High-power Laser Development

The Helmholtz Institute Jena is an institute of the Helmholtz Association and, as such, a competence center for developments in the area of high-power  laser systems, especially in the interplay with accelerator facilities and ion sources, as well as in the corresponding optical techniques and components.

Apart from the development of future laser technologies, existing high-power laser systems with peak outputs on the order of petawatts (PHELIX at GSI Darmstadt, POLARIS in Jena) are being developed further. Research is done to improve beam quality, increase repetition rates and boost energy efficiency by employing new cooling techniques.

Furthermore, emphasis is put on the development and application of novel fiber laser systems with high average output and MHz repetition rates. Important applications include the seeding of free-electron lasers such as FLASH at DESY, whose beam quality is expected to significantly improve by using this technique.