Researchers at Xcimer Energy and Universities Remove Major Bottleneck for Commercializing Laser Fusion Energy

DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Xcimer Energy announced today that its researchers and collaborators have removed a major scientific bottleneck to commercializing laser fusion energy by experimentally validating a long-overlooked physics regime which enables next-generation fusion lasers.

In a peer-reviewed paper published in APL Photonics, researchers from Xcimer, the University of Illinois, and the University of Alberta reported the first absolute, high-resolution measurements of Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS) gain and spectral behavior in low-pressure noble gases.

The results overturn half a century of assumptions embedded in standard nonlinear optical physics models and textbooks, confirming that there is a regime of SBS physics not modeled by the conventional literature which provides unique advantages for fusion-scale systems.

Laser fusion requires generating enormous amounts of laser energy and delivering it in nanosecond-scale, precisely shaped pulses. SBS—a nonlinear optical process that can transfer energy between laser pulses in a gas—is one of the few techniques capable of achieving this without subjecting large volumes of delicate, expensive glass optics to damaging energy fluences.

Overlooked no longer

Major research institutions, including Los Alamos National Laboratory and the UK’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, have been studying SBS for decades. It was widely regarded as impractical for fusion applications due to perceived limitations based on hydrodynamic models.

The new measurements show that, in low-pressure noble gases, SBS is governed by kinetic rather than hydrodynamic physics, resulting in interaction strengths roughly an order of magnitude larger than previously predicted.

Notably, the findings experimentally confirm a 1975 theoretical paper published in the Soviet Union that predicted SBS gain under specific conditions would be approximately 13 times stronger. That prediction had been largely overlooked by the fusion community and had never been directly experimentally tested—until now.

“Our data show that the physics encoded in standard SBS models—and taught in textbooks for decades—is incorrect for low-pressure noble gases,” said Conner Galloway, CEO and co-founder of Xcimer Energy and a co-author of the paper. “By validating the correct kinetic model, we’ve unlocked an architecture that makes commercially viable, 10-megajoule-class laser systems possible.”

Xcimer funded the experiments, which were conducted at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The results directly support Xcimer’s laser fusion architecture, which uses low-cost excimer lasers to generate long pulses that are then compressed by approximately 1,000× using SBS in low-pressure noble gases. The company is currently completing Phoenix, its pulse-compression prototype which will be the world’s highest-energy demonstration of SBS, with initial operations scheduled for early Q2 of this year.

See full news release here.

About Xcimer Energy Inc.

Xcimer combines novel laser technology with proven science to commercialize laser fusion energy. Founded in 2022 and based in Denver, Colorado, Xcimer is backed by the world’s leading climate tech investors and has been selected for funding by the U.S. Department of Energy. Its mission is to develop a source of unlimited, clean, safe and reliable energy to power the future. To learn more, visit https://xcimer.energy/.