Chapter 657 - 641: Blazing Sun

Frankly, Zhong Cheng didn’t have a deep impression of the paper by Ye Changsi, and at the time, it didn’t seem necessary to delve into it.

The idea of using plasma as a reflective mirror was a general statement; the real principle was much more complex.

The foundation of this technology was that plasma, already imbued with extremely high energy, couldn’t be further damaged by high-intensity lasers, nor could it absorb more energy, which is why it could nearly perfectly reflect the laser.

When the laser beam hit the plasma, electrons were accelerated and began oscillating along the wave’s electric field of the light beam, causing the electrons to absorb the energy of the beam and emit it in the opposite direction, much like light reflecting off a shiny chrome metal surface.

The high-frequency oscillating plasma could amplify the laser by hundreds or thousands of times and cause its wavelength to shorten and pulse interval to decrease due to the Doppler effect; for instance, a red light source, after reflection and focusing, could turn into violet light.

The enhancement of the laser was also significantly due to this, theoretically allowing the reduction of the 20 femtosecond pulse interval of a conventional laser to 0.1 femtoseconds or even lower.

As a high-energy physics paper released by a private laboratory, this article attracted the interest of many, with most recognizing the scheme but doubting its current feasibility.

To put it more simply, focusing a laser requires a "mirror" that can precisely control the direction; but how can one control the wildly fluctuating plasma to uniformly distribute into a smooth surface?

Such precise molecular-level electromagnetic force control represents a significant breakthrough in basic scientific research tools, nowhere near easy to achieve.

The last tool of a comparable level is called the 3D Atomic Probe (APT), known for allowing scientists to write text with atomic-level precision by manipulating just over a dozen atoms on a material’s surface.

Having a plasma reflective mirror is akin to controlling countless APTs to form various mirrors, all while under temperatures of several thousand degrees Celsius, and with molecules (atoms) incredibly unstable; the difficulty has more than exponentially increased.

That’s exactly why, when Lin Ju suddenly announced the completion of the laser smelting satellite ground validation mechanism and had overcome the most difficult plasma reflective mirrors, it quickly drew the highest attention from defense to science academies, and they organized teams to fly over without delay.

After all, according to Lin Ju, what New Yuan had now built was just a "rudimentary laboratory prototype", "merely" capable of amplifying power by 120 times, and the continuous output power of the light source couldn’t exceed 80 kilowatts.

The content about the 80-kilowatt laser was directly ignored by them, since for New Yuan, acquiring a laser of this level was guaranteed as long as they were willing to pay for it.

In fact, in the existing classification, an 80-kilowatt military-grade laser is considered low power, but laser weapons can only be fired for a very short time, some even less than a second.

The 80-kilowatt light source was actually the 140-kilowatt light source used by Thousand-Jun Stick No. 1, but it was a castrated and weakened version.

However, to adapt to the needs of ore smelting, a very bulky thermal management system was added and lenses redesigned, which led the 80-kilowatt laser to take up a hefty 7.5 tons of mass.

But in return, it offered an unprecedented 25 minutes of continuous firing time, which was the truly jaw-dropping figure.

Because according to several steel mills’ studies by the United Mining Organization, due to the extremely high temperature of laser smelting, when the volume of steel being melted itself wasn’t high, not exceeding 100 tons, the key heating time required for a batch of metal smelting was only 40 to 50 minutes.

But in reality, this level was just what the base wanted to exhibit; otherwise, those really big devices, capable of continuous focusing at megawatt power levels for 24 hours, would completely overturn the entire laser industry.

However, those who knew what was happening at the scene had no trace of contempt. An 80-kilowatt laser, after being amplified by 120 times, outputs a total of 9.6 megawatts!

It could continue to output a laser with a power of 9600 kilowatts for 25 minutes!

What does this mean? It could destroy all known materials. Nothing could withstand such laser ablation.

Aluminum alloy fighter jets would seem as flimsy as plastic film in its presence, easily heating up and curling into a twisted mass of molten metal, and the remaining fuel would be immediately ignited and explode, the pilot wouldn’t even have time to eject.

Modern warship’s few millimeters-thick steel plates would have absolutely no resistance. Nowadays, shipbuilding technology likes to mix in aluminum alloy to reduce weight, which would be like touching off a fire, burning a large hole in a second. If exposed to the laser a bit longer, the remaining parts would lose strength due to the heat and snap in half, sinking directly.

Moreover, compared to traditional high-power laser weapons, a significant breakthrough with the addition of a plasma reflector is the range.

Talking about the range of laser weapons seems redundant, but it is not, because the laser beam emitted by laser weapons needs to be focused. The maximum focal distance of the focusing lens essentially determines the range.

According to the most basic optical curvature calculations, when the lens’s focal point is at 5 kilometers and the lens diameter is 30 millimeters, the height difference between the center of the lens and the edges is only 15 to 30 nanometers.

If the focal point is 100 kilometers, this number would drop to 0.1 nanometer. Current industry cannot yet manufacture a super lens 30 millimeters in diameter with a surface error less than a nanometer.

Therefore, the higher the power of the laser, the closer is its effective range; otherwise, its power will fade to a terrifying extent. Current laser weapons usually have a range of only a few hundred meters to a few kilometers, and their power often hovers between a few tens to hundreds of kilowatts.

Laser devices with a range of tens of kilometers and above can only abandon focusing and rely on brute force scattering to transmit power. Aside from heavy-weight series like the Qianjun Rod, it’s almost meaningless.

But a plasma reflector is different. It is not an optical lens and naturally has no index of refraction; theoretically, it could easily focus beyond millions of kilometers. Even with significant reductions, several thousand to tens of thousands of kilometers is still achievable, right?

To talk of handling conventional warfare is one thing, but even for the most basic space wars, it’s more than enough.

Let a large transport plane hundreds of kilometers away carry such a laser device, and just sweep it across the battlefield from afar, every tank and armored vehicle would become steel ruins;

It would not even fear fighter jets and missiles, as they would all explode with a single sweep.

So when the Aerospace Development Committee reported this technology, the military almost suspected someone had gone insane. It was only after learning it was New Yuan that they rushed over to witness this miracle that belonged in theory.

"Brother, can we test it out?"

An officer I didn’t recognize but seemed somewhat familiar approached enthusiastically, completely disregarding the age difference and looking earnestly at the quietly waiting test machine. Only now did he notice a small nameplate on the side metal frame, which read:

"Blazing Sun"