A wide range of applications

The LLR project aims to stimulate many new lines of scientific and technological development. Apart from the important safety issue mentioned before, controlled lightning strikes on demand will improve our understanding of this phenomenon. The successful demonstration of a laser lightning rod will undoubtedly promote the development of high-power and repetition rate lasers, reduce their cost and improve their reliability. In turn, the availability of such lasers will have an important impact in many technological and scientific domains, beyond their use as active lightning rods. To name a few, they would allow efficient transfer of high currents between separated locations, serve as a contactless power supply for fast trains or for the fast charging of super capacitors, the shooting of debris in orbit, as a power supply for high power OPCPAs, forcing water condensation in the atmosphere, magnetic fusion diagnostics, remote Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS), diagnostics of contaminated fields (e.g. nuclear), and laser-based particle acceleration…