An international team of physicists has achieved a significant advance in laser science, demonstrating for the first time a practical route to dramatically boosting the intensity of high-power laser light.

The results, published in Nature, could unlock the route towards creating the most intense light ever produced in a laboratory, opening the door to experiments that probe the fundamental laws of physics by directly interacting light with the quantum vacuum.

The work was led by Professor Peter Norreys and Dr. Robin Timmis at the University of Oxford, working in close collaboration with Professor Brendan Dromey and Dr. Mark Yeung at Queen’s University Belfast, and scientists from the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s Central Laser Facility (CLF).