Laserlab-Europe
CLF - Gemini

 

Gemini is a high power, ultra-short pulse laser system delivering dual beams of 15 J, 30 fs laser pulses, at a rate of one shot every 20 seconds, focused to intensities in excess of 1021 W cm-2.

 

At the Gemini front end is a high power, ultra-short pulse, high repetition-rate laser. It uses titanium-doped sapphire (TiS) as its active material, and works at 800 nm in the near infra-red part of the spectrum, just outside the region visible to the human eye. Experiments on Gemini produce bright, coherent x-ray sources, or energetic beams of electrons and protons.

The pulses from the Gemini front end are so short that they are like sheets of light energy thinner than a human hair, which in addition can be focused to a spot a few thousandths of a millimetre across. The energy they contain is thus delivered to a very small target extremely quickly, allowing experimenters to study the way matter behaves under extreme conditions of temperature and pressure.

The Gemini laser can deliver thirty times as much energy in each of two beams. With 30 joules on target in two beams, an intensity greater than 1021 W cm-2 and a repetition rate of three shots per minute, the extreme concentration of energy possible with Gemini makes it one of the most intense lasers in the world.​

 

 

 

Laser-based light source parameters

Gemini Target Area 2

Source type
High power short pulse (Ti:Sapphire)
Peak Photon energy / central wavelenght
800 [nm]
Spectral Bandwidth FWHM / %
-20 - 20 [nm]
Tunability
1 [%]
Beam shape
Gaussian
Pulse duration FWHM
40 [fs]
Polarisation
Linear Horizontal, Linear Vertical, Circular, Elliptical
Pulse repetition rate
5 [Hz]
Maximum pulse energy
600 [mJ]
Peak power
15 * 1012 [W]
Peak fluence on target
5 * 106 [J/cm2]
Peak intensity on target
1 * 1020 [W/cm2]

Gemini Target Area 3

Source type
High power short pulse (Ti:Sapphire) x 2 beams
Peak Photon energy / central wavelenght
800 [nm]
Spectral Bandwidth FWHM / %
-20 - 20 [nm]
Tunability
1 [%]
Beam shape
Gaussian
Pulse duration FWHM
40 [fs]
Polarisation
Linear Horizontal, Linear Vertical, Circular, Elliptical
Pulse repetition rate
0.05 [Hz]
Maximum pulse energy
14 [J]
Peak power
350 * 1012 [W]
Peak fluence on target
1 * 108 [J/cm2]
Special modes
Compressor can be bypassed to provide 25J, 1ns pulse. F/40, F/20 and F/2 focussing available
Peak intensity on target
2 * 1021 [W/cm2]
contacts
Rajeev Pattathil
Techniques
Absorption
  • Time-resolved studies
Diffraction
  • Time-resolved studies
Imaging
  • Medical application
  • X-ray tomography
Ion Spectroscopy
  • Ion imaging
Disciplines
Physics
  • Astronomy/Astrophysics/Astroparticles
  • Atomic & molecular physics
  • High energy & particle physics
Address
Central Laser Facility, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Harwell Campus, Didcot, OX11 0QX, United Kingdom
control/Data analysis
Control Software Type
  • Matlab / Python
Data Output Type
  • Images, waveforms
Data Output Format
  • TIFF, PNG, CSV etc