The Prague Asterix Laser System

The Prague Asterix Laser System (PALS) is a new international laboratory wh ere research teams are invited to compete for the beam time. The PALS Cente r runs an iodine photodissociation high-power laser system delivering up to 1.2 kJ of energy in similar to 400 ps pulses at the wavelength of 1.315 mu m. Optional doubling and tripling of the frequency is assured by large-diam eter nonlinear crystals. The ASTERIX IV laser [H. Baumhacker , Appl. Phys. B 61, 325 (1995)], transferred from Garching into a new laser hall in Pragu e, was updated and put into operation on 8 June 2000. These upgrades includ e new beam delivery options and a twin interaction chamber, which is design ed flexibly for a broad spectrum of applications. Results of the first seri es of experiments are presented and some planned upgrades are briefly descr ibed. These include implementation of adaptive optics, replacement of the i odine master oscillator by a more flexible solid state oscillator based on fiber optics, and a femtosecond extension of the laser output to reach the petawatt pulse power region. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.