Development of a 100 J, 10 Hz laser for compression experiments at the High Energy Density instrument at the European XFEL

Abstract

In this paper we review the design and development of a 100 J, 10 Hz nanosecond pulsed laser, codenamed DiPOLE100X, being built at the Central Laser Facility (CLF). This 1 kW average power diode-pumped solid-state laser (DPSSL) is based on a master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) design, which includes two cryogenic gas cooled amplifier stages based on DiPOLE multi-slab ceramic Yb:YAG amplifier technology developed at the CLF. The laser will produce pulses between 2 and 15 ns in duration with precise, arbitrarily selectable shapes, at pulse repetition rates up to 10 Hz, allowing real-time shape optimization for compression experiments. Once completed, the laser will be delivered to the European X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL) facility in Germany as a UK-funded contribution in kind, where it will be used to study extreme states of matter at the High Energy Density (HED) instrument.

A Review of the Melting Curves of Transition Metals at High Pressures Using Static Compression Techniques

“…What is particularly challenging is the diagnostics of phase transitions in the short timescales of a dynamical process [49,50]. X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL) facilities such as the LCLS [51,52], or the HED instrument at European XFEL [53] are specifically designed to trigger materials at multi-Mbar pressures using ns pulses and a very high brilliance beam and are expected to greatly increase the quality of obtained data.…”

Novel experimental setup for megahertz X-ray diffraction in a diamond anvil cell at the High Energy Density (HED) instrument of the European X-ray Free-Electron Laser (EuXFEL)

“…a diffractometer for pulsed magnetic field studies. For the creation of excited states of matter, the HED instrument offers several drivers that can be operated in either or both of the IAs, such as the Amplitude short-pulse laser for the creation of relativistic plasmas exclusively within IC1, the DiPOLE (diode-pumped optical laser for experiments; Appel et al, 2015;Nakatsutsumi et al, 2017;Mason et al, 2018;Banerjee et al, 2020) long-pulse laser for the creation of cold and warm dense matter (CDM, WDM) in either IC1 or IC2, pulsed magnetic fields in IA2, and DACs in IC1 and IC2 for the generation of CDM and WDM. In all cases, the primary Figure 2 A 3D CAD illustration of the HED experimental hutch with IA1 (upstream) and IA2 (downstream).…”

A history of high-power laser research and development in the United Kingdom

“…The first laser was delivered to HiLASE, Dolni Brezany, Czech Republic, in 2014 [294] . A second laser is currently being commissioned at the Euro-XFEL facility, Hamburg, Germany [295] . Recent advances have demonstrated 150 J pulse energy output at 1 Hz [296] , a world record for diodepumped technology, and stable 10 Hz operation of 77% conversion efficiency for frequency doubling using a type-I phase-matched lithium triborate crystal [297] .…”