Thermal effects in optical elements as well as subtle changes in the experimental environment (e.g. airflow, humidity, vibrations) are well-known challenges affecting laser alignment. These effects tend to scale with the size and complexity of the laser systems. For high-power lasers comprising a multitude of amplification stages, the resulting long-term drifts (occurring over minutes to...
Controlling the delivery of kHz-class pulsed lasers is of interest in a variety of industrial and scientific applications, from next-generation laser-plasma acceleration to laser-based x-ray emission and high-precision manufacturing. The transverse position of the laser pulse train on the application target is often subject to fluctuations by external drivers (e.g., room cooling and heating...
We have demonstrated real-time automatic compensation of measured angular dispersion, achieving a stability within 1.4 nrad/nm. The applied algorithm uses the calculated dispersion from a new diagnostic, on shot, and adjusts the positions of a set of two glass prisms to achieve a zero, or non-zero, constant angular dispersion magnitude and direction. The project has been extended to compensate...
As part of the THRILL project, we are working on different architectures for high-energy, high-repetition-rate laser amplification. We are particularly interested in coherent beam combination, an original scaling approach already proving its worth for fiber or small-diameter laser systems. Some of the main challenges when trying to adapt this technology to high-energy laser chains, include the...
The PHELIX laser system utilizes multiple wavefront control systems, which require seamless integration into the primary laser control system for daily operation. Over the years, significant effort has gone into optimizing this integration. We detail the initial development stages with our standalone software, WOMBAT, and the gradual incorporation of these capabilities into the PHELIX Control...
The ATLAS-3000 is a Petawatt class Ti:Sa laser located at the Centre for Advanced Laser Applications (CALA) in Munich, Germany. The laser operates at a 1Hz repetition rate and the beam can be guided into several different experiment areas for e.g., laser particle acceleration experiments.
The laser chain contains a total of three deformable mirrors before the main amplification stage, before...
Bivoj laser system is located at Hilase center near Prague, Czechia. It incorporates two adaptive optics systems (AOS). One for each of its two cryogenically cooled main amplifiers, both of which work with a square flat-top beam profile. First AOS deals with aberrations of the 10J amplifier with beam size of 21.5 x 21.5 mm2 and composes of a bimorph Deformable Mirror (DM) and a Quadri-wave...
Many applications require an ultrafast laser source with excellent long-term stability. One example is laser plasma acceleration (LPA), where the properties of the drive laser pulse directly determine those of the accelerated electron beam. Therefore, the highest possible laser stability is required for reliable long-term operation of the LPA. In the high-energy drive lasers of LPA, even the...
For an autonomous system like high frequency Adaptative loop, the problem of interfacing with facility SCADA/Tango can be difficult. We have two main options: restrict the interactions for only settings and monitoring the correction parameters. The other option demands more resource as we should manage a separated physical machine on dedicated network to insure the 10ms computation and...
The PLANET project aims at developing the first laser-driven neutron source optimized for commercial application. The system exploits the unique properties of a laser-source by utilizing simultaneously both fast neutrons and MeV x-rays to image through heavy shielding material. The goal of the project is to demonstrate imaging and material discrimination of the content of a medium level...
The DRACO Ti:Sa laser system at HZDR employs various automated procedures. We will report from daily operation experience on
- pump and shutter control
- beam stabilization
- spectral shaping
- trigger and delay management
We will also discuss current developments of data acquisition and live processing as well as the transition process to AI-based beam stabilization, spectral shaping...
