German American laser-fusion company Focused Energy plans to spin off a new firm, SourceLight, to commercialize laser-driven radiation source technology for application in industrial inspection and analysis.

The move follows Focused Energy’s recent US$240 million financing round and reflects a broader strategy: advancing laser fusion as the company’s core long-term mission while identifying nearer-term industrial applications emerging from the same technology base. SourceLight will focus on laser-driven radiation sources, or LDRS, a platform that combines high-energy X-rays and fast neutrons in a single inspection system.

The approach uses high-intensity laser pulses striking specially designed targets to generate short bursts of X-ray and neutron radiation. Such sources could offer a more compact and flexible alternative to large accelerator-based facilities, enabling non-destructive testing of objects and materials that are difficult to examine using conventional methods.

The combination of X-rays and neutrons is particularly important. X-ray imaging is well suited to revealing internal structure, density variations and defects. Neutrons, by contrast, interact differently with matter and can provide complementary information about material composition, including in cases where dense shielding or complex assemblies limit the effectiveness of X-rays alone. Bringing the two modalities together could therefore allow users to inspect sealed containers, large industrial components or complex material systems from the outside while gaining both structural and compositional information.

Focused Energy sees potential applications in nuclear-waste characterization, security and customs screening at container ports, industrial quality assurance and non-destructive testing of safety-critical components. These are all areas in which users increasingly need inspection techniques that can penetrate deeply, operate non-invasively and provide more information than conventional imaging alone.

The scientific foundations of the technology can be traced back to research on laser-driven particle acceleration conducted by Focused Energy co-founder Markus Roth and colleagues in the early 2010s. More recently, the company has been collaborating with industrial and research partners through the PLANET project, which was launched in 2024 to move the technology toward practical industrial use. The project, involving partners such as Fraunhofer ILT, TRUMPF, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Photonis Germany and TU Darmstadt, is developing a laser-driven neutron source for non-destructive examination of nuclear-waste containers.

X-ray imaging is well suited to revealing internal structure, density variations and defects. Neutrons, by contrast, interact differently with matter and can provide complementary information about material composition.

The first industrial prototype of the LDRS technology is being developed in Biblis, Germany, where Focused Energy is also planning a laser-fusion power plant. For the company, SourceLight represents a technology-transfer pathway from fusion research into nearer-term markets.

“Laser fusion research is already producing applications today that create tangible benefits in other industries,” the company said in announcing the planned spin-off. For researchers in the field of photonics and optics, the development highlights how high-power laser systems, target physics and advanced radiation generation may yield impact well beyond fusion energy itself.