The Saclay Laser-matter Interaction Centre (SLIC) is a research infrastructure dedicated to ultrafast photoscience. A member of the European LASERLAB-EUROPE 2 consortium of laser infrastructures, SLIC offers a complete line of intense femtosecond laser facilities to study for instance the development and applications of intense coherent femtosecond/attosecond XUV sources, laser-driven particle acceleration, laser-solid interaction at high intensity and femtochemistry. SLIC facilities are widely open to external researchers in particular through national or transnational calls.
SLIC include 3 main facilities, respectively named LUCA, PLFA and UHI. LUCA, PLFA and UHI are based on the Chirped Pulse Amplification (CPA) scheme and are using Titanium-Sapphire (TiS) as the laser medium:
- LUCA is a 20Hz multi-line (up to 6) and multi-user (up to 4) facility with peak power up to 1TW and 50fs pulse duration. LUCA offers permanent advanced experimental set-ups for femtochemistry and solid-state physics experiments along with a XUV line based on harmonic generation in gases. Pulse energy up to 1µJ in the 46-60 nm range is available.
- PLFA delivers 0,4TW pulses at 1kHz repetition rate with 32fs typical pulse duration. Mostly dedicated to experiments requiring high average flux and high pulse to pulse stability, PLFA will be preferred whenever low signal to noise ratios are anticipated.
- Finally, UHI is our most intense laser: since 2008, UHI delivers 100 TW pulses with 25 fs pulse duration. UHI is also characterised by its high temporal contrast (1010). Particle acceleration and harmonic generation on plasma mirrors are typical examples of experiments carried out at UHI.
A complete line of diagnostics is available on all SLIC facilities to provide online characterization of the main laser parameters. In particular, spatial characteristics can be monitored using beam- and wavefront- analysers whereas the temporal pulse properties can be analysed using in-house developed autocorrelators, high dynamic cross-correlator and SPIDERs. SLIC facilities are operated and upgraded by a dedicated laser group which also conducts research and development programs on ultrafast lasers and diagnostics. This R&D activity is mostly aimed at improving the SLIC offer in terms of laser performances, characterisation and pulse shaping.
For more informations on the transnational access to the facility contact:
Pascal d'Oliveira
CEA/DRECAM/SPAM
CE Saclay 91191 Gif Sur Yvette
Tel: 33 (0)169088260
SLIC is part of the LASERNET network and of the LASERLAB cluster of large scale Laser installations
