Progress of Shanghai Super Super short Laser experimental equipment project

The Shanghai Ultra Strong Ultra Short Laser Experimental Facility (also known as the "Xihe Laser Facility") is the world's first 10 watt (100 billion watt) laser experimental facility. The device passed acceptance in December 2020 and was put into trial operation and opened to the public in 2021. The legal entity of the device is the Chinese Academy of Sciences Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, and the co construction unit is Shanghai University of Science and Technology. Supported by the National Development and Reform Commission and the Shanghai Municipal Government, it has been included in the first batch of major projects in Shanghai to build a globally influential science and technology innovation center and build a world-class major science and technology infrastructure cluster. It is also one of the core platforms of the Zhangjiang Comprehensive National Science Center.

The Xihe Laser Device aims to develop key technologies for internationally leading 10 beat watt level ultra strong and ultra short lasers, as well as to use 10 beat watt lasers and repetitive beat watt lasers to drive the generation of ultra fast, multispectral, high brightness light sources, and ultra fast and high-performance particle beams, applied in basic research such as material science and life sciences. The Xihe laser device mainly includes a 10 beat watt ultra strong ultra short laser system (10PW/1min), and a 1 beat watt level laser output beam line (1PW/0.1Hz) with high repetition rate.

And three user experimental terminals, including the Extreme Conditions Materials Science Research Platform, the Ultra Fast Subatomic Physics Research Platform, and the Ultra Fast Chemistry and Macromolecular Dynamics Research Platform; Research support facilities and data centers; A facility experimental building.

Extreme Condition Materials Science Research Platform:
Based on a 10 beat watt laser system front-end and a 300 joule neodymium glass nanosecond laser system, it can provide femtosecond laser interaction with atomic molecules and nanosecond laser interaction with materials, for research on ultrafast nonlinearity of atomic molecules and solid materials, as well as laser high-pressure loading in materials.

Ultra fast subatomic physics research platform:
Based on a 10 beat watt ultra strong ultra short laser system and a repetition frequency 1 beat watt laser system, it can be used for experimental research in strong field physics fields such as strong laser driven ion acceleration, electron acceleration, positron acceleration, radiation sources, and strong field QED. It can provide high-quality ion sources, electron sources, positron sources, and radiation sources, and can be used in tumor treatment, radiation environment simulation, high-precision imaging Material non-destructive testing and other civilian and military fields have broad application prospects.

Ultrafast Chemistry and Macromolecular Dynamics Research Platform:
Based on the repetition frequency 1 beat watt laser system, experimental methods such as femtosecond repetition frequency laser, electron beam, coherent soft X-ray diffraction imaging, gamma ray source, terahertz source, etc. can be provided for research in ultrafast strong field physical interaction experiments, ultrafast chemical and molecular dynamics detection, atomic nuclear physics exploration, high-resolution microscopic imaging, and other fields.

Facing the forefront of world technology and major national needs, the Xihe laser device has been operating for 6000 hours and has received project applications from universities and research institutions such as Oxford University, Peking University, Fudan University, and the Institute of Metals of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It has successfully completed physical experiments for users such as Zhangjiang Laboratory, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Dingfeng Multiscale Scientific Research Institute, Central South University, and Shanghai Institute of Optics and Mechanics.

By using ultra intense and ultra short laser, breakthroughs have been made in the verification of "all-optical attosecond electronic oscilloscope", high-order harmonic radiation contributed by topological surface state and its physical mechanism. Relevant achievements have been published in Nature photonics [Nature Photonics 15 (3): 1-6 (2021)] and Nature Physics [Nature Physics 17 (3): 1-5 (2021)] respectively.

The research of miniaturized free-electron laser based on laser accelerator has made breakthrough progress, and the amplified output of spontaneous emission based on laser wake field acceleration has been achieved for the first time in the world, which marks that China is the first country to complete the principle verification of desktop free-electron laser in the world. The achievement was published in the journal Nature as a cover article.

Source: Science and Technology Innovation Shanghai