[Left is in the D100X lab before it had been shipped, right is the same room after it had been shipped. The effort to build and deliver D100X extended beyond just the CLF team. Photographed here are people ranging from admin, to finance, to the members of RAL Transport. who played a crucial role in transporting the high value, delicate laser optics to Hamburg.]
The CLF's CALTA team, the engineering team and many other CLF staff members (photographed here) have worked diligently over the past few years to make sure the laser system has been built to on time and delivered to the highest standard.
The ambitious build was captured on a time-lapse camera:
This video was revealed on Friday 17th January during an event held by the CALTA team to celebrate the shipping - and what better place to hold the celebration than in the (now) empty lab itself!
Many of the people who helped came together to don overshoes and celebrate
[Director of the CLF, Prof John Collier, giving a congratulatory talk to the CLF team and all who helped in the building process]
Funded by STFC and EPSRC, D100X is a compact, high average power laser that is destined to become part of the European XFEL, aiding the XFEL community with its ability to conduct high energy density physics such as laboratory astrophysics experiments; mimicking the extreme states of matter found in the cores of planets and stars.
D100X's novel technology, which includes diode pumps and cryoamplifiers, allows it to deliver a unique combination of high pulse energy (100J) plus a rapid pulse repetition rate (10 Hz). This laser is the second generation of the DIPOLE concept after DiPOLE 100 which was shipped to the HiLASE facility in Prague in 2015.
In preparation for this delivery, the CLF team provided training at the CLF for XFEL scientists and engineers on how to install and use the system. Now, under the eyes of another time-lapse camera, setup has ready begun.
CLF scientists and engineers have - and will continue to - periodically visit the EU XFEL to provide expertise and insure the smooth installation of D100X.
To see the press release on this event, go here.
To learn more about D100X's capabilities, go here.
To learn more about the DiPOLE Concept, go here.
To learn more about the EU XFEL, go here.
