Engineer designs world’s most powerful handheld laser

Read the full article in Engineering Designer

PA’s Daniel Black, electronic systems innovation expert and Rob Lambert, electronic systems expert, are featured in Engineering Designer for Daniel’s Guinness World Records title for the development of the most powerful prototype handheld laser. This record was broken at PA’s Global Innovation and Technology Centre (GITC) in Cambridge.

The article reports that Daniel created a small, handheld laser with a peak power of 7.61W (7.10W sustained) – equivalent to 8,000 conventional laser pointers stacked on top of each other. This breaks his own record of 5.1W (4.2W sustained), which he set in April 2016.

Commenting on this, Daniel says: “Lasers are ubiquitous, working behind the scenes to power our digital infrastructure. This laser has been designed and built to push the limits of what can be achieved in such a small form factor – to take the next step in making the technology smaller, lighter and more power efficient. Lasers will form an ever-larger backbone to the way we communicate, shop, bank, learn and work, so it is important for laser technology to keep evolving and for us to push the boundaries.”

Sketch of the laser — Sketch of the handheld laser (prototype) by Andy Clark

He explains: “This world record laser serves as a testbed for us to work safely with small, high-power lasers at PA and the technological progress we have made here may allow us to make more efficient and longer lasting communications networks, to look at possible new methods of wireless power delivery, to create new smaller medical devices, or even to change the way we deliver healthcare such as through portable laser tools for surgery.”

Rob adds: “We believe in giving engineers such as Daniel the opportunity to innovate and create electronic systems expert. PA provides a unique opportunity for people to shape their own careers and to bring their ingenuity to life. We hope that Daniel’s achievement will inspire the coming generations to become world-leading scientists or engineers.”

This story was also covered in Consultancy UK.