High-power, tunable, picosecond laser user facility Available to Purchase

The appeal of picosecond or shorter pulses, high peak power and wavelength selection are widely reported for laser systems. The high cost of experimental facilities and their relative inflexibility once put in place have proven a potent barrier to the participation of most research groups. The same issues are even more problematical for deployment into manufacturing. A user facility began operation three years ago at Jefferson Lab to provide tunable, ultra-fast light in much the same manner as the synchrotron light sources at the DoE National Laboratories. Results from this 1 kW average power machine point to significant opportunities. Upon completion of the current upgrade by the end of this year, the laser will initially deliver at least 10 kW in the 1.5 to 15 µm range, and later at least 1 kW to below 250 nm, with 100 µJ pulses of 200 fs – 2 ps native length. This work was supported by U.S. DOE Contract No. DE-AC05-84-ER40150, the Office of Naval Research, the Air Force Research Laboratory, the Commonwealth of Virginia and the Laser Processing Consortium.