Chinese scientists are trying to break their own records by developing a new laser that would be powerful enough to “rip apart empty space” and would simulate even a black hole or a massive star.

A team of Chinese physicists working in the Superintense Ultrafast Laser Facility (SULF) in Shanghai has already created the world’s most powerful light pulses. In 2016, these physicists announced success in creating a laser beam generating 5.3 million-billon-watt (or 5.3 petawatts) power. Each pulse generated by the laser lasted for less than one-trillionth of a second.

According to ScienceMag, these physicists now want to break their previous record by creating a laser that would produce massive 10 petawatt power, that is, 1,000 times the power of the world’s all electrical grids merged in one pulse. The team hopes to complete this laser by the end of this year.

Ruxin Li, a scientist working at SULF, says they won’t stop after achieving this feat and would start working on another powerful laser, the Station of Extreme Light (SEL), which would produce 100 petawatt power.

According to Li, the SEL laser would be highly useful to astrophysicists. It would allow them to create extreme temperature and pressure conditions to mimic astrophysical scenarios. SEL would also enable scientists to accelerate particles in high-energy experiments. Li claims this laser would be powerful enough to rip apart empty space and create electrons and positrons (antimatter of the electron) from it. The team plans to use the SEL laser to convert an immense amount of heat and light into matter, the reverse of a nuclear reaction.

“That would be very exciting,” Li says.

“It would mean you could generate something from nothing.”

Scientist announces a laser so powerful it can tear empty space. https://t.co/Amt3J98Cgk pic.twitter.com/zo9fb0OyXB — Big Think (@bigthink) January 26, 2018

Chinese physicists want to complete powerful the SEL laser by 2023. Experiments using SEL will be carried out in a special chamber constructed 20 meters below ground.

Although Chinese scientists have had huge success in creating high-power lasers recently, they are not the only one doing research in this field. European scientists are also working on a 10 petawatt laser and hope to complete it in the next few years. Russian scientists have also announced their plans to create a laser that would generate 180 petawatt power. Japanese scientists are also trying to develop a laser that would produce 30 petawatt power.