The state-of-the-art laser device will be used to develop a new airborne missile interception system in the US.

Prof. Salman Rosenwaks and Dr. Boris Bermashenko, who headed the development team, said the new weapon, a chemical oxygen-iodine laser, was particularly effective, because it used nitrogen instead of helium to dilute the active materials in the laser.

The laser, which was developed mostly in the US, Russia, Japan, China, and Germany, is currently the world’s leading high-power laser. While these countries develop mostly large devices (in the US, for example, a laser is developed with a continuous power supply of several megawatts), the Ben Gurion University physics department laboratories have developed a smaller device, with a one kilowatt power supply.

Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on January 12, 2004