Central Laser Facility

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Central Laser Facility (CLF) is a research facility in the UK. It is part of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. The facility is dedicated to studying the applications of high energy lasers. It was opened in 1976. [1] As of 2013 there are 5 active laser laboratories at the CLF: Vulcan, Astra Gemini, Artemis, ULTRA, and OCTOPUS. The facility provides both high-power and high-sensitivity lasers for study across broad fields of science from atomic and plasma physics to medical diagnostics, biochemistry and environmental science. [2] Also through the Centre for Advanced Laser Technology and Application (CALTA), CLF is responsible for laser development. DiPOLE is the brainchild of that project. [3]

Contents

History

The Vulcan is the first operational laser at the CLF. [1] By 1997, when a new director was appointed, M. H. R. Hutchinson, formerly of Imperial College London, CLF was also operating a second laser, the Titania, at that time said to be the world brightest krypton fluoride laser. [4]

Current lasers

Vulcan

The Vulcan is the world's most powerful laser user facility. [2] It emits a light beam in the petawatts. [5] The construction of the core of the Vulcan was carried out by Kværner Engineering and Construction to specifications on par with those in the nuclear industry. The chamber is lined with aluminium and lead to reduce radiation. [6]

Vulcan, initially a 0.5 terawatt two beams neodymium laser, was first upgraded in 1980 to a 6 beams 1.5 TW laser. Power was again increased in 1982, to 3 TW. [1]

Astra Gemini

Astra Gemini is a dual-beam Titanium:Sapphire laser system. Most Ti:Sapphire lasers are single beam. The Astra Gemini has 2 amplifiers that emit 0.5 petawatt beams. The two-beam system is geared towards plasma physics experiments. [7]

Artemis

The Artemis produces XUV light. The project was started in collaboration with the Diamond Light Source to study atomic/molecular physics, surface science, and material science. [2] Artemis can also be used to study autoionisation dynamics and ultrafast demagnetisation. [8]

ULTRA

By combining laser, detector and optical tweezers, ULTRA provides molecular dynamics to study physical and life sciences. The multiple arrays of ULTRA allow great flexibility to combine multiple beams across the spectrum in different timing and pulse lengths. Ultra manipulates microscopic particles suspended in liquid in such a way that the forces are not intrusive or destructive. [9]

OCTOPUS

The OCTOPUS is an imaging cluster. Many different methods of imaging are offered there, such as multidimensional single-molecule microscopy, confocal microscopy (FLIM, FRET, and multiphoton), and optical profilometry. It operates as part of the Functional Biosystem Imaging (FBI) Group. [10]

External projects

HiLASE

In April 2013, it was announced that the CLF has won a contract from the HiLASE project. [11] The HiLASE facility [12] is situated in Dolní Břežany, Czech Republic. The contract is worth £10 million to CLF and the whole project costs £30 million. The bid was won thanks to the development of a high-energy diode pumped solid-state laser system (DiPOLE), which was developed by CLF scientists.

HiPER

In collaboration with laser facilities around the world, PETAL (France), OMEGA-EP (USA) and FIREX (Japan), CLF is studying the feasibility of using fast ignition to create an inertial fusion energy. The HiPER facility is planned to be constructed in Europe with panellists from 9 countries overseeing the studies. [2] [13]

Notable studies

The Light Clock

Albert Einstein proposed as part of his theory of special relativity that light reflected from a mirror moving close to the speed of light will have higher peak power than the incident light because of temporal compression. Using a dense relativistic electron mirror created from a high-intensity laser pulse and nanometre-scale foil, the frequency of the laser pulse was shown to shift coherently from infrared to the ultraviolet. The results elucidate the reflection process of laser-generated electron mirrors and suggest future research in relativistic mirrors. [14]

DiPOLE

It was not previously possible to combine high pulse energy with high repetition rate. The Vulcan was a high pulse, low repetition (in order of pulse per hour) laser. Others, while they can put out many pulses per second, were limited to lower energy. DiPOLE will enable combination of the two. [15]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laser</span> Device which emits light via optical amplification

A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word laser is an anacronym that originated as an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. The first laser was built in 1960 by Theodore Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories, based on theoretical work by Charles H. Townes and Arthur Leonard Schawlow.

