LASER MAY CHANNEL LIGHTNING : HIGH-POWERED BEAM COULD PROTECT BUILDINGS.

Byline: Lawrence Spohn The Albuquerque Tribune

New Mexico scientists are saying let there be light and let it conduct electricity - the lightning kind - away from us.

The scientists have developed a laser that they believe can attract lightning and divert dangerous, high-voltage strikes away from people and valuable assets, such as air-traffic control towers.

In effect, the laser acts as a high-tech lightning rod.

``We create a long channel, just like a wire through space,'' said lead researcher Xin Miao Zhao, of Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The technology uses a powerful laser as thin as a strand of hair, and it could have significant health and economic consequences.

A collaborative team of scientists and engineers at Los Alamos and the University of New Mexico are refining the laser for potential commercial use with financial help from the Electric Power Research Institute in California.

The institute, with a $1 million two-year research grant, is pushing for advanced lab tests at a special high-voltage site next spring and possible field demonstrations in storms next summer.

The research began at UNM in a collaboration between then-doctoral candidate Zhao and physics Professor Jean Claude Diels. Their ongoing laboratory experiments have demonstrated that the laser triggers ``controlled lightning flashes'' in simulated storms.

The idea isn't new, Zhao said, but other efforts failed because conventional lasers degrade in the atmosphere and aren't fast enough to harness or conduct lightning.

The new laser is tightly focused and can travel long distances through the atmosphere with little degradation. It forms a thin tunnel of ions (charged atoms or molecules) to attract lightning and channel its energy to the ground.

The lab experiments already have demonstrated an ability to trigger and guide lightning strikes from a simulated cloud to a grounded rod, Diels said.

``It certainly makes a lot of sound and a bright flash,'' he said.

How soon could a commercial laser lightning rod be available, and at what cost?

``Not so fast,'' Diels warned. ``We're still working in the laboratory and (field) tests are one to two years away.''

He guessed that a single laser lightning-rod system might cost several hundred thousand dollars.

Working with Zhao and Diels are Los Alamos scientists David Fund, Charlie Strauss, Toni Taylor and Jason Jones, who see other applications for the beam. They say it's unique in defying ordinary characteristics of light.

They believe the laser may be especially useful for LIDAR applications. LIDAR refers to light detection and ranging technology, which is being used like radar to detect substances in the air.

Los Alamos scientists have developed LIDAR systems to monitor air pollution or detect chemical and biological weapons. They also have demonstrated an ability to track air contaminants - even fireplace violations on Albuquerque's ``no burn'' nights.