laser system was increased to 60 beams, and in 2008 the Omega extended performance system was opened. The Guardian and Scientific American provided simplified summaries of the work of Strickland and Mourou: it "paved the way for the shortest, most intense laser beams ever created". "The ultrabrief, ultrasharp beams can be used to make extremely precise cuts so their technique is now used in laser machining and enables doctors to perform millions of corrective" laser eye surgeries. OMEGA laser The OMEGA laser at the LLE is one of the most powerful and highest energy lasers in the world. It is a 60-beam ultraviolet frequency-tripled neodymium glass laser, which is capable of delivering 40 kilojoules at up to 60 terawatts onto a target less than 1 millimeter in diameter. Construction and commissioning of the laser were completed in 1995. OMEGA held the record for highest energy laser (per pulse) from 1999 (after the Nova laser's dismantling) to 2005, when the first 8 beams of the National Ignition Facility exceeded OMEGA's output by about 30 kJ in the ultraviolet. The maximum fusion yield of OMEGA so far is about 1014 neutrons per shot, and it once held the record for highest neutron yield of any inertial confinement fusion device. It has demonstrated at least 5e13 neutrons per shot. OMEGA EP laser The four beam OMEGA EP (extended performance) laser system was dedicated on May 16, 2008. Along with four NIF-like laser beams, it hosts a new target chamber and a vacuum pulse compression chamber containing large-aperture pulse compression gratings, allowing the laser system to perform short pulse laser shots. The laser is housed inside a 2005 building addition. The combination of the OMEGA and the OMEGA EP laser systems make LLE the world's only fully integrated cryogenic fast ignition experimental facility. Organization LLE is located on and operated by the University of Rochester. Omega and Omega EP are user facilities, open for use by the entire scientific community. LLE's principal sponsor is the Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA) Office of Defense Programs, which supports its stockpile stewardship and advanced scientific computing programs. The Laboratory has a five-fold mission: To conduct implosion experiments and basic physics experiments in support of the National Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) program. To develop new laser and materials technologies. To provide graduate and undergraduate education in electro-optics, high-power lasers, high-energy-density physics, plasma physics, and nuclear fusion