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Central Laser Facility
Central Laser Facility (CLF) is a reserch facility in the UK. It is part of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. The facility is dedicated to study the application of high energy laser. It was opened in 1976. . As of 2013 there are 5 active Laser Lab at the CLF, Vulcan, Astra Gemini, Artemis, ULTRA, and OCTOPUS. These facility provides both high power and high sensitivity laser for study across a broad field of science from atomic and plasma physics to medical diagnostics, biochemistry and environmental science. Also through Centre for Advanced Laser Technology and Application (CALTA), CLF is responsible for laser development. DiPOLE is the brainchild of that project.

History
The Vulcan is the first operational laser at the CLF. By 1997, when a new Director, Prof. M. H. R. Hutchinson, formerly of Imperial College London, was appointed, CLF operates 2 Laser, the aforementioned Vulcan and the Titania. At that time the Titania claimed to be the world brightest krypton fluoride laser.

Vulcan
The Vulcan is the world most powerful laser user facility. It emits light beam in the pentawatts. The construction of the core of the Vulcan was carried out by Kvaerner Engineering and Construction. The construction's specifications is on par with the nuclear industry. The chamber is lined with aluminium and lead to reduce radiation from atomic particle and radiation.

Vulcan, initially a 0.5 terrawatts two beams neodemyum laser, was first upgraded in 1980 to a 6 beams 1.5 TW laser. Power was increased to 3 TW in 1982.

Astra Gemini
Astra Gemini is a dual beam Titanium:Sapphire laser system. Most Ti:Sapphire lasers are single beam. The astra gemini has 2 amplifier that emits 0.5 pentawatts beams. The two beams system is geared towards plasma physics experiments.

Artemis
The Artemis produces XUV light. The project is started in collorboation with the Diamond Light Source to study atomic/molecular physics, surface science, and material science Artemis can also be used to study autoionisation dynamics and ultrafast demagnetisation

ULTRA
By combining laser, detector and optical tweezers, ULTRA provides molecular dynamics to study physical and life sciences. The multiple arrays of ULTRA allows vast flexibility to combine multiple beams across the spectrum in different timing and pulse length. Ultra manipulate microscopic particle suspended in liquid in such a way that the forces are not intrusive nor destructive.

OCTOPUS
The OCTOPUS is an imaging cluster. Many different methods of imaging are offered there, such as multidimensional single molecule microscopy, confocal microscopy (FLIM, FRET, and multiphoton), and optical profilometry. It operates as part of the Functional Biosystem Imaging (FBI) Group.

HiLASE
On April 12th, It was announced that the CLF has won a contract from the HiLASE project. The facility is situated in Prague, Czech Republic. The contract is worth £10 million to CLF and the whole project costs £30 million. CLF will offer HiLASE the very best of British laser technology more efficient, stable, powerful and easily maintained then anywhere else across Europe. The bid was won thanks to the development of a high energy diode pumped solid state laser system, which was developed by CLF scientist.

HiPER
main page HiPER In collaboration with laser facilities around the world, PETAL (France), OMEGA-EP (USA) and FIREX (Japan), CLF is studying the feasibility of using fast ignition to create an inertial fusion energy. The HiPER facility is planned to be constructed in Europe with panellist from 9 countries overseeing the studies.

The Light Clock
As part of Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity. He proposed that light, when reflected from a mirror moving close tot he speed of light will have higher peak power than the incident light due to temporal compression. By using dense relativistic electron mirror, created from high intensity laser pulse and nanometre scale foil, the frequency of the laser pulse shifted coherently from infrared to the ultraviolet. The results elucidate the reflection process of laser-generated electron mirrors and give clear guidance for future developments of a relativistic mirror structure.

DiPOLE
Before the development of technology known as DiPOLE, it was not possible to combine high pulse energy with high repetition rate. The Vulcan was a high pulse, low repetition (in order of pulse per hour) laser. Others, while they can put out many pulses per second, were limited to lower energy. DiPOLE will serve a crucial role in unlocking new area of research for science and application.