History

Relative simplicity and high power potential of pulsed iodine lasers attracted attention of physicists already at an early stage of inertial plasma confinement research. The first multigigawatt iodine lasers were built in Germany and Russia in the mid-seventies [1-6].

A 300 GW iodine laser was put into operation in the Moscow Lebedev Physical Institute in 1977, while the 60-GW iodine photodissociation laser ASTERIX III at the Institute of Plasma Physics in Garching was launched already in 1975 [7]. The latter was followed soon by a terawatt upgrade, ASTERIX IV [8], operated already by the Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik (MPQ). The ASTERIX IV laser system proved to be a reliable tool for production of hot laser plasmas, with a wide spectrum of possible applications, which largely exceeds the inertial confinement fusion domain [9].

Building Asterix IV, Garching 1986
Perun I, power amplifier

In the meantime, a smaller iodine laser PERUN I was also built in the former Czechoslovakia, in the Institute of Physics of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in Prague. PERUN I was based on the laser system originally created in the Lebedev’s Physical Institute in Moscow.

The system underwent a complete reconstruction, during which the original Russian output amplifier pumped by an open discharge an exploding wire initialization was replaced by a new one with sealed xenon flash lamps for UV pumping. It was put into operation in the Department of Gas Lasers headed by Karel Rohlena in 1985 [10]. Its renewed version PERUN II was assembled in a new laser laboratory of the Department of gas lasers of the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences in 1992 [11].

PERUN II

ASTERIX and PERUN in nineties

Till April 1997 the ASTERIX IV laser system at MPQ Garching was widely used by European laser community. The laser delivered pulses with superior spatial profile quality, the output beam energy being highly stable over sequences of shots. For that reason the laser became very popular and the growing circle of its users included not only physicists but also material scientists and biologists. Among numerous experiments made at ASTERIX IV the studies of Megabar shock waves in solids, measurements of XUV opacities in hot dense plasmas, and demonstration of X-lasing (21-38 nm) of neon-like ions (Ge, Zn, Cu,Ni, Co, Fe, Mo Cr, V, Ti, Si and Cl) should be mentioned [12].

Till 1997 the PERUN laser system in Prague was used for the research of laser X-ray and ion sources and for fusion-relevant laser plasma studies. Besides its close scientific contacts with MPQ Garching, PERUN group co-operated with many European laser laboratories and the circle of its users included groups from Polish, Russian, Swiss and French research institutions (IPPLM Warsaw, ITEP Moscow, PS Division CERN, LSAI Orsay, [13-15]). In the field of laser ions sources for accelerators the laboratory co-operated with CERN [Hadron Injection Group]. Unfortunately, for X-laser research the device output energy was not sufficient. Till 1997 nobody suspected that this drawback is going to change soon. When the German laser research pioneer, Siegbert Witkowski, gained emeritus status in 1993 a re-orientation of the research programme began at MPQ. The laser plasma research with the Asterix high-power laser was brought to a conclusion. In the course of 1997 the laser was finally dismantled, and at the end of 1998 was transferred to the Academy of Sciences in Prague. The Euratom-assented agreement on the transfer between MPQ and the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic was ratified in June 1997.

To exploit the new powerful tool for laser plasma research, two Czech academic institutes, the Institute of Physics and the Institute of Plasma Physics, united their forces. In November1998 they established a joint laser research laboratory, the PALS (Prague Asterix Laser System) Research Centre. The Centre was endowed with a brand new laser hall built especially to house ASTERIX IV – PALS. Dismantling of the laser at MPQ, building of a new laser hall and a reinstallation of the system followed quickly one another during two years only. Till the end of 1999 the re-born laser system was completely reassembled and its operational tests began. Since September 2000 the laser system is serving the user community again.

