The University of Michigan's Zettawatt-Equivalent Ultrashort pulse laser System (ZEUS) has achieved a record-breaking 2 petawatts of power in its first experiment. This surpasses 100 times the global electricity output, though the pulses last only 25 quintillionths of a second. Funded by the NSF, the $16 million ZEUS laser will be used for research in medicine, quantum physics, and materials science, aiming to create powerful electron beams more efficiently than current particle accelerators. While currently the most powerful in the US, it's less powerful than Romania's 10-petawatt laser.

Prepared by Olivia Bennett and reviewed by editorial team.