Science And Technology

Laser fusion — also called inertial confinement fusion (ICF) or inertial fusion energy (IFE) — uses powerful laser beams to compress and ignite a small fuel capsule containing hydrogen isotopes, triggering a fusion reaction. It is the only fusion approach that has ever achieved scientific breakeven in a laboratory setting, demonstrated at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in December 2022.

Xcimer’s system has three primary elements: (1) a 10+ MJ krypton-fluoride excimer laser driver; (2) a fusion fuel capsule containing deuterium-tritium (DT) hydrogen fuel, larger and more robust but using the same fusion physics as NIF’s capsules; and (3) a HYLIFE-III fusion chamber, which uses a flowing lithium salt to absorb fusion energy and protect the chamber walls from neutrons — minimizing maintenance and reducing waste.

An excimer laser uses a mixture of noble gases (in Xcimer’s case, krypton and fluorine) as the lasing medium. Excimer lasers have been commercially proven at scale in semiconductor manufacturing and other industrial and medical applications for decades. Xcimer’s electron-beam-pumped excimer architecture provides unique advantages in output energy, scalability and industrialization compared to conventional solid-state laser designs — at a fraction of the cost.

Yes. Xcimer built its first electron-beam excimer laser in 2024, and a second larger system in 2025. Both systems are the first e-beam-pumped excimer lasers built in the private sector, and the first built anywhere in the world in over 20 years. Both systems have achieved record-setting results and are operating in Xcimer’s Denver facility.

The National Ignition Facility uses solid-state glass lasers, which are expensive to build and operate. Xcimer uses a krypton fluoride (KrF) gas excimer laser architecture — the same technology that powers semiconductor lithography equipment. This reduces cost per joule by more than 30x compared to NIF, while enabling a much higher-energy laser with a smaller optical footprint.

Yes. Each fuel capsule contains only a few milligrams of hydrogen fuel, and only one capsule is in the chamber at a time. Laser fusion requires precise conditions to ignite and burns for only a few billionths of a second. There is no possibility of an uncontrolled or runaway reaction.

Laser fusion uses deuterium and tritium — isotopes of hydrogen. Deuterium is derived from seawater; tritium is produced from lithium. Both are effectively limitless: humanity has enough of these resources to last millions of years. A single gram of hydrogen isotopes yields the same energy as 11 metric tons of coal.