Q-switching, sometimes known as giant pulse formation or Q-spoiling, is a technique by which a laser can be made to produce a pulsed output beam. The technique allows the production of light pulses with extremely high (gigawatt) peak power, much higher than would be produced by the same laser if it were operating in a continuous wave mode. Compared to modelocking, another technique for pulse generation with lasers, Q-switching leads to much lower pulse repetition rates, much higher pulse energies, and much longer pulse durations. The two techniques are sometimes applied together.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dye laser</span> Equipment using an organic dye to emit coherent light

A dye laser is a laser that uses an organic dye as the lasing medium, usually as a liquid solution. Compared to gases and most solid state lasing media, a dye can usually be used for a much wider range of wavelengths, often spanning 50 to 100 nanometers or more. The wide bandwidth makes them particularly suitable for tunable lasers and pulsed lasers. The dye rhodamine 6G, for example, can be tuned from 635 nm (orangish-red) to 560 nm (greenish-yellow), and produce pulses as short as 16 femtoseconds. Moreover, the dye can be replaced by another type in order to generate an even broader range of wavelengths with the same laser, from the near-infrared to the near-ultraviolet, although this usually requires replacing other optical components in the laser as well, such as dielectric mirrors or pump lasers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ti-sapphire laser</span> Type of laser

Ti:sapphire lasers (also known as Ti:Al2O3 lasers, titanium-sapphire lasers, or Ti:sapphs) are tunable lasers which emit red and near-infrared light in the range from 650 to 1100 nanometers. These lasers are mainly used in scientific research because of their tunability and their ability to generate ultrashort pulses thanks to its broad light emission spectrum. Lasers based on Ti:sapphire were first constructed and invented in June 1982 by Peter Moulton at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory.

Chirped pulse amplification (CPA) is a technique for amplifying an ultrashort laser pulse up to the petawatt level, with the laser pulse being stretched out temporally and spectrally, then amplified, and then compressed again. The stretching and compression uses devices that ensure that the different color components of the pulse travel different distances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nova (laser)</span> High-power laser at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Nova was a high-power laser built at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California, United States, in 1984 which conducted advanced inertial confinement fusion (ICF) experiments until its dismantling in 1999. Nova was the first ICF experiment built with the intention of reaching "ignition", a chain reaction of nuclear fusion that releases a large amount of energy. Although Nova failed in this goal, the data it generated clearly defined the problem as being mostly a result of Rayleigh–Taylor instability, leading to the design of the National Ignition Facility, Nova's successor. Nova also generated considerable amounts of data on high-density matter physics, regardless of the lack of ignition, which is useful both in fusion power and nuclear weapons research.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laser pumping</span> Powering mechanism for lasers

Laser pumping is the act of energy transfer from an external source into the gain medium of a laser. The energy is absorbed in the medium, producing excited states in its atoms. When for a period of time the number of particles in one excited state exceeds the number of particles in the ground state or a less-excited state, population inversion is achieved. In this condition, the mechanism of stimulated emission can take place and the medium can act as a laser or an optical amplifier. The pump power must be higher than the lasing threshold of the laser.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ruby laser</span> Solid-state laser

A ruby laser is a solid-state laser that uses a synthetic ruby crystal as its gain medium. The first working laser was a ruby laser made by Theodore H. "Ted" Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories on May 16, 1960.

Laser Mégajoule (LMJ) is a large laser-based inertial confinement fusion (ICF) research device near Bordeaux, France, built by the French nuclear science directorate, Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique (CEA).

The Gekko XII Laser (激光XII号レーザー) is a high-power, 12-beam, neodymium-doped glass laser at the Osaka University's Institute for Laser Engineering (大阪大学レーザーエネルギー学研究センター) completed in 1983, which is used for high energy density physics and inertial confinement fusion research. The name refers to the twelve individual beamlines used to amplify the laser energy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HiPER</span> Planned ICF powered by lasers

The High Power laser Energy Research facility (HiPER), is a proposed experimental laser-driven inertial confinement fusion (ICF) device undergoing preliminary design for possible construction in the European Union. As of 2019, the effort appears to be inactive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vulcan laser</span>

The Vulcan laser is an infrared, 8-beam, petawatt neodymium glass laser at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory's Central Laser Facility in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. It was the facility's first operational laser.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Output coupler</span> Part of an optical resonator which allows intracavity light to be emitted

In laser science, an output coupler (OC) is the component of an optical resonator that allows the extraction of a portion of the light from the laser's intracavity beam. An output coupler most often consists of a partially reflective mirror, allowing a certain portion of the intracavity beam to transmit through. Other methods include the use of almost-totally reflective mirrors at each end of the cavity, emitting the beam either by focusing it into a small hole drilled in the center of one mirror, or by redirecting through the use of rotating mirrors, prisms, or other optical devices, causing the beam to bypass one of the end mirrors at a given time.

