A long-sighted laser beam
(PHYSorg.com Physics)

Sometimes, opportunities fall into our laps when we`re least expecting them. A team of CERN surveyors, in collaboration with the Institute of Plasma Physics in Prague (IPP), has developed a pioneering laser beam while working on a particularly challenging alignment system. `While developing the alignment system for the HIE-ISOLDE accelerator, we discovered that the system generating a structured laser beam had astonishing optical properties`, explain Jean-Christophe Gayde (CERN, EN-SMM-ESA) and Miroslav Sulc (IPP), the system`s inventors. `We didn`t initially plan to develop a generator for this kind of laser beam, but the results of our research were very encouraging.`