New laser may help find Earthlike planets

BOULDER, Colo., May 12 (UPI) -- U.S. and German scientists say they've created an ultrafast laser that, among other things, might aid in the search for Earthlike planets.

The researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Konstanz in Germany said their laser offers a record combination of high speed, short pulses and high average power. The scientists say that type of laser, when used as a frequency comb -- an ultraprecise technique for measuring different colors of light -- could boost the sensitivity of astronomical tools searching for Earthlike planets by as much as 100 fold.

The new laser emits 10 billion pulses per second, each lasting about 40 femtoseconds, or quadrillionths of a second, with an average power of 650 milliwatts, the scientists said. The new laser is also 100 to 1,000 times more powerful than typical high-speed lasers, producing clearer signals in experiments.

The research was presented last week in San Jose, Calif., during the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics, and is to appear in the European Physics Journal D -- Atomic, Molecular, Optical and Plasma Physics.