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Experimental prospects at the Canadian advanced laser light source facility

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2006

T. OZAKI ,
J.-C. KIEFFER ,
R. TOTH ,
S. FOURMAUX  and
H. BANDULET
T. OZAKI
Affiliation:
Université du Québec, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, Varennes, Québec, Canada
J.-C. KIEFFER
Affiliation:
Université du Québec, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, Varennes, Québec, Canada
R. TOTH
Affiliation:
Université du Québec, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, Varennes, Québec, Canada
S. FOURMAUX
Affiliation:
Université du Québec, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, Varennes, Québec, Canada
H. BANDULET
Affiliation:
Université du Québec, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, Varennes, Québec, Canada
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Abstract

We describe here the present status of the Advanced Laser Light Source (ALLS) facility, a state-of-the-art multi-beam Ti:sapphire laser system presently under construction in Canada. ALLS is a national user facility to be commissioned in 2005 at the INRS campus near Montreal. The 25 fs ALLS multi-beam laser system has three components, each with different repetition rate and output energy. These multiple laser beams will be used to generate a “rainbow” of femtosecond pulses from the far infrared to hard X-rays, which can be combined to perform unique experiments, such as dynamic molecular imaging. In this paper, we describe two examples of experiments that are planned by our group with the ALLS facility. The first is the highly efficient generation of high-order harmonics using ablation medium. We demonstrate the generation of up to the 53rd harmonics (λ = 15 nm) of a Ti:sapphire laser pulse (150 fs, 10 mJ), using pre-pulse (210 ps, 24 mJ) produced boron ablation as the nonlinear medium. The second example is the demonstration of in-line phase-contrast imaging with an ultrafast (300 fs) laser-based hard X-ray source (Mo K-α line). Images of biological samples have shown great enhancement of contrast due to this technique, distinguishing details that are barely observable or even undetectable in absorption images.

Keywords

Dynamic molecular imagingFemtosecond lasersHigh-order harmonic generationX-ray imaging
Type
Research Article
Information
Laser and Particle Beams , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , March 2006 , pp. 101 - 106
Copyright
© 2006 Cambridge University Press

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