LLE Timeline Plaques
2020-Present
2010-2019
2000-2009
1990-1999
1980-1989
1970-1979
10,000th Shot on the Multi-Terawatt Laser
2020:
On May 26, 2020 the Multi-Terawatt (MTW) Laser operational team celebrated their 10,000th laser shot. The first shot on the MTW laser, a midscale system built initially as the prototype front end for OMEGA EP, was taken in 2004. Since that time, a compression chamber along with three target chambers have been added, the maximum energy was increased, and the temporal contrast improved, making MTW a complete facility for plasma-physics research, laser technology development, and target diagnostic development. External and internal users have carried out 535 campaigns on MTW, using pulse durations from 500 fs to 2.8 ns, energies up to 120 J, and wavelengths centered at 1053 nm or 2~, 4~, and 5~ harmonics. The milestone shot was taken in support of an external campaign for L3Harris Technologies (L3H), a global aerospace and defense technology company with local roots. Two-color, laser-shearing interferometry (see inset) is used to infer spatially resolved density profiles within the ablation plume and to monitor plasma expansion into a low-density background gas. The inset image was taken during the 10,000th shot.
LaserNetUS Receives $18 Million from the U.S. Department of Energy
2020:
LaserNetUS, a network of facilities operating ultra-powerful lasers, including the Omega Laser Facility, received $18 million in funding from the Department of Energy. In its first year of user operations, LaserNetUS awarded beamtime for 49 user experiments to researchers from 25 different institutions. Over 200 user scientists including well over 100 students and post-docs have participated in experiments so far. The network and future upgrades to LaserNetUS facilities will provide new opportunities for U.S. and international scientists in discovery science and in the development of new technologies.
Patent for LLE Technology Awarded
2020:
A patent was awarded for “System and Methods for Spatiotemporal Control of a Laser and Laser-Plasma Applications that Require Velocity Matching,” by LLE’s Plasma and Ultrafast Physics Group Leader, Dustin Froula, and Optical and Imaging Sciences Group Leader, Terry Kessler.
D. H. Froula and T. J. Kessler, “Systems and Methods for Spatiotemporal Control of a Laser and Applications of Same,” U.S. Patent No. 10,897,115 B2 (19 January 2021).
The Center for Matter at Atomic Pressures Funded by the National Science Foundation
2020:
The Center for Matter at Atomic Pressures (CMAP) was awarded $12.96 million toward research focusing on understanding the physics and astrophysical implications of matter under pressures so high that the structure of individual atoms is disrupted. The Principal Investigator is Rip Collins, University of Rochester Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Physics and LLE’s Associate Director for Academics, Science, and Technology. The program will be hosted at the University of Rochester in collaboration with researchers from MIT, Princeton, the Universities of California at Berkeley and Davis, the University at Buffalo, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. This is the first major initiative from the National Science Foundation in the field of high-energy-density science, and the research will help discover the nature of planets and stars throughout the universe, as well as the potential for new revolutionary states of matter here on Earth.
Remote Principal Investigator (PI): Bringing the Omega Laser Facility to the PI
2020:
To adapt to social distancing, travel restrictions, and other safety measures necessitated by the COVID-19 global pandemic, Omega Operations and the LLE Information Technology (IT) Group collaborated to develop a new protocol that enables principal investigators (PI’s) to safely and effectively conduct laser experiments via remote access. Users need only a device and internet connection to participate. The remotePI option has proven to be an efficient tool that has delivered significant operational and economic advantages. These adaptations resulted in many requests from investigators to continue the venue of remotePI post-pandemic restrictions, allowing investigators the option of remaining at their home institutions rather than travelling long distances and permitting more collaborators to participate in the experiments remotely.
Research Conducted at Omega Wins Dawson Award
2019:
Research conducted at the Omega Laser Facility by the University of Chicago, University of Oxford, and LLE won the prestigious John Dawson Award for Excellence in Plasma Physics Research from the American Physical Society. The award is in recognition of “innovative experiments that demonstrate turbulent dynamo in the laboratory, establishing laboratory experiments as a component in the study of turbulent magnetized plasmas, and opening a new path to laboratory investigations of other astrophysical processes.” The recipients include Donald Lamb and Petros Tzeferacos (University of Chicago, Flash Center for Computational Science), Dustin Froula (University of Rochester, Laboratory for Laser Energetics), Alexander Schekochihin (not pictured) and Gianluca Gregori (University of Oxford, Clarendon Laboratory).
Evidence of Superionic Water Published in Nature
2019:
Researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory used the Omega Laser Facility to flash freeze water into an exotic water ice phase. Using x-ray diffraction, the superionic ice???s atomic structure was able to be directly identified for the first time. This research may give more insight into the interior structures of giant planets in our galaxy. The scientists used the powder x-ray diffraction image plate (PXRDIP) to record the data from the OMEGA experiments. PXRDIP allows the measurements of x-ray diffraction patterns of dynamically compressed materials in situ. This enabled characterization of the evolution of the atomic structure under high pressure, temperature, and strain rate. The research was performed as part of the Omega’s Laboratory Basic Science program at LLE.
M. Millot et al.,Nature 569, 2512019
First LaserNetUS Experiment at LLE
2019:
As part of the new LaserNetUS program to provide users increased access to unique high-intensity laser facilities, scientists from Johns Hopkins University, University of Michigan, and Los Alamos National Laboratory performed the program’s first experiments using the OMEGA EP Laser System on 20 November 2019. In addition to the University of Rochester, accessible network facilities include The University of Texas at Austin, The Ohio State University, Colorado State University, University of Michigan, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, SLAC, Berkeley Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and Canada’s Université du Québec. LaserNetUS was established by DOE’s Office of Fusion Energy Sciences in response to the 2018 National Academy of Sciences’ Report with regard to the U.S. strategy in high-intensity laser research.
Second Line-of-Sight Project
2019:
Two new neutron time-of-flight (nTOF) spectrometers were designed and constructed along a clear line of sight to the OMEGA target chamber. These diagnostics measure several key experimental parameters that are essential to diagnosing the performance of cryogenic DT implosions. The data collected are used to diagnose and characterize the extent of the asymmetric compression of hot spots in OMEGA implosions.
