Current Laser and Experimental Parameters
Laser Energy: the energy of the laser is adjusted depending on the configuration
- At PTA, short pulses with up to 150 J in combination with an f = 40 cm, 45° parabola are available.
- At PTA, short pulses with up to 70 J in combination with an f =150 cm, 90° parabola are available.
- At Z6, long (1 – 10 ns) pulses with an energy of about 180 J (depending on pulse length) at 527 nm are available with an f = 4 m focusing lens. Two random phase plates creating top-hat foci of 1 mm or 0.5 mm diameter are available.
- At Z6, short pulses of 15 J at 1054 nm and a pulse duration of 500 fs are also available but not in parallel with the nanosecond beam.
- At HHT, long pulses (1 – 10 ns) with an energy up to 200 J (on best effort basis and depending on pulse length, for example: max. 200 J in 2 ns.) at 527 nm are available with an f = 1.8 m focusing lens (F/13). Main focal spot 20 µm (FWHM), most of the energy contained in ~60 µm diameter spot. A random phase plate can be used to generate a more uniform focus of 150 μm diameter.
Pulse profiles
- The pulse duration at PHELIX is 500 fs by default. The pulse duration can be stretched to a few ps with on-line measurement. Above 3 ps, the pulse duration is set and calibrated off-line, but cannot be verified on-line.
- The temporal contrast of PHELIX is 10-11 (10-12 best effort). It is verified offline before every beam time.
- A programmable nanosecond front-end allows for pulses with a deterministic pulse profile with 300 ps resolution within a 10ns window. The pulse length must not be shorter than 1 ns.
- At PTA, a combination of the long and the short pulse can be requested to introduce a fully controllable pedestal. However, the timing jitter between the two frontends will be at least +/- 200 ps (peak-to-peak).
Further remarks
- At PTA, it is possible to introduce apertures to create a double beam. In such a case, the energy cannot exceed 30 J per beam.
- At Z6, a VISAR system (660nm, 40ns) is available.
- Please be aware that the PHELIX system and the experimental capabilities are continuously evolving. We highly encourage applicants to contact the designated target area contacts for updated information, especially when referring to configurations which have been available at PHELIX in the past, before drafting a proposal which builds on such precedence.
