Ultimately, lasers are a bit of a disappointment.
They make our DVD players work, and are wielded as scalpels by surgeons and industrial robots alike. But laser cannons and death rays have largely remained a work of fiction, rather than science.
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Eureka moment for diamond-based laser technology
The 2017 Eureka Prize winner Macquarie University Associate Professor Richard Mildren has invented a diamond-based technology capable of increasing the power and spectral range of lasers. Vision courtesy: Australian Museums.
But a new, super-powerful diamond laser invented by a Sydney-based scientist has military-industrialists falling over themselves to offer funding, after modelling predicted it might eventually be powerful enough to knock a missile out of the air.
It is for this work that Macquarie University's Associate Professor Richard "Rich" Mildren​ was on Wednesday night announced as the winner of the Defence Science and Technology Eureka Prize for Outstanding Science in Safeguarding Australia.
![Eureka finalist Rich Mildren working with his diamond laser.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170901043730im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/y/7/9/0/c/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gy77w7.png/1504139807969.jpg)
Professor Mildren won one of 15 awards presented at the Australian Museum's Eureka Prizes, often called the "Oscars of Australian science", and also walks away with $10,000 in prize money.
Before Professor Mildren got involved, laser research haDÂ been stuck on a plateau.
Lasers typically work by pumping energy into a crystal, often a garnet or sapphire. The crystal then releases that energy as light, and two mirrors are used to channel it into a focussed beam.
"To make a laser which is powerful enough to knock out a missile needs a lot of power," says Professor Mildren. At least 100 kilowatts, he estimates.
To generate that much power, a huge amount of energy and heat need to be pumped into the crystals.
So far, no one has been able to build a practical laser that gets above about 15kW before the crystal starts to melt or lose performance.
![This image shows several lasers hitting a chunk of diamond, which concentrates them into a more powerful beam. Image supplied by Macquarie University.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170901043730im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/y/7/e/r/v/image.imgtype.articleLeadwide.620x0.png/1504077306726.png)
This image shows several lasers hitting a diamond, which concentrates them into a more powerful beam. Image supplied by Macquarie University. Photo: O.Kitzler
Professor Mildren's award-winning breakthrough is to coax a man-made diamond into generating a laser.
"It's an extreme material, the hardest on the planet, but it's also the most thermally-conductive material on the planet. It's a material that can go up to very high laser beam powers," Dr Mildren says.
So far, Professor Mildren's team have slowly been ramping up the power – they hope to break 10kW in the next few years. But the team's modelling shows a diamond should easily be able to handle the extreme heat generated at 100kW-power levels, and could even push close to a megawatt.
"The ability for it to generate very high power laser beams is something Defence is going to cotton on to very quickly," says Professor Mildren.
But it's not just inventions with potentially destructive powers that have taken out the prizes.Â
![Professors Elena Ivanova and Saulius Juodkazis, from Victoria?s Swinburne University of Technology. Credit: supplied.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170901043730im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/y/7/e/r/w/image.imgtype.articleLeadwide.620x0.png/1504077307504.png)
Professors Elena Ivanova and Saulius Juodkazis  Photo: Swinburne University of TechnologyÂ
Another winner, Professor Elena Ivanova​ found her eureka moment – for which she was jointly awarded the University of NSW Eureka Prize for Scientific Research – in the flutter of a dragonfly's wings.
She and fellow winner Professor Saulius Juodkazis​, both working at Swinburne University, had been studying the wings' remarkable antibacterial properties.Â
They seemed entirely impervious to any kind of bacterial infection.
When she looked at the wings under a microscope, Professor Ivanova expected to spot some kind of waterproof coating that caused the bacteria to slide off.
Instead, she found an extraordinarily-complex nano-scale pattern carved on the wings.
When a bacterial cell tried to land on the pattern's bumps and ridges, "they were chopped!", says Professor Ivanova. "It was like, eureka!"
![This is a simulated image of a bacteria cell hitting the nanomaterial and being ruptured. Image supplied by Swinburn University.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170901043730im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/y/7/e/r/s/image.imgtype.articleLeadwide.620x0.png/1504077306603.png)
This is a simulated image of a bacteria cell hitting the nanomaterial and being ruptured. Â Photo: Swinburne University of TechnologyÂ
She likens the process to squeezing a balloon with your fingers. The nano-pattern squeezes the bacteria's cell wall, stretching and eventually tearing it.
Her team is now working on replicating the dragonfly pattern on titanium, where it has promise as a strong natural antibiotic.
She hopes to incorporate it into hip and knee replacements, and eventually cover hospital walls and floors with the pattern to stop the spread of infection.
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