Designing the Sylos attosecond laser system - VULRC working with EKSPLA

EKSPLA are an innovative manufacturer of solid-state and fibre lasers, from customized systems to small and medium OEM series. They have more than 27 years of experience in professional design, customization and manufacturing of reliable and state of the art laser products.

EKSPLA and Light Conversion had bid on a contract to supply the Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI-ALPS) with a laser meeting certain specifications. It had to generate several-attosecond pulses and to fit within a certain physical size.

EKSPLA and Light Conversion had the money and access to components, but lacked expertise in the new OPCPA amplifier system and VULRC had superior prototyping capabilities.

A prototype laser system was developed on-site at VULRC, with the collaboration of scientists from the university and from the two companies. Once the prototype was developed and characterized, confirming that it met the requirements of ELI-ALPS, it was then miniaturized by EKSPLA with their existing capabilities, and transported to Hungary where it is now online.

The Sylos-1 laser is now online in the ELI-ALPS facility in Hungary. There have been several publications resulting from the development of the prototype, and similar laser systems have been sold to the USA and Japan. The prototype Sylos laser at VULRC is less powerful than that at ELI-ALPS, but is fully functional and available for researchers to use.