Solid start for laser research

In Dolní Brežany, excited physicists are preparing to receive their new £10m super toy. The machine is a diode-pumped solid state laser (DPSSL) with special properties that they hope will justify the European Commission’s €33m (£24m) investment in a new research centre, bring jobs to the region and – most importantly – provide global industries such as optics and aerospace with ‘game-changing’ manufacturing techniques.

The laser, to be delivered in May, will help the new facility, known as HiLASE, become one of Europe’s centres of excellence for laser research in a partnership with the UK Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC).

The HiLASE Centre will be operated by the prestigious Czech Institute of Physics and completed in mid-2014. The new machine is called DiPOLE – or Diode Pumped Optical Laser for Experiments – and was designed and manufactured by the Central Laser Facility (CLF), based at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Harwell, part of the STFC.