UK Laser for Czech Republic Achieves a World First

A UK designed and built laser delivered by STFC under a £10 million contract to the Czech Republic has become the most powerful laser of its kind in the World. DiPOLE 100, which has high potential in new medical applications, advanced imaging capabilities and improved processing of novel materials, was shipped to the HiLASE centre, a new multimillion pound project under construction near Prague, at the end of 2015. Twelve months later the Dipole 100, a fully diode pumped solid state laser (DPSSL) had achieved its full design performance of delivering ten pulses a second at 100 joules per pulse at 1kw, for over an hour without operator intervention.

John Collier, Director of the STFC Central Laser Facility where the DiPOLE 100 laser was designed and constructed, said "This result is a vital milestone that moves the performance of high peak power lasers beyond the limits of conventional flash lamp pumping, opening up important new applications in materials processing, advanced imaging and fundamental science."

Tomas Mocek, Head of the HiLASE Centre, added "This is the first time that a DPSSL system has broken the 1kW barrier. This performance is truly world-leading. My HiLASE and CLF colleagues and I are looking forward to further successes as the system moves into the operational phase."

Optimisation of laser parameters continued during January to build up operational experience and to fully characterise the system after which it will be brought on line for user experiments.