Dalian Coherent Light Source Produces Laser Output for the First Time

The installation process of the main body of the comprehensive experimental device based on tunable Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) coherent light source-Dalian Coherent Light Source (DCLS) has completed on September 24, 2016.

After strictly system installation project acceptance of relevant experts, the project experts began the free electron laser amplifier light debugging at 21:30, the whole debugging process went very smoothly. At 22:50, high-quality pulsed electron beams with more than 300 Mev energy passed through all the elements of the free electron laser amplifier, the first beam of ultraviolet light was emitted through the 18-meter wave oscillator array.

DCLS is the only user FEL facility operating exclusively in the EUV wavelength region in the world, and it is also the first free electronic laser large scientific user device of our country. After debugging, this device will produce the world's brightest EUV beam. Each laser pulse of the light source can emit more than 10 trillion photons with wavelengths continuously adjustable from 50nm to 150nm, with complete coherence. This light source can be widely applied in chemical, physical, biological, energy, materials, environmental and other important scientific fields.

Figure 1. Dalian coherent light linear accelerator(Imaged by ZHANG Weiqing)

DCLS is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and jointly developed by Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics and Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, CAS. This project was launched in early 2012, and started building in October 22, 2014. The main infrastructure projects and the main light source device development is completed in less than two years since the start, which creates a new record of the construction of similar large-scale scientific facilities. This project also created a precedent for the successful cooperation between scientific research experts and experts in the development of large scientific devices.

Figure 2. Dalian coherent light source undulator(Imaged by ZHANG Weiqing)

DCLS team will cooperate closer on the basis of existing work, and manages to finish the parameter optimization and beam line station debugging in the near future, to achieve the design targets for scientific research to provide high-quality extreme ultraviolet light source as soon as possible. (Text by CHEN Shuling, HUANG Jiayu , Imaged by ZHANG Weiqing)

Figure 3. The first beam of ultraviolet light of DCLS (from DCLS)