Laser Systems at Diamond

Diamond has a relatively short bunch length (40 ps) and a flexible bunch structure that allows hybrid modes and other modes to be implemented in a seamless way. Synchrotrons have been strongly exploited for their high flux, coherence, and polarisation properties, but it is fair to say less so for timing experiments. There is world-wide interest in following dynamic processes in real time, from many minutes to femtoseconds. Time scales above milliseconds can usually be studied using physical methods such as heating, mixing, P-jump etc, but for faster experiments light-induction with powerful lasers using pump-probe methodology is required. Diamond is offering a suite of laser sources to address this requirement.

PORTO laser system was funded by an EPSRC grant with the scope to create a portable pump-probe facility for tracking dynamics induced by laser pulses.

It’s comprised of a main high average power, ultrafast, laser amplifier with 3 wavelength outputs, 1032nm, 515nm, 258nm, and an optical parametric amplifier, with a tuneable wavelength output from 210nm up to 2600nm.

The repetition rate of the system is tuneable, ranging from single pulse up to 53.3 kHz, it can be externally triggered and synchronized with Xray pulses with less than 1ps jitter.    

Some of its main characteristics and features are provided in the graphs below.

Figure 3 Tuning curve of the optical parametric amplifier depicting the available wavelengths and the corresponding energy and average power (@50 kHz) values.

So far, the system has been successfully integrated in the following beamlines: I24, I19 and I18 and has been used to demonstrate crystal shaping using lasers in I23.

Vibrant is a tuneable nanosecond laser system which delivers pulses at a rep rate of 20Hz. The wavelengths covered with this system range from 400nm to 2400nm and the pulse duration is a few nanoseconds. The laser is mainly available with the small molecule diffraction beamline I19, can be triggered externally and has been used for various applications, e.g. laser pump- Xray probe diffraction and laser induced nucleation experiments. Information about the output of Vibrant is depicted in the figure below. 

Oxxius is a CW, diode pumped solid state laser emitting at 532nm. The maximum available power of the system is 300mW. The laser is mainly used by eBic for T-Jump experiments.

Figure 6 Characteristics of the Oxxius Laser.

To discuss the implementation of any of the above systems to your beamtime please get in touch with the beamline staff and Gabriel Karras