UHI100

The main research carried out on the UHI100 installation at LIDYL covers laser-plasma interaction in the relativistic regime and, more particularly, the generation of ultrafast XUV radiation as well as the acceleration of particles by laser (electrons, protons, positrons, etc.). The mastery of the intimate mechanisms of generation of these secondary sources associated with the fine characterization of the latter, allow the exposure of matter in a very controlled manner to this radiation which possesses the extreme properties inherited from the laser, namely brevity and spatial and temporal coherence.
The UHI100 platform consists of a 100 TW class laser that delivers femtosecond laser pulses with a recurrence of 10Hz in an experimental room fully equipped to host fundamental or applied experiments.
Two optical lines are available and each is equipped with a double plasma mirror system ensuring temporal filtering of the pulses to obtain an extremely high temporal contrast and a deformable mirror allowing control of the pulse wavefront to optimise its focusing. These two beams can be delivered simultaneously in interaction chambers equipped with diagnostics specific to studies on solid targets (e.g. relativistic optics on plasma mirrors, etc.) or on gaseous targets (e.g. irradiation of various samples with secondary electron sources for upstream studies in radiotherapy, etc.).

• Mr Pascal MONOT