Power Laser Technology, a startup seeking to apply its laser technology to space-debris removal and laser-fusion power generation, announced on 2nd September that it had raised around ¥1.2bn ($7.5m).
The company was founded in 2024 as a spin-out from the Institute of Laser Engineering at the University of Osaka. It is headquartered in Suita, Osaka prefecture.
Pitching space-debris removal and fusion power
A laser is light in which properties such as frequency and direction are aligned. “Power laser” is both the company’s name and the name of a technology: several lasers are merged into a single beam by a method known as beam combining, for use in applications that demand more power than a conventional laser can supply.
The headline application Power Laser Technology points to is space debris. The company ultimately aims to remove debris by firing power lasers from the ground, but one of the stated uses for the money raised is “space situational awareness targeting small pieces of space debris”, which suggests that observation is the main business of the moment. Even so, that observation work would allow power lasers to track debris of 10 centimetres (about four inches) or less—until now hard to detect at all.
Power Laser Technology also expects that directing a power laser at fuel will make fusion power generation possible.
My own first job after leaving education was in the steel industry, and even then lasers were already a routine way of cutting steel and other metal plate. Laser cutting has the advantage of tighter dimensional accuracy than the alternatives. The trade-off is cost.
Power lasers might seem over-specified for that sort of work, given how much power they deliver, yet Power Laser Technology’s website carries an image of cutting under the heading “advanced laser processing”.
The company also lists 3D printing, laser power beaming and remote sensing as future applications.
“Leading the world with power lasers”, says the boss
The September round drew venture-capital firms including Incubate Fund, alongside financial institutions.
Besides the space situational awareness work described above, the company says the money will go towards developing power-laser light sources for laser fusion and validating their applications.
Kazuhisa Yamamoto, Power Laser Technology’s chief executive, commented: “Japan’s laser technology continues to advance by leaps and bounds. Since 2024 we have been conducting joint research with the Institute of Laser Engineering at the University of Osaka and with the Institute for Laser Technology. Building on the University of Osaka’s world-class power-laser technology and the knowledge and experience of its specialists, we are advancing technical development towards commercial deployment. Through cross-disciplinary fusion we will take on a range of activities so that power-laser technology is deployed across new industries and services, and we will lead the world.”
