Company Supplies Laser for Physics Research

Thales Laser, which has offices in Europe, Asia and the US, has received a $1.8 million contract to install a 100-TW Ti:sapphire laser in the physics department of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The device, which will operate at 10 Hz, is based on Ti:sapphire chirped pulse amplification and produces sub-40-fs pulses. Providing high beam quality architecture without cryogenic cooling, the system will be used to study high-energy physics. Because of the peak powers involved, its pulses will be recompressed in a special vacuum chamber to prevent plasma regeneration in the air.