A team of scientists in South Korea have generated a high-intensity laser, and by doing so have produced a new record.

According to an article on New Atlas, the new record sees the highest level of intensity of laser pulses ever registered. The team from South Korea’s Center for Relativistic Science (CoReLS) generated a beam with an intensity of 10²³ W/cm² – a goal that scientists have been trying to reach for the last two decades.

This achievement was made possible thanks to both an ultra-high power laser and an optical system containing a series of mirrors. The mirrors enabled the strength of the laser that had levels of intensity comparable to the entirety of light that reaches the earth from the sun. 

This reflected beam measured onto a spot measuring a mere 10 microns, which is 0.001 of a single centimetre.

It is thought that this feat could unearth new possibilities within fields of research such as cancer treatment and astrophysics.

“This high intensity laser will allow us to examine astrophysical phenomena such as electron-photon and photon-photon scattering in the lab. We can use it to experimentally test and access theoretical ideas, some of which were first proposed almost a century ago,” says Chang Hee Nam, who is a director of CoReLS and a professor at Gwangju Institute of Science & Technology.

“In addition to helping us better understand astrophysical phenomena, it could also provide the information necessary to develop new sources for a type of radiation treatment that uses high-energy protons to treat cancer.”