was in charge of this deployment did not start the planning process with the FAA far enough in advance.

This rapid deployment may have been authorized under the new law and guidance discussed in the TWZ article: “The guidance, signed by the Secretary of War on December 8, 2025, streamlines and consolidates existing policies for detecting and mitigating UAS under the authority of 10 U.S. Code § 130i,” the release added, referring to another one of the laws governing domestic counter-small drone efforts. “It addresses the direct and growing threat posed by the proliferation of inexpensive and capable UAS. This updated framework provides commanders with the expanded authority and flexibility needed to dominate the airspace above their installations.” "Among other things, the new rules eliminate restrictions on defense perimeters that reduced installation commanders’ abilities to protect against drones." “The previous ‘fence-line’ limitation has been removed, giving commanders a larger defensive area and greater decision space to protect covered facilities and assets,” the new rules state.

The Reuters article also reports that the system was tested "at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona before Army units received training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma." The TWZ article states "Mayes, speaking to a small group of reporters, including from The War Zone at Falcon Peak 2025, a counter-drone experiment at Peterson Space Force Base in October 2024, also raised questions about whether the laser beam could impact aircraft or even satellites passing by, as well as things on the ground like 'hikers up on a hill.'" Therefore, this is not the first time that a counter-drone laser has been used in CONUS. It may, however, be it's first operational use in CONUS.
 
From the Air & Space Forces Magazine article Forest Green posted, it sounds like after the El Paso incident, the DoW and the FAA got their hands slapped and told to play nice with each other.
 
Dilandu said:
Interesting. Apparently, despite "Havana syndrome" was eventually found to have natural cause, Pentagon research into it actually produced applicable results.
Click to expand...
The Reuters article states that Reuters had not been able to verify the information, so it is interesting, but unverified.
 
It's a disgrace to pump up rumors when you have disabled service members and civil servants trying to recover from it around.
Imagine the effect on the psyche when you know that your most intimate privacy, that of your family, including your own children, can be violated in such a way that you can't even reports the aggression to the authorities or have the utmost difficulty to assert its usage on your kids.

I wrote many years ago that Sonic Weapons and other directed energy means in the civilian space are the new Zyklon. People should be very cautious aproaching the subject and keep the overall picture in mind.

We are watched by History (and the dead by the millions).
 
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