Scientists revealed a laser pen which writes by burning the air

 You can even ‘touch’ the patterns.

Chinese scientists have developed a powerful laser that can practically burn the air to produce patterns.

This bizarre yet fascinating laser can write in the air has been created by researchers at the Hongtuo Joint Laboratory in Wuhan, China. This pen might possibly be a gateway to a cutting-edge hologram technology.

High-intensity laser pulses are focused in the air to create plasma, or ionized gas, which emits energy in the form of light.

The team did not elaborate on how the 3D scanner was utilized to accurately arrange the pixel dots and form the characters in the air.

The brief pulses have a duration of just femtoseconds, or one millionth of one billionth of a second, or one quadrillionth of a second.

The peak power of Cao's laser pen can reach a million megawatts due to the incredibly brief pulse duration, which is comparable to the whole utility-scale electricity producing capacity of the United States.

Though it might be utilized securely because the device's typical input power is only a few tens of watts.

The method might potentially be used in a variety of industries, from quantum computing to brain imaging, according to the researchers.

“With the brand new device, we can draw in the air without using paper and ink,” Cao Xiangdong, lead scientist at the Hongtuo Laboratory of Ultra-Fast Laser in Wuhan’s optics valley, told Science and Technology Daily, as reported by the South China Morning Post.

According to Cao, "The display is the culmination of our research over more than a decade."

Lasers must have an energy density of 100 terawatts (a trillion watts) per square centimeter in order to "light" the air.

The scientists claimed that they arranged pixels using 3D scanning to create Chinese characters, but they did not fully describe the method.

What do we use lasers for?

There are various way scientists or common folks utilize lasers. We use them mostly for visual displays, but the scientists use them for really interesting ways, such as, defense purposes, quantum cooling, or even preserving history.

Lasers are widely used in applications in the modern world, whether it comes to attractive toys or Blu-ray players. A team of researchers launched an interesting project named The Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) Beamlines, which was funded by the EU with the idea to create a unique device. The most interesting is that they are developing a new generation laser, which will be 100 thousand times more powerful than the combined value of all similar facilities on Earth.

Specific data scientists have revealed is that it will be able to replicate pulse intensity of staggering 1023 watts per square centimeter. Project managers explained that this value is the equivalent of the entire energy of the Sun to focus on beam with size of amusement park. The impulse of the most powerful laser ever created on Earth will continue until less than a billionth of a second.

And there is the Rheinmetall laser is a pair of two laser modules mounted on Oerlikon Revolver Gun air defense turrets with additional power supply modules. The 30 kW and 20 kW laser weapons are focused on a single target by the Rheinmetall's Beam Superimposing Technology (BST) . This provides the power of a single 50 kW laser. The company says that is possible building of a 100 kW laser weapon.

A speciality team from the National Park Service in Historic American Building Survey/Historic American Engineering Record were tasked with preserving the history of the Johnson Space Center (JSC) with laser technology- reminiscent of “Star Wars”.

Now thanks to researchers we can use lasers to write in the air.