What is HiLUX and why we are doing it?
HiLUX is a £17.2M project over 5 years, started in 2023, to invest in a major transformation of the ultrafast laser and infrared, Raman and XUV spectrometer infrastructure in the Central Laser Facility (CLF).
The project provides a new generation of multi-kHz lasers, detectors, sample handling technologies and efficient handling of large data sets. A 10-100 fold increase in average power of lasers will drive new “secondary light sources” that can span IR to XUV wavelengths. A hundred-fold increase in laser repetition rate and data rate unlocks new science applications and greatly reduces timescales to results. HiLUX provides national-scale facilities for training of young scientists, and will complement UK and international university infrastructure, synchrotron and XFEL large-scale facilities.
Part of the team behind HiLUX project
Key objectives
The HiLUX project completely transforms Artemis and Ultra facilities thanks to upgraded instruments and detectors. This offers higher power, faster data collection & improved sample-handling solutions. Key objectives include:
- providing a world-leading, flexible and resilient facility for ultrafast spectroscopy.
- increasing data rates and spectral coverage.
- enabling full exploitation of the much higher data rates, through new detectors and interfaces for high data volumes.
- enabling studies of industrially and societally relevant systems, through provision of advanced sample handling technology.
- reaching new user communities requiring advances in capabilities - such as batteries, data storage and biomoleular interactions - by introducing new capability and lowering barriers to access for non-specialist users.
- maximising our understanding of interconnected ultrafast processes, by enabling study of scientific problems through the widest variety of spectroscopic techniques.
- contributing to advanced skills training (50% of CLF users are PhD students) in experimental and computational science.
Applications
HiLUX enables new research across a wide range of societally, environmentally and industrially important areas, including industrial biotechnology, energy storage, biomedical analysis, quantum devices, catalysis and photovoltaics. A few examples are:
-
Catalysis: Chemical and biological catalysts are at the heart of the multi-billion pound chemical manufacturing industries. HiLUX enablea new insights into the ultrafast chemical processes essential to answer unanswered questions about how catalysts work, improve chemical manufacturing and assist in greenhouse gas capture.
-
Biomedical research: The UK is a leader in the development of innovative laser spectroscopy techniques for biomedical diagnostics and analysis. There are also highly innovative opportunities to use advanced spectroscopies in drug design, development and screening. HiLUX provides the step change in spectroscopic performance needed to grow this embryonic research field.
-
Proteins: Proteins are key targets for light-driven functions and tools for synthetic biology and industrial biotechnology applications. HiLUX offers the extraordinary sensitivity required to capture the complex interconnected processes in light-activated proteins.
-
Digital & technology: New devices for ultrafast computing and data storage rely on an understanding of how materials respond to ultrafast switching. HiLUX can follow these switching processes in devices in unique detail.
Contacts 
