OPCPA
08 Dec 2016
Yes
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​A paradigm shift technology pioneered both theoretically and experimentally at CLF, Optical Parametric Chirped Pulse Amplification (OPCPA), permits high power lasers to break the current 1 PW ceiling limit and reach new levels of extreme powers.

No

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The technological breakthrough opened a new branch of high power laser science and seeded major science programmes internationally. The original publication on the new concept has attracted over 550 citations as of 2016.

The OPCPA scheme also forms a basis of the proposed upgrade of CLF's Vulcan laser facility to deliver hundred times higher intensities and twenty times higher peak powers (from 1 PW to 20 PW) reaching a world record output. The new regime will permit novel physics phenomena to be studied.


Reference:

The prospects for ultrashort pulse duration and ultrahigh intensity using optical parametric chirped pulse amplifiers
IN Ross, P Matousek, M Towrie, AJ Langley, JL Collier, 

Optics Communications 144, 125 (1997) doi:10.1016/S0030-4018(97)00399-4​ 

Contact: Hernandez-Gomez, Cristina (STFC,RAL,CLF)