近日，瑞士日内瓦大学Jean-Pierre Wolf和法国应用光学实验室Aurélien Houard团队开发出激光制导闪电。2023年1月16日出版的《自然—光子学》杂志发表了这项成果。

在这里，该团队首次展示了由短而强的激光脉冲在天空中形成的激光诱导细丝可以引导闪电放电到相当远的距离。研究组相信，这一实验突破将导致防雷和闪电物理学的进步。2021年夏天，在瑞士东北部的Säntis山上用高重复率的太瓦级激光器进行了一项实验活动。负闪电引线向上引导50米的过程被两个独立的高速摄像机记录下来。

激光丝对负闪电导线的引导在另外三个例子中得到了超高频干涉测量的证实，在引导闪电事件中检测到的X射线暴的数量大大增加。虽然这一研究领域已经活跃了20多年，但这是第一个实验证明激光引导闪电的现场结果。这项工作为超短激光在大气中的新应用铺平了道路，并代表了机场、发射台或大型基础设施激光防雷发展的重要一步。

据介绍，带电云与地球表面之间的闪电放电会造成相当大的损害和人员伤亡。因此，除了传统的富兰克林杆外，开发更好的保护方法是很重要的。

附：英文原文

Title: Laser-guided lightning

Author: Houard, Aurlien, Walch, Pierre, Produit, Thomas, Moreno, Victor, Mahieu, Benoit, Sunjerga, Antonio, Herkommer, Clemens, Mostajabi, Amirhossein, Andral, Ugo, Andr, Yves-Bernard, Lozano, Magali, Bizet, Laurent, Schroeder, Malte C., Schimmel, Guillaume, Moret, Michel, Stanley, Mark, Rison, W. A., Maurice, Oliver, Esmiller, Bruno, Michel, Knut, Haas, Walter, Metzger, Thomas, Rubinstein, Marcos, Rachidi, Farhad, Cooray, Vernon, Mysyrowicz, Andr, Kasparian, Jrme, Wolf, Jean-Pierre

Issue&Volume: 2023-01-16

Abstract: Lightning discharges between charged clouds and the Earth’s surface are responsible for considerable damages and casualties. It is therefore important to develop better protection methods in addition to the traditional Franklin rod. Here we present the first demonstration that laser-induced filaments—formed in the sky by short and intense laser pulses—can guide lightning discharges over considerable distances. We believe that this experimental breakthrough will lead to progress in lightning protection and lightning physics. An experimental campaign was conducted on the Sntis mountain in north-eastern Switzerland during the summer of 2021 with a high-repetition-rate terawatt laser. The guiding of an upward negative lightning leader over a distance of 50m was recorded by two separate high-speed cameras. The guiding of negative lightning leaders by laser filaments was corroborated in three other instances by very-high-frequency interferometric measurements, and the number of X-ray bursts detected during guided lightning events greatly increased. Although this research field has been very active for more than 20 years, this is the first field-result that experimentally demonstrates lightning guided by lasers. This work paves the way for new atmospheric applications of ultrashort lasers and represents an important step forward in the development of a laser based lightning protection for airports, launchpads or large infrastructures.

DOI: 10.1038/s41566-022-01139-z

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41566-022-01139-z