  1. Witkowski, S.: Laser und thermonukleare Fusion, Naturwissenschaften, Vol.57, 211-216, 1970
  2. Hohla K., Brederlow G., Fuss W., Kompa K.L., Raeder J., Volk R., Witkowski S., Witte K.-J.: 60-J 1-nsec Iodine Laser, J. Appl. Phys., Vol.46, 808-809, 1975
  3. Basov N.G., Zuev V.S., Katulin V.A., et al.: Laser und ihre Anwendungen, Dresden, 1957, p/52
  4. Borovich B.L., Zuev V.S., Katulin V.A., Mikheev L.D., Nikolaev F.A., Nosach O.Yu., Rozanov V.B.: Silnotochnye izluchaiushchie razriady i gazovye lasery s opticheskoi nakachkoi, Itogi nauki i techniki, Vol. 15, VINITI Moscow, 1978
  5. Belocerkvovets A.B., Gaidash V.A., Kirillov G.A. et. al, Pisma ZhETF 5, 204 (1979)
  6. Brederlow G., Fill E., Witte K.J.: The High-power Iodine Laser, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1983
  7. Brederlow G., Witte K.-J., Fill E., Hohla K., Volk R.:The ASTERIX III Pulsed High-Power Iodine Laser, IEEE J. Quantum Electron., Vol.12,152-155, 1976
  8. Baumhacker H, Brederlow G., Chen Ch., Fill E., Krause H., Volk R., Witte K.J.: The Asterix IV Iodine Laser, Kohler, H. (Ed. ), Laser: Technologie und Anwendungen. Jahrbuch, Essen: Vulkan 1988, 1. Ausgabe, p.46-48
  9. Baumhacker, H., Brederlow, G., Fill, E., Schillinger, H., Schroedter, C., Volk, R., Witkowski, S., Witte, K.J. Status Report of the ASTERIX IV High Power Iodine Laser, 3. International Workshop on Iodine Lasers and Applications, Bechyne Castle (CZ), 28.09.92 – 02.10.92, SPIE Vol. 1980 Iodine Lasers and Applications (1992)
  10. Chvojka M., Hermoch V., Kralikova B., Krasa J., Laska L., Masek K., Musil J., Polak S., Rohlena K., Schmiedberger J., Sulek J.: 100GW Pulsed Iodine Photodissociation Laser System PERUN I, Czech Jour. Phys. B48, 1337-1356, 1988
  11. Chvojka M., Kralikova B., Krasa J., Krousky E., Laska L., Masek K., Renner O., Rohlena K., Skala J., Stirand O.: Iodine Photodissociation Laser System PERUN II, Czech Jour. Phys. 42, 899-905, 1992
  12. Baumhacker H., Brederlow G., Fill E., Volk R., Witkowski S., Witte K.J.: Layout and Performance of the Asterix IV Iodine Laser at MPQ, Garching, Appl. Phys. B, Vol. 61, 325-332,1995
  13. Laska L., Krasa J., Masek K., Pfeifer M., Trenda P., Kralokova B., Skala J., Rohlena K., Woryna E., Farny J., Parys P., Wolowski J., Mraz W., Shumshurov A., Sharkov B., Collier J., Langbein ., Haseroth H.” Multiply charged ion generation from NIR and visible laser-produced plasma, Rev. Sci. Instr. 67 (1996) 950-952
  14. Rus B., Zeitoun P., Mocek T., Sebban S., Kalal M., Demir A., Jamelot G., Klisnick A., Kralikova B., Skala J., Tallents G.J.: Investigation of Zn and Cu prepulse plasmas relevant to collisional excitation x-ray lasers, Phys. Rev. A56, 4229-4241 (1997)
  15. Bryunetkin V.A., Faenov A.Ya., Khakhalin S.Ya., Kralikova; B., Laska L., Masek K., Skala J., Rohlena K., Sharkov B.Yu., Kuttenberger A., Haseroth H., Sherwood T.R.: High resolution x-ray spectroscopy of plasma heated by high power laser radiation. Kvantovaya Elektronika 22 (1995) 205-208.