High power laser diode system-UK STFC laser upgrade, to advance energy, imaging fields

Aerospace technology giant Leonardo Electronics America has installed a new high-energy laser system at the Science and Technology Facilities Council's Central Laser Facility (CLF) in Oxfordshire, one of the UK's national scientific research laboratories.

The device is designed to conduct so-called "extreme photonics" research, allowing scientists and engineers to accelerate the development of research projects with potential world change implications. Future applications of the technology developed under this research could revolutionize medical treatment, enable new forms of green energy, and improve imaging capabilities, Leonardo said.

The newly installed technology -- the High Power Laser Diode System -- will be used as part of the CLF's High energy laser amplifier system at the Extreme Photonics and Applications Center (EPAC). It will be used to support world-class British scientific research. Development of the system was performed by Leonardo Electronics USA, a subsidiary of Leonardo.

Key component

Leonardo Electronics USA offers peak power (up to 1 MW) diode lasers, a key component in laser science and applications. Leonardo said the systems installed in the EPAC represent only a third of the number available to the CLF team.

The performance of the Leonardo system opens the door to a range of practical applications, such as advanced medical imaging and cancer treatment. Lasers can be used to create compact sources of useful beams, such as so-called "very bright" X-rays, which can penetrate deeper into the medium than standard X-rays.

These can greatly improve imaging capabilities in industrial and medical applications. In cancer treatment, this novel radiobiological source will provide novel therapies that are more mobile than traditional facilities.

The technology could also play a key role in making it commercially viable to generate green energy from fusion reactions (inertial confinement fusion or ICF). This will build on the success recently demonstrated by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) at the National Ignition Facility (NIF), to which the CLF contributed.

Powering a high power laser with a diode laser is a way to generate laser energy with less waste heat. This allows for more rapid continuous use of laser pulses. An advantage of this is that it increases the number of particles at a time for highly desirable secondary beams, thus maximizing the availability of such beams.

Leonardo's homogenizing pump system, located at the Science and Technology Facilities Council's Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire, UK, and installed in February, consists of two optical modules with a peak power of 1 kW each. The modules operate in a frequency range of 10 Hz to 1 Hz with pulse frequencies up to 2.35ms, generating up to 35 J of energy per pulse.

Source: Laser Net