Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Please visit new blog -- Femtosecond KrF Excimer Laser
I applied blog space for Femtosecond KrF Excimer Laser system at UIC. This blog will concern about the ultrafast high field laser and its applications. Every UIC laser lab member can post in the new blog, the URL is http://uicexcimer.blogspot.com/.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
What Is an Energy Recovery Linac (ERL)?
An Energy Recovery Linac (ERL) x-ray source is a candidate next-generation x-ray source technology now under active development. ERLs are made possible by recent advances in superconducting linear accelerators and in high-brightness electron sources. ERLs have the potential to generate synchrotron radiation with brightness about 1000 times greater than that of today's storage rings, resulting in highly coherent x-radiation. ERL's are particularly well suited for the production of very fast x-ray pulses to examine the dynamics of materials on extremely rapid time scales and for intense x-ray nanoprobe beams to study nanoscopic matter. While both ERLs and XFELS will be able to produce very fast x-ray pulses, the two sources are quite distinct in the timing of these pulses: ERLs are being designed to produce pulses times up to a billion times a second whereas XFELs produce bigger pulses but at a far lower rate per second.
Image 1. Electrons are released from the injector at the lower left, and are accelerated in a long linear superconducting accelerator (main linac). After emerging from this linac, the electrons pass through undulators that wiggle the electron beam and produce the x-rays in the usual way. Electrons are continuously injected, make one trip around the ring, and return to the main linac where their energy is recovered. The spent beam is directed to the dump. (Courtesy: Cornell University)
Image 1. Electrons are released from the injector at the lower left, and are accelerated in a long linear superconducting accelerator (main linac). After emerging from this linac, the electrons pass through undulators that wiggle the electron beam and produce the x-rays in the usual way. Electrons are continuously injected, make one trip around the ring, and return to the main linac where their energy is recovered. The spent beam is directed to the dump. (Courtesy: Cornell University)
Monday, March 05, 2007
PHOTONIC FRONTIERS: PETAWATT LASERS
Squeezing energetic laser pulses down to ultrashort durations can generate tremendous peak powers. A decade ago the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL; Livermore, CA) blazed the trail by modifying one arm of its Nova fusion laser to create the Petawatt Laser, which delivered pulses exceeding 1015 W (1 PW). Now some 20 petawatt lasers are in operation or development around the world, and European planners are aiming for an exowatt (1018 W) laser (see table).
Some major petawatt laser projects
The first petawatt laser
Livermore’s Petawatt Laser used a chain of Nd:glass lasers from one beam of the Nova fusion laser to amplify nanosecond pulses to the kilojoule range. Pulses were expanded and compressed with high-efficiency 75 cm gratings. Amplifier output of 1.3 kJ in an 800 ps pulse could be compressed down to a 430 fs pulse with peak power of 1.3 PW, which in turn could produce power density approaching 1021 W/cm2. The system generated its first petawatt pulse on May 23, 1996, and ran for three years until Nova was dissembled in 1999.
The Livermore experiments demonstrated the potential of petawatt lasers to concentrate tremendous energies into small volumes, opening a new regime of high-temperature and high-pressure matter for study. The intense fields could accelerate both electrons and positive ions to high velocities over short distances (see www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/252490). Experiments generated bright beams of high-energy x-rays and gamma rays. And Livermore also showed that firing petawatt lasers into a laser-heated fusion target produced a powerful shock wave that helped ignite the fusion fuel.
Second-generation petawatt lasers
The second generation of petawatt lasers is already operating. The Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (Didcot, England) uses a Ti:sapphire oscillator and an optical parametric amplifier to preamplify pulses which then pass through a beam of the lab’s Vulcan Nd:glass laser, and three additional 208 mm Nd:glass disks salvaged from Nova (see Fig. 2). Commissioned in 2002, it initially produced 800 fs pulses with peak power of 500 TW. Further refinements ramped up power, which reached the petawatt level in October 2004, delivering 423 J onto the target in a 410 fs pulse.
Livermore has built a second-generation petawatt laser called Titan around the old two-beam Janus Nd:glass laser used in fusion target experiments back in 1975, says Andrew Ng of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). Overhauled with better glass, the system has two independent beam lines for chirped-pulse amplification and a new generation of pulse-compression gratings. The first experiments in June 2005 generated 400 J in 400 fs to reach petawatt peak power focusable onto an 8 µm spot. It also can operate in long-pulse mode, generating 1 kJ in less than 3 ns or 140 J in 250 ps. Titan can fire long and short pulses simultaneously from its two arms. Ng says that firing long pulses to create a plasma and short pulses to probe the plasma is a very effective way to study high-energy states.
Livermore is also planning a big step up in energy with a second long-pulse system for use with the National Ignition Facility. Called the Advanced Radiographic Capability, it initially will fire 1 kJ pulses to record multiframe x-ray movies of NIF targets, says lead scientist Chris Barty of LLNL. By combining four NIF beams, he hopes to generate 13.2 kJ in a 10 ps pulse. The first beamline is to be commissioned in spring 2009.
