Scientists have developed the world's sharpest laser with a linewidth of only 10 mHz. Called the 'Super Laser', it was developed over 10 years by researchers in Germany and the US at a cost of 44 million euros. This laser is 10 times more powerful than any other and could revolutionize industries like aeronautics, power, and automotive. It has the potential to improve atomic clocks and enable new precision measurements.

1. Scientists develop world's sharpest laser with a linewidth of only 10
mHz
A team of scientists have developed the world’s sharpest laser costing 44 million euros.
Named as 'Super Laser', it is 10 times more powerful than any other on the planet and has
the potential to revolutionize engineering in aeronautics, power and automotive
industries.
T he Physical Review Letters journal published aboutthe developmentofSuper Laser on 29
June 2017.
T his laser was developed within the scope of a nearly 10 -year-long joint project with
researchers from Physikalisch Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) and JILA, a joint institute
of the National Institute of Standards and T echnology and the University of Colorado
Boulder in the US.
T he new laser is now being used both at PT B and at JILA in Boulder to further improve the
quality ofoptical atomic clocks and to carry outnew precision measurements on ultracold
atoms.
Key Highlights
• T heoretically,laser light has only one colour,frequency or wavelength.However, there is
always a certain linewidth.T his laser with a linewidth ofonly 10 miliHertz (mHz) is closer
to the ideal laser than ever before.
• It has an average power output of 1000 watts which is a benchmark in sustained high
energy pulses and is far greater than the world’s other high-power beams in Osaka and
T exas.
• T his laser, with record-breaking precision, can help make optical atomic clocks more
precise as well as can test Einstein’s theory of relativity.
Background
More than 50 years have passed since the first technicalrealisation ofthe laser.Laser light
is used in numerous applications in industry, medicine and information technologies.

2. Lasers have brought about a real revolution in many fields of research and in metrology.
T he first laser was built in 1960.