China's scientists achieved a milestone in laser fusion, long blocked by Western countries, which could be used to increase the efficiency of detectors in aeronautics and astronautics.
This high-power laser film, developed by a laboratory supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, won first prize at an international competition because of its high damage threshold, Science and Technology Daily reported on Thursday.
The film's damage threshold of the China-developed film was 20 percent higher than the second placer, the report said.
The high-power laser film is an indispensable component of a laser fusion device or other intense laser systems, and would be used for research in laser inertial confinement fusion and in aeronautics and astronautics, the report said.
The film can re-direct the high-power laser without weakening its power, and the damage threshold measures the film's ability to guide the laser to its target.
The film can better focus the laser in one direction without losing much power, which could "enable detectors, communication devices, and other laser-based devices to use lower energy for a better effect," Wang Yanan, deputy editor of Aerospace Knowledge magazine, told the Global Times on Thursday.
The report also noted that preparing the high-power laser film is complex and interdisciplinary.
However, it was blocked by Western countries, with related products prevented from being sent to China.