Most other systems in operation, construction, or planning stages are either long-pulse systems based on Nd:glass or Ti:sapphire systems generating pulses as short as 20 fs. The main exception is the $15 million Texas Petawatt Laser, which will use parametric amplification to raise the 1 J output of a Ti:sapphire oscillator to 250 J, which they hope to deliver in 150 fs pulses. Project director Todd Ditmire hopes to produce his first petawatt pulses late in 2007.
Laser Focus World August, 2006
Author: Jeff Hecht
Some major petawatt laser projects
| Name | Site | Timetable | Parameters | Web site Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Advanced Radiographic Capability | Livermore | 2009 | 10 kJ, 10 ps | |
| Extreme Light Infrastructure | Laboratoire d’Optique Appliquée, France | Proposal | 10 kJ, 10 fs | ELI |
| Firex-1 | ILE, Osaka, Japan | Under construction | 10 kJ, 10 ps | |
| GEKKO Petawatt Module | ILE, Osaka, Japan | In operation | 500 J, 500 fs | |
| Laser Megajoule | University of Bordeaux | Proposal | 2 MJ, 300 ps-10 ns | lmj |
| LULI 2000 | LULI, Paris | Under construction; completion 2006 | 200 J, 400 fs | |
| Omega EP | University of Rochester | 2007 | 2.6 kJ, 1 ps | omegaep |
| Petawatt Laser (original) | Livermore | 1996-1999 | 1.3 kJ, 800 fs | MPerry |
| Phelix | GSI Darmstadt, Germany | Under construction, with heavy-ion beam | 500 J, <500 fs | phelix |
| Polaris | University of Jena, Germany | Development | 120 J, 120 fs | ultraphotonics |
| Texas Petawatt Laser | University of Texas, Austin | Late 2007 | 130 J, 150 fs | petawatt |
| Titan | Livermore | In operation | 400 J, 400 fs or long-pulse | JLF |
| Vulcan Petawatt | Rutherford Appleton Lab, UK | In operation | 400 J, 400 fs | vulcan |
| Z-beamlet | Sandia National Laboratory | Under construction | 2 kJ, 1-10 ps ultimately | z-beamlet |
The first petawatt laser
Livermore’s Petawatt Laser used a chain of Nd:glass lasers from one beam of the Nova fusion laser to amplify nanosecond pulses to the kilojoule range. Pulses were expanded and compressed with high-efficiency 75 cm gratings. Amplifier output of 1.3 kJ in an 800 ps pulse could be compressed down to a 430 fs pulse with peak power of 1.3 PW, which in turn could produce power density approaching 1021 W/cm2. The system generated its first petawatt pulse on May 23, 1996, and ran for three years until Nova was dissembled in 1999.
The Livermore experiments demonstrated the potential of petawatt lasers to concentrate tremendous energies into small volumes, opening a new regime of high-temperature and high-pressure matter for study. The intense fields could accelerate both electrons and positive ions to high velocities over short distances (see www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/252490). Experiments generated bright beams of high-energy x-rays and gamma rays. And Livermore also showed that firing petawatt lasers into a laser-heated fusion target produced a powerful shock wave that helped ignite the fusion fuel.
Second-generation petawatt lasers
The second generation of petawatt lasers is already operating. The Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (Didcot, England) uses a Ti:sapphire oscillator and an optical parametric amplifier to preamplify pulses which then pass through a beam of the lab’s Vulcan Nd:glass laser, and three additional 208 mm Nd:glass disks salvaged from Nova (see Fig. 2). Commissioned in 2002, it initially produced 800 fs pulses with peak power of 500 TW. Further refinements ramped up power, which reached the petawatt level in October 2004, delivering 423 J onto the target in a 410 fs pulse.
Livermore has built a second-generation petawatt laser called Titan around the old two-beam Janus Nd:glass laser used in fusion target experiments back in 1975, says Andrew Ng of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). Overhauled with better glass, the system has two independent beam lines for chirped-pulse amplification and a new generation of pulse-compression gratings. The first experiments in June 2005 generated 400 J in 400 fs to reach petawatt peak power focusable onto an 8 µm spot. It also can operate in long-pulse mode, generating 1 kJ in less than 3 ns or 140 J in 250 ps. Titan can fire long and short pulses simultaneously from its two arms. Ng says that firing long pulses to create a plasma and short pulses to probe the plasma is a very effective way to study high-energy states.
Livermore is also planning a big step up in energy with a second long-pulse system for use with the National Ignition Facility. Called the Advanced Radiographic Capability, it initially will fire 1 kJ pulses to record multiframe x-ray movies of NIF targets, says lead scientist Chris Barty of LLNL. By combining four NIF beams, he hopes to generate 13.2 kJ in a 10 ps pulse. The first beamline is to be commissioned in spring 2009.
Most other systems in operation, construction, or planning stages are either long-pulse systems based on Nd:glass or Ti:sapphire systems generating pulses as short as 20 fs. The main exception is the $15 million Texas Petawatt Laser, which will use parametric amplification to raise the 1 J output of a Ti:sapphire oscillator to 250 J, which they hope to deliver in 150 fs pulses. Project director Todd Ditmire hopes to produce his first petawatt pulses late in 2007.
Laser Focus World August, 2006
Author: Jeff Hecht
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