Saclay Laser-Matter Application Centre, CEA, Saclay, France

Access to the SLIC ultra -short and ultra-intense laser and research facilities.

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Contact: Pascal d'Oliveira Email

The Saclay Laser Matter Interaction Centre (SLIC) is a research facility dedicated to ultrafast photosciences. High-intensity laser-matter interaction, laser-driven ultra-short particle sources, femtosecond/attosecond coherent XUV sources, solid state physics, femtochemistry and development of ultrafast laser diagnostics are among the main lines of research at SLIC.

Within LASERLAB, SLIC offers transnational access to a complete line of ultrafast lasers and experimental set-ups for high-intensity laser-matter interaction or femtosecond two-colour pump-probe experiments. Intensities up to 1019 W/cm2 are available on UHI10 for ultra-high intensity laser-matter interaction studies with high temporal contrast (1010). The 20 Hz source LUCA offers 4 synchronised lines with peak-powers up to 2 TW, together with a high energy XUV line based on High Order Harmonic Generation. Multicolour experiments can be accommodated on the 1 kHz source PLFA which provides two continuously tunable lines from 510 to 750 nm with peak powers on the GW level. PLFA also delivers 0,4 TW pulses at 800 nm.

More specialised experimental set-ups are also available such as the "Fluorescence Up-Conversion apparatus" for the study of the femtosecond time resolved fluorescence or the "Gas Phase equipment" featuring photoelectron and photo-ion imaging spectrometers. Both of these are dedicated to femtochemistry studies. SLIC is located on the Saclay site of the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique (CEA), 20 km south of Paris.

>>> access projects performed by SLIC users

Activities:

An internal community of 50 researchers investigates several areas of ultrafast photoscience such as:
• Organic Femtochemistry
• Physics and generation of attosecond pulses from gases and plasma
• Development of intense femtosecond coherent XUV sources
• Applications of ultrashort (femtosecond/attosecond) XUV pulses
• Attosecond dynamics of atomic and molecular multiple ionization
• Particle (electrons and protons) acceleration
• Diagnostics for dense plasma dynamics studies with femtosecond temporal resolution
• Laser-solid interaction at high intensity and high density: dynamics of photoexcited carriers in dielectrics, electron relaxation mechanisms, optical breakdown...
• Investigation of excited state dynamics for molecules in liquid phase
• Temporal and spatial pulse shaping of ultrafast pulses
• Phase stabilization of amplified ultra-short pulses
• Sub-10 fs pulse generation
• Development of diagnostics (autocorrelators, cross-correlators, SPIDERs) for complete temporal characterization of intense ultrafast pulses
• Temporal contrast enhancement based on plasma mirror technique


Research opportunities within the Laserlab access activity:

SLIC includes ultrafast and intense laser facilities and rare experimental set-ups featuring:
• Ultra-short, 10 Hz, ultra-high peak power (10TW at present, 50 TW upgrade scheduled for mid-2007) high temporal contrast (1010) Ti:Sa laser coupled to a radiation shielded experimental area.
• Ultra-short (35 fs), 1 kHz, high peak power (0,4TW @ 800nm) Ti:Sa laser.
• Dual high energy, synchronized, widely tunable (510-750nm), 1 kHz NOPA lines with high energy per pulse (up to 150µJ @ 550nm) and 25fs pulse duration.
• Complete line of diagnostics for temporal, spectral and spatial characterization of ultra-short laser pulses.
• High energy coherent femtosecond XUV line at 20Hz based on High Harmonic Generation in gases.
• Secondary ultra-short sources of particles (electrons & ions) for applications
• Time resolved interferometry set-up for real time probing of electron relaxation in dielectrics.
• Set-up for time resolved fluorescence measurements of molecules in solution from the Ultra-violet to the Infra-red spectral region.
• Femtosecond pump-probe photoelectron and photoion imaging apparatus for femtochemistry.