LULI : Laboratoire pour l'Utilisation des Lasers Intenses (LULI) is a scientific research laboratory specialised in the study of plasmas generated by laser-matter interaction at high intensities and their applications. The main missions of LULI include: (i) Research in Plasma Physics, (ii) Development and operation of high-power high-energy lasers and experimental facilities, (iii) student formation in Plasma Physics, Optics and Laser Physics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trident laser</span>

The Trident Laser was a high power, sub-petawatt class, solid-state laser facility located at Los Alamos National Laboratory, in Los Alamos, New Mexico, originally built in the late 1980s for Inertial confinement fusion (ICF) research by KMS Fusion, founded by Kip Siegel, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, it was later moved to Los Alamos in the early 1990s to be used in ICF and materials research. The Trident Laser has been decommissioned, with final experiments in 2017, and is now in storage at the University of Texas at Austin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Extreme Light Infrastructure</span>

The Extreme Light Infrastructure is a research organization with the world's largest collection of high power-lasers. ELI operates several high-power, high-repetition-rate laser systems which enable the research of physical, chemical, materials, and medical sciences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf</span> Research laboratory in Germany

The Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) is a Dresden-based research laboratory. It conducts research in three of the Helmholtz Association's areas: materials, health, and energy. HZDR is a member of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Breit–Wheeler process</span> Electron-positron production from two photons

The Breit–Wheeler process or Breit–Wheeler pair production is a proposed physical process in which a positron–electron pair is created from the collision of two photons. It is the simplest mechanism by which pure light can be potentially transformed into matter. The process can take the form γ γ′ → e+ e− where γ and γ′ are two light quanta.

Pulsed operation of lasers refers to any laser not classified as continuous wave, so that the optical power appears in pulses of some duration at some repetition rate. This encompasses a wide range of technologies addressing a number of different motivations. Some lasers are pulsed simply because they cannot be run in continuous mode.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orion (laser)</span>

The Orion Laser Facility is a high power laser facility based at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) on the former RAF Aldermaston site in the United Kingdom.

References

  1. 1 2 3 M.H. Key 1985 Nucl. Fusion 25 1351 , doi:10.1088/0029-5515/25/9/063.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "High Intensity Laser Physics: Recent Results and Developments at the Central Laser Facility, UK," , asers and Electro-Optics - Pacific Rim, 2007. CLEO/Pacific Rim 2007. Conference on , vol., no., pp.1,2, 26-31 Aug. 2007doi: 10.1109/CLEOPR.2007.4391130.
  3. ↑ "Central Laser Facility-CALTA". Archived from the original on 2013-06-17. Retrieved 2013-06-10.
  4. ↑ New Director of the Central Laser Facility, Optics & Laser Technology, Volume 29, Issue 3, April 1997, Page v, ISSN 0030-3992, 10.1016/S0030-3992(97)82698-9.
  5. ↑ "The Central Laser Facility-Laser facility". Archived from the original on 2013-06-16. Retrieved 2013-06-07.
  6. ↑ "Kvaerner Behind The Heart Of Vulcan Laser." Professional Engineering 15.20 (2002): 52. Academic Search Complete. Web. 6 June 2013.
  7. ↑ "Commissioning the Astra Gemini petawatt Ti:sapphire laser system,", Lasers and Electro-Optics, 2008 and 2008 Conference on Quantum Electronics and Laser Science. CLEO/QELS 2008. Conference on , vol., no., pp.1,2, 4–9 May 2008.
  8. ↑ "Artemis". STFC Central Laser Facility. UKRI. Archived from the original on 4 November 2020. Retrieved 4 November 2020.
  9. ↑ "Central Laser facility-ULTRA". Archived from the original on 2013-02-10. Retrieved 2013-06-07.
  10. ↑ "Central Laser Facility-OCTOPUS". Archived from the original on 2013-06-17. Retrieved 2013-06-10.
  11. ↑ Helen Lock, "STFC lab wins major Czech contract", Times Higher Education, 12 April 2013.
  12. ↑ "HiLASE". HiLASE. Archived from the original on 1 November 2020. Retrieved 4 November 2020.
  13. ↑ HiPER-Laser energy for the future
  14. ↑ Relativistic electron mirrors from nanoscale foils for coherent frequency upshift to the extreme ultraviolet, Nature Communications 4, Article number: 1763 doi:10.1038/ncomms2775.
  15. ↑ "Central Laser Facility-DiPOLE". Archived from the original on 2015-09-23. Retrieved 2013-06-10.

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