A cutting-edge laser amplifier that can supply bursts of laser energy with power equivalent to that of a full-sized power station has been developed, built and supplied for a new international project in the Czech Republic. Developed by the CLF's Centre for Advanced Laser Technology and Applications (CALTA), this project brings in £2.2 million for the UK economy.
The laser head was delivered to the new Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) facility in the first major contract of its kind between CALTA and the Czech Republic’s Institute of Physics (IoP).
Worth £2.2 million to the UK, the contract creates a world-class laser capability for ELI, a multi-million euro facility in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania.
The laser amplifier head, which builds on the world-leading DiPOLE laser development from the STFC team, can supply bursts of 10 joules of laser energy for a brief instant, ten times every second. (DiPOLE has ceramic materials inside the head which allow light to be amplified to immense power for brief instants of time.) Each laser burst has power equivalent to that of a full-sized power station. It is expected to stimulate development of new technologies by laser, optical, vacuum, electronics and other industries.
Following a week’s intensive installation work, the completion was signed off by Bedrich Rus, Chief Scientist with ELI Beamlines, and Justin Greenhalgh, Manager of STFC’s CALTA.
Bedrich Rus said, “We are delighted with the outcome of this highly successful project and look forward to putting the laser head to use in one the four massive laser systems that make up ELI Beamlines here in the Czech Republic. Having access to this cutting edge technology is helping us to produce a state of the art facility for scientists from around the world to use. The excellent level of co-operation between STFC and IoP has set a solid foundation for future work.”
Test shot fired from the laser diode systems during installation in Prague. Credit: STFC.
CALTA capitalises on the advanced technology developed in the STFC’s Central Laser Facility (CLF). Its mission is to develop a next generation laser technology platform for use in both industry and existing international large scale laser infrastructures.
Professor John Collier, Director of the CLF, said “The laser platform will benefit new build laser infrastructure projects, including ELI, and will drive new laser-based applications in industry, including advanced material treatments and energy production.”
“DiPOLE technology not only enables high power laser operation at high repetition rates of many pulses per second” said Professor Collier, “but also demonstrates high efficiency operation, with at least 10% efficiency in producing laser power from electricity, compared to conventional systems that are typically much less than 1% efficient.”
ELI will become a world-class laser facility open to academic researchers to do advanced science experiments. The ELI lasers will operate at ten times a second (ten hertz) and amplify ultrashort pulses of laser energy to power levels above 1 petawatt (a petawatt is a billion megawatts), the instantaneous equivalent of 2 million power stations per pulse. This is an ambitious step forward compared to earlier generations of petawatt lasers, such as the Vulcan laser in the Central Laser Facility at the STFC’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, which produce only one laser pulse every 20 minutes.
Being able to operate high power lasers at high repetition rate is key to developing applications such as medical imaging and radiotherapy for industrial use.
