Access Facilities - ULF-FORTH

Access to the multi-disciplinary ULF-FORTH laser research facilities. >>> ULF-FORTH Homepage

Contact: Demetrios Anglos Email

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The Ultraviolet Laser Facility (ULF-FORTH) is a multi-disciplinary scientific laboratory dedicated to laser-based science, supporting high quality basic and technological research. It combines state-of-the-art experimental facilities -a broad variety of laser sources and experimental workstations, including materials processing and diagnostic facilities- with a rich spectrum of research activities and scientific expertise that provide an intellectual environment, ideal for fostering new ideas and advancing scientific research.

ULF-FORTH is primarily supported by the General Secretariat for Research and Technology of the Hellenic Ministry of Development. Thanks to support from the European Commission, ULF-FORTH has been operating as a European Research Infrastructure since 1990 and has continuously until today been offering access opportunities (over 2300 access days for the past 15 years) to researchers from around Europe, who visit Heraklion to carry out innovative experimental work.

Active areas of research at ULF-FORTH include:

• Atomic and Optical Physics
• Molecular Physics and Chemical Dynamics
• Interaction of lasers with materials: fundamentals and applications
• Laser applications in Biomedicine
• Laser techniques in Cultural Heritage

ULF-FORTH offers a rich variety of laser sources and state-of-the-art experimental workstations, in combination with a wide spectrum of scientific expertise, ranging from basic scientific research to technological applications. Researchers visiting the facility have unique opportunities to pursue innovative experimental projects in a wide area of fields including atomic and molecular physics, chemical physics and physical chemistry, biomedicine, polymer physics, materials science, laser materials micro - and nano-processing, microelectronics and optoelectronics, non linear and fiber optics and applications of lasers in biology and medicine.
The infrastructure is organized in three major interacting installations focusing on (a) tunable laser systems, (b) ultrafast, high-intensity tabletop laser sources and (c) laser material processing, biomedical and analytical facilities. Access is provided to a rich variety of laser sources and state-of-the-art experimental workstations including:

• Tunable Vis -UV-VUV lasers (dye laser and MOPO systems; 205–1800nm; 5-20ns; 0.2 or 0.04cm^-1 bandwidth) coupled to several experimental workstations for performing experiments in atomic and molecular spectroscopy and chemical dynamics.
• Chemical Imaging workstation: A versatile imaging mass spectrometer for detailed photodissociation and bimolecular collisions studies.
• High-intensity excimer based laser system at 248 nm, with pulse duration at 150fs, 450fs or 5ps leading to focused intensities up to 10^16 W/cm^2 with a background contrast ratio 10^10 at the focus.
• Ti:Sa 50 fs laser system, 2 mJ pulse energy at 1 kHz, synchronized to a second beam (150 mJ/pulse) at 10 Hz.
• Ti:Sa 100 fs laser system, 1 mJ pulse energy at variable repetition rate (1Hz-1kHz), coupled to a parametric oscillatoramplifier.
• Tunable XUV station: coherent XUV source based on Higher Order Harmonic Generation, in the range of 18-110 nm, 10^5-10^9 photons/pulse per harmonic at the user target area.
• VUV-XUV generation station: static or pulsed atomic/molecular beam operating in the 30-300 nm range.
• pump-probe setups: sub-fs resolution pump probe interferometers in the homodyned/heterodyned or imaging
• configuration with one or two color and pulse shaping capabilities.
• Femtosecond and nanosecond laser materials micro and nano-processing workstations.
• Time -resolved emission spectroscopy and microscopy for studies of biological systems and laser-tissue interactions.