Is a One-Time Use Pulse Laser Possible?

[Tiny Rick]

I've been thinking... Is there any way that there could be sort of a one-time use pulse laser that uses something like a mini atomic bomb to create a super high energy laser? I found stuff about a Nuclear pumped laser and "Project Excalibur", but I wanted to ask actual people who know a lot about this kind of thing. I'm an electrical engineer myself, and this is totally out of my realm.

 

[DaveC426913]

A mini-atomic bomb, by design, blows its wad in one go. Its rate of output will overwhelm (indeed, annihilate) any device attempting to harness it.

A nuclear-pumped laser is about harnessing the fissile byproducts of a controlled nuclear reaction.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_pumped_laser

They're kind of antithetical.

 

[jfizzix]

I know a little about lasers, and a lot less about nuclear physics.

You may be interested in this article, however:

http://phys.org/news/2011-05-gamma-ray-laser-emit-nuclear.html

Long story short, it is possible to make gamma ray laser light using nuclear excited states in a similar way as ordinary laser light is made using electronic excited states.

 

[Tiny Rick]

Thanks to everyone who responded! DaveC426913, thanks for clarifying that. Thanks jfizzix for linking that article!