Scientists urge us to prepare for what's coming soon: "Gamma-ray lasers could become a reality."

A quantum breakthrough , dubbed extreme plasmon, could turn science fiction into reality , paving the way for gamma-ray lasers to test the possibility of the multiverse .

Grounded in materials science, research by University of Colorado Denver assistant professor of electrical engineering Aakash Sahai has discovered a way to create extreme electromagnetic fields never before possible in a laboratory. These electromagnetic fields, which are created when electrons in materials vibrate and bounce around at incredibly high speeds, power everything from computer chips to super particle colliders searching for evidence of dark matter.

Advanced Quantum Technologies, one of the most influential journals in the field, recognized Sahai's work and featured his study on the cover of its June issue, the university said in a statement.

Until now, creating fields powerful enough to conduct advanced experiments required enormous and expensive facilities . For example, scientists searching for evidence of dark matter use machines like the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, in Switzerland. To house the radiofrequency cavities and superconducting magnets needed to accelerate high-energy beams, the collider is 26.9 kilometers long. Conducting experiments on that scale requires enormous resources, is incredibly expensive, and can be highly volatile.

Sahai developed a silicon-based , chip-like material that can withstand high-energy particle beams, manage the energy flow, and allow scientists to access the electromagnetic fields created by the oscillations, or vibrations, of quantum electron gas —all in a space the size of a thumb. The rapid motion creates the electromagnetic fields.

With Sahai's technique, the material manages the heat flow generated by the oscillation and keeps the sample intact and stable. This offers scientists a way to observe activity like never before and opens the possibility of shrinking kilometers-long colliders onto a single chip.

"Manipulating such a high energy flux while preserving the underlying structure of the material is a major breakthrough," said Kalyan Tirumalasetty, a graduate student in Sahai's lab working on the project. "This technological advancement can create real change in the world. It's about understanding how nature works and using that knowledge to make a positive impact on the world."

The technology and method were designed at the University of Colorado at Denver and tested at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, a world-class facility operated by Stanford University.

The University of Colorado at Denver has already applied for and received provisional patents for this technology in the United States and internationally.

"Gamma-ray lasers could become a reality," Sahai said. "We could image tissue not only down to the nucleus of cells, but also down to the nuclei of the underlying atoms. This means scientists and doctors could see what's happening at the nuclear level, which could accelerate our understanding of the immense forces at work at such small scales, while also leading to better medical treatments and cures. Eventually, we could develop gamma-ray lasers to modify the nucleus and kill cancer cells at the nanoscale."

The extreme plasmon technique could also help test a wide range of theories about how our universe works, from the possibility of a multiverse to exploring the very structure of our universe.