For over thirty years, LIDYL has owned and operated a range of high-level laser platforms based on intense femtosecond lasers. The laboratory’s objective has always been to develop its platforms in such a way as to reconcile good reliability and technological progress.
Laser management is handled by the user team for medium-sized systems, or by the SLIC team for larger, multi-user platforms. The SLIC team currently manages the lasers for the UHI100 and ATTOLab platforms.
UHI100 is the most intense laser at LIDYL. Since its upgrade in 2008 by Amplitude-Technologies, UHI delivers 10Hz pulses of up to 100TW (2.5J) with a duration of 25fs. One of the special features of the UHI100 is the high temporal contrast (109 at the compressor output) achieved by a preamplification and temporal filtering stage upstream of the stretcher, using a saturable absorber.
The use of 2 plasma mirrors inserted between the compressor and the interaction chambers increases contrast up to1012. Intensities on the target in the 1019-1020 W/cm² range have been obtained using a deformable mirror.
At the end of 2019, the UHI100 laser was temporarily shut down to prepare for its move to a new hall at l’Orme des Merisiers, opening up in particular the possibility of experiments combining 2 intense beams.
The laser has been operational there since December 2021, and has since undergone a number of modifications, such as a change in its Control-Command system, designed to ensure its long-term operability. The laser is used to study high-intensity laser-matter interactions, from the production of high-order harmonics on solid targets or plasma mirrors, to particle acceleration.