"DiPOLE 100" (alias "Bivoj"), a fully diode pumped solid state laser (DPSSL) designed and constructed at STFC's Central Laser Facility (CLF) at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, was delivered under contract to the HiLASE Centre in the Czech Republic. In mid-December 2016, it achieved its full design performance, operating at an output energy of 100 J per pulse at 10 Hz (1 kW) for over 1 hour without operator intervention.
John Collier, Director of the CLF, said "This result is a vital milestone that moves the performance of high peak power lasers beyond the limits of conventional flash lamp pumping, opening up important new applications in materials processing, advanced imaging and fundamental science."
Tomas Mocek, Head of the HiLASE Centre, said "This is the first time that a high energy DPSSL system has broken the 1kW barrier. This performance is truly world leading and fully justifies our confidence in choosing DPSSL technology as the driver for applications-oriented RTD. My HiLASE and CLF colleagues and I are looking forward to further successes as the system moves into the operational phase."
Optimisation of laser parameters will continue in January 2017 to build up operational experience and to fully characterise the system after which it will be brought on line for user experiments. Further details of the laser system performance will be announced at the joint Press Conference planned for January 2017 at the HiLASE Centre.
The 1 kW achievement follows the announcement last month of a 45 MEuro strategic collaboration between the Czech Institute of Physics, who operate HiLASE, and STFC, to create a new Centre of Excellence for the application and development of DPSSL systems.
Advanced DPSSL laser DiPOLE 100 (alias "Bivoj"), HiLASE Centre
More Information:
Web HiLASE: http://www.hilase.cz
Web CLF STFC: http://www.clf.stfc.ac.uk/CLF/
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