Magnetic Shield is on the
Cutting Edge of Laser Technology

On July 17, 1999, a beam of laser light grew in intensity until it reached 1,720 watts … a feat that had never before been accomplished. This beam was created by a free-electron laser – the world’s most powerful laser – and its wattage made it 1.7 million times more powerful than the lasers used in CD players or supermarket scanners. This demonstration was performed at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab) in Newport News, Virginia, the home of this highly focused and most powerful tunable laser.

But the story really begins three years earlier, when a $25 million Free-Electron project was funded by the Department of Energy, the Department of the Navy and the Commonwealth of Virginia, supported by various industries, universities and the city of Newport News itself. A Free-Electron laser extracts energy from electrons as they are “wiggled” with magnets causing the electrons to give off particles of light. The laser saw the first light of day, so to speak, in June of 1998, reaching 155 watts. By the Spring of 1999, it had achieved a 720 watt mark. But the results that culminated on that historical day in 1999 were truly outstanding, even exceeding the goals of the laser team, led by Dr. Fred Dylla, the Director of the project.

Magnetic Shield brought its expertise to the project when George Biallas contacted us to purchase some of our shielding material to test, as a preliminary step to securing our product for use in the laser. We were not surprised by the call; our association with Jefferson Lab is long-standing. After successful testing, Biallas responded to us with an order for material, taking the process a step further by actually visiting us through the fabrication process, which took less than a week, to oversee quality and accuracy.

Jefferson Lab purchased CO-NETIC AA alloy in .062” thick sheets that were made into a trapezoidal part that was 14.526” x 15.346” x 9.640” in height. The Labs’ research indicated that, for effective shielding, the sheets had to be extremely precise – to .005 mm or .0002”.

This May, we fabricated and shipped new material and parts for an upgraded laser based on requested variations supplied to us by Jefferson Lab at the end of 2001. The new updated project is seeking to extend the laser’s power to 10,000 watts, and add the ultraviolet (UV) region of light to its tunable range.

The free-electron laser offers numerous practical applications that has stirred the interest of NASA and the Navy as well as companies such as 3M, DuPont, and Lucent Technologies. We are gratified that our company was able to contribute to the creation of this history-making laser.

The new Jefferson Lab project is seeking to extend the laser’s power to 10,000 watts, and add the ultraviolet (UV) region of light.