How close are we to building a 'real' lightsaber?

[Tokio]

Physicists are not trying to build lightsabers -- but they are experimenting at the edge of technologies that present some similar properties. In a recent, well-timed press release, researchers from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems, at the University of Queensland in Australia,discussed how possible it would be to build a real light sword.

Their conclusion, perhaps quite obviously, is that the main problem is not creating a powerful beam of light but working out how to make it stop. “You can’t just make a laser stop without it hitting something solid or being reflected back on itself with a mirror” Mr Ringbauer says.

"Light doesn’t like to interact with itself, so two beams of light would actually pass through each other -- which wouldn’t be very useful in a fight," said researcher Martin Ringbauer. "You can’t just make a laser stop without it hitting something solid or being reflected back on itself with a mirror."

As such a lightsaber would probably require some kind of levitating mirror, which would focus the beam back on itself from above. It would also require an extreme jump in energy production. "“Currently, we have very powerful industrial lasers that can cut through steel, used, for example, in car manufacturing. We also have laser weapons which companies like Boeing have developed to shoot down drones," he said. "However, these are more like the size of trucks to generate enough power to fire the laser, far from a handheld weapon.

if I cut you up with my lightsaber, ain't nothing to it star wars made me do it!

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2015-12/18/real-lightsaber-possible

 

[Amira-chan]

I always wanted a Light-saber! >w<

 

[Tokio]

I always wanted a Light-saber! >w<

Hold tight my Otaku fweind! the future looks bright