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The soft X-ray lasers (XRL) we develop use as the active medium a column of laser-produced plasma. The pump device is a high-power infrared laser at PALS delivering a sequence of two pulses onto the surface of typically a metallic slab target. While the first pulse vaporizes the target and creates a weakly ionised plasma, the second pulse keeps up generating further plasma and heats it to an appropriate temperature to produce the required ionisation and achieve population inversion.
Celý text >>HiPER - European High Power laser Energy Research facility (Preparatory Phase Study) is a project of the European Community No. 211737, which is realized in the 7th Community Frame Programme (FP7-Infrastructures).
The project aims to develop a conceptual and technological demonstrator of generation of inertial fusion energy. Its main aim is to imitate the physical conditions such as at the centre of the sun or stars and to start (using the powerful laser) the inertial fusion, which is a necessary condition for the release and subsequent use of large amounts of energy.
Celý text >>ELI (Extreme Light Infrastructure) is an international project, identified by the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) and included in the prestigious list, the ESFRI Roadmap, as a high priority project within the large infrastructures for research planned for the European Union’s European Research Area (ERA), which aims to build and operate a multipurpose facility capable of producing the intensity of laser radiation more than hundred times larger than that generated in any other laboratory worldwide. Celý text >>
The HiLASE project focuses on development of high-repetition lasers and laser systems that will find use in industry, in small- and medium-scale research laboratories, and in future European large-scale facilities that will be part of the European Research Area (ERA). The project will specifically focus on diode pumped solid state laser systems (DPSSLs) and on the development of associated technologies.
XRL have great potential to extend current optical laser applications to shorter space and timescales, while probing much deeper into the core of matter. X-ray time-resolved imaging of biological samples, nanolithography, or laboratory astrophysics are typical examples of applications that are just starting to be explored. However, the use of XRL in these novel applications is seriously limited by the parameters of the laser driver creating population inversion. Fortunately, plasma-based XRL are now being perfected to the point that they can become truly tabletop. Celý text >>
High-order harmonic generation (HHG) is a strongly nonlinear process in which femtosecond (1 fs = 10-15 s) laser pulses are disturbed by a medium, e.g. gas, in such a way so that very high-order harmonics of fs laser wavelength are created. Typically, the harmonics orders could as big as 27th and higher. In physical explanation the phenomenon involves outer most electrons of the (for example) gas atom. The atom is ionized by very strong laser field. The resuming energy of the laser field is then transferred into kinetic energy of the ionized electron. Celý text >>
Besides the development of XRL itself, our group is also involved in several application projects using these extremely bright radiation sources. Most notably, we develop the technique of soft X-ray interferometry/holography of surfaces, based on advanced Lloyd’s mirror interferometer configuration and having nanometric resolution capability. Another application being prepared is generation of volumetrically heated superdense plasmas by a focused X-ray laser beam. Celý text >>
We have experimentally demonstrated the evidence of structural surface modifications of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) caused by simultaneous action of extreme ultraviolet (XUV) (similar to 21 nm) and visible-near infrared (visible-NIR) (820/410 nm) ultrashort pulses. Although the fluence of each individual beam was far below the surface modification threshold, very efficient and specific material expansion was observed after irradiation of PMMA by more than similar to 20 shots of mixed XUV/visible-NIR radiation. Celý text >>
The rate of laser ablation at irradiances of 2 x 1014 W/cm2 of solid iron has been measured using the transmission of a neonlike zinc x-ray laser at 21.2 nm through thin iron targets. Celý text >>
We have focused the beam of currently the most powerful soft x-ray laser at 21 nm using a spherical Mo:Si multilayer mirror. The energy density within the 40 micron x 60 micron focal spot was 48 J /cm2, which corresponds to radiation peak intensity of 5 x 1011 W/cm2. Celý text >>
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