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Central Laser Facility (CLF) is a research facility in the UK. It is part of the
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory The Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) is one of the national scientific research laboratories in the UK operated by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). It began as the Rutherford High Energy Laboratory, merged with the Atla ...
. The facility is dedicated to studying the applications of high energy
laser 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 acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". The ...
s. It was opened in 1976.M.H. Key 1985 Nucl. Fusion 25 1351
doi:10.1088/0029-5515/25/9/063.
As of 2013 there are 5 active laser laboratories at the CLF:
Vulcan Vulcan may refer to: Mythology * Vulcan (mythology), the god of fire, volcanoes, metalworking, and the forge in Roman mythology Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * Vulcan (''Star Trek''), name of a fictional race and their home p ...
, 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 Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...
and
environmental science Environmental science is an interdisciplinary academic field that integrates physics, biology, and geography (including ecology, chemistry, plant science, zoology, mineralogy, oceanography, limnology, soil science, geology and physical geog ...
. "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.
Also through the Centre for Advanced Laser Technology and Application (CALTA), CLF is responsible for laser development. DiPOLE is the brainchild of that project.


History

The
Vulcan Vulcan may refer to: Mythology * Vulcan (mythology), the god of fire, volcanoes, metalworking, and the forge in Roman mythology Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * Vulcan (''Star Trek''), name of a fictional race and their home p ...
is the first operational laser at the CLF. By 1997, when a new director was appointed, M. H. R. Hutchinson, formerly of
Imperial College London Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...
, CLF was also operating a second laser, the Titania, at that time said to be the world brightest krypton fluoride laser.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.


Current lasers


Vulcan

The
Vulcan Vulcan may refer to: Mythology * Vulcan (mythology), the god of fire, volcanoes, metalworking, and the forge in Roman mythology Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * Vulcan (''Star Trek''), name of a fictional race and their home p ...
is the world's most powerful laser user facility. It emits a light beam in the petawatts. The construction of the core of the Vulcan was carried out by Kvaerner Engineering and Construction to specifications on par with those in the nuclear industry. The chamber is lined with aluminium and lead to reduce radiation."Kvaerner Behind The Heart Of Vulcan Laser." Professional Engineering 15.20 (2002): 52. Academic Search Complete. Web. 6 June 2013. Vulcan, initially a 0.5 terawatt two beams
neodymium Neodymium is a chemical element with the symbol Nd and atomic number 60. It is the fourth member of the lanthanide series and is considered to be one of the rare-earth metals. It is a hard, slightly malleable, silvery metal that quickly tarn ...
laser, was first upgraded in 1980 to a 6 beams 1.5 TW laser. Power was again increased in 1982, to 3 TW.


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 Plasma ()πλάσμα
, Henry George Liddell, R ...
experiments. "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.


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. Artemis can also be used to study autoionisation dynamics and ultrafast demagnetisation.


ULTRA

By combining laser, detector and
optical tweezers Optical tweezers (originally called single-beam gradient force trap) are scientific instruments that use a highly focused laser beam to hold and move microscopic and sub-microscopic objects like atoms, nanoparticles and droplets, in a manner simil ...
, 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.Central Laser facility-ULTRA
/ref>


OCTOPUS

The OCTOPUS is an imaging cluster. Many different methods of imaging are offered there, such as multidimensional single-molecule
microscopy Microscopy is the technical field of using microscopes to view objects and areas of objects that cannot be seen with the naked eye (objects that are not within the resolution range of the normal eye). There are three well-known branches of micr ...
,
confocal microscopy Confocal microscopy, most frequently confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) or laser confocal scanning microscopy (LCSM), is an optical imaging technique for increasing optical resolution and contrast of a micrograph by means of using a ...
(FLIM, FRET, and multiphoton), and optical profilometry. It operates as part of the Functional Biosystem Imaging (FBI) Group.


External projects


HiLASE

In April 2013, it was announced that the CLF has won a contract from the HiLASE project.Helen Lock
"STFC lab wins major Czech contract"
''Times Higher Education'', 12 April 2013.
The HiLASE facility is situated in
Dolní Břežany Dolní Břežany is a municipality and village in Prague-West District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 4,400 inhabitants. Administrative parts Villages of Jarov, Lhota and Zálepy are administrative parts of Doln ...
,
Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...
. 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 In physics, a dipole () is an electromagnetic phenomenon which occurs in two ways: *An electric dipole deals with the separation of the positive and negative electric charges found in any electromagnetic system. A simple example of this system ...
), 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.HiPER-Laser energy for the future
/ref>


Notable studies


The Light Clock

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theor ...
proposed as part of his theory of
special relativity In physics, the special theory of relativity, or special relativity for short, is a scientific theory regarding the relationship between space and time. In Albert Einstein's original treatment, the theory is based on two postulates: # The law ...
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.Relativistic electron mirrors from nanoscale foils for coherent frequency upshift to the extreme ultraviolet
Nature Communications 4, Article number: 1763 doi:10.1038/ncomms2775.


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.


References

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