Virtual Tour
In this flythrough tour, the camera enters the control room from the hallway before zooming into the main laser room, where banks of amplifiers and titanium sapphire crystals pump up the power. The powerful beam then hits a parabolic reflector that focuses its power to extreme intensities before firing into a room with 3-foot-thick concrete walls. The tour ends back in the control room, where the facility team monitors the laser on a wall of monitors.
Corridor of Powers
Even the floor of the corridor makes science come alive. Umstadter designed it as a "Corridor of Powers" with a computer-generated floor tile mosaic that represents the powers-of-ten progression, basic to so many scientific phenomena, including the laser's gain in power as it moves through its amplifier chain. Wall plaques explain the powers-of-ten, their names and symbols, and scientific notation.
