High average power Ti:Sapphire drive laser
Artemis provides ultrafast, synchronised laser pulses which can be configured flexibly either to generate XUV or as pump and probe pulses spanning the UV to far infrared. The core of the facility is a 30 fs, 1 kHz Ti:Sapphire CPA system operating at 780 nm (a heavily customised and modified RedDragon from KMLabs).
The laser has been recently upgraded with an additional amplifier, to produce two output beams, each with 8 mJ pulses. These are compressed in two separate grating compressors, allowing us to optimise the pulse durations of each independently. We run the laser continuously, 24 hours a day, for periods of up to three weeks at a time, to enable us to carry out long data acquisition series and to maximise the science output of the facility.
Schematic of the Artemis 1 kHz Ti:Sapphire laser
Tuneable pulses
Tuneable pulses spanning the spectral range from 235 nm to 15 microns are provided by an optical parametric amplifier (HE-Topas from Light Conversion). This is pumped with up to 8 mJ of the output from the laser system. At 1300 nm, we have achieved pulse energies of up to 1 mJ with a 40 fs pulse duration, enabling focused intensities exceeding 1014 Wcm-2 .
Pulse energies in excess of 100 microJ at 250 nm and 2 microJ at 20 microns can be obtained. The shot-to-shot energy stability of the output is ~3% rms.
Few-cycle pulses
We can also offer few-cycle pulses in the infrared, by sending the idler from the Topas at 1700 nm into a gas-filled hollow fibre and then recompressing with glass wedges. This produces 12 fs pulses with a spectrum spanning 1200-2200 nm, with 0.4 mJ/pulse. This few-cycle idler capability has been developed in partnership with the Laser Consortium (link opens in a new window) at Imperial College.
