News: Optoelectronics
3 October 2025
Blue Laser Fusion wins US DOE 2025 INFUSE project award
Fusion energy company Blue Laser Fusion Inc (BLF) of Santa Barbara, CA, USA (founded in 2022 by CEO professor Shuji Nakamura, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2014 and member of the RSE Scientific Committee) has won a US Department of Energy (DOE) INFUSE project award to further develop its novel high-energy pulsed laser for inertial fusion energy applications in collaboration with Colorado State University (CSU).
The project focuses on the development of advanced optical interference coatings for the Blue Laser Fusion optical enhancement cavity (OEC) laser to generate the high pulse energy and fast repetition rates required for high-gain, efficient fusion energy generation. The DOE funded work leverages the expertise of Dr Carmen Menoni, University Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Colorado State University. Menoni is said to be a world leader in amorphous oxide interference coatings, critical components of the most advanced laser systems. She is also the director of the Inertial Fusion Energy RISE HUB, supported by the US Department of Energy.
The project was awarded as part of the DOE's Innovation Network for Fusion Energy (INFUSE) initiative, which awarded $6.1m to private-public collaborations in 2025 to accelerate the development of cost-effective, innovative fusion energy technologies in the private sector. The DOE INFUSE program’s overarching objective is to ensure US energy, environmental & security needs.
“By cooperating with professor Menoni and her group at CSU, Blue Laser Fusion will have access to world-class optics expertise and capabilities to advance our OEC laser innovations,” says CEO Shuji Nakamura.
“In this INFUSE project we will fabricate and evaluate interference coatings to create world-class mirrors to support the BLF optical enhancement cavity platform and develop characterization tools to evaluate the reflectivity and thermal performance of the mirrors,” says Menoni. “The BLF OEC enables a new performance regime for high-energy pulsed lasers that can be used to drive fusion reactions.”
BLF is a corporate partner in the US DOE RISE HUB for fusion and is on the industrial council for the US DOE FIRE Collaboratives led by General Atomics on fusion targets and by Idaho National Labs on fusion reactor design.
Blue Laser Fusion and RSE sign MoU for joint R&D
Blue Laser Fusion wins US DOE INFUSE project award
