A private tour of the Texas Petawatt Laser Facility

After experiencing some trouble in finding someone to meter a few of the lasers I bought, I decided to try something crazy and reach out to the people at the Texas Petawatt Laser Facility, home of the most powerful laser in the world until just recently. Its peak power is a massive 1 Petawatt (190 J, 170 fs), which is 100 times the average power demand of the entire world during that short pulse.

It definitely helped being a visiting scholar at UT, and having all the safety training completed at the university, but I got a friendly response back from someone who was willing to work after hours to meter my lasers.

We both arrived at the meeting point a bit early, and I gowned up in basic cleanroom attire because the laser is housed in a Class 100,000 cleanroom. The laser is HUGE, and all of its components take up several laboratories. As I entered the first room, I passed by the 10W 532nm pump, several optical parametric amplifiers, a dizzying array of optics that must have taken ages to align, and enormous capacitors. The laser was on, and there was a constant "snapping" of the flash lamps and intense green light being generated.

We found a little space on one of the tables and we were able to find a couple of old power meters. The batteries were dead, but luckily I had a fresh pack of 9V with me. We metered my Sanwu 3W blue (that was a bit low at 2.75W), my LaserBTB PL532-200 which peaked above 400 mW and averaged about 320 mW, and my mysterious 10mW Optotronics that was measured by the company at 15mW but averaged about 50mW in our test. I say "mysterious" because this little pointer has a crystal that likes it hot, and it takes awhile to warm up. When it does, the beam gets bright enough to see in a lit room. I modded it to fit a 3.7V Li-ion battery with dummy battery, instead of (2) AAA at 3.2V total, and I noticed it was even brighter. It can burn through a glove and melt electrical tape unfocused, so I suspected it was putting out more than 15mW.

After getting measurements on all three lasers using two different meters, we had some time to spare and I was fortunate enough to get a full, private tour of the laser and take some pictures and video. I don't know the function of all of the components that I took pictures of, since there was a lot of information to take in and I'm just a hobbyist working in a different field. All in all though, it was a really fun time and I'll have several reviews to post tomorrow.

Here's a link to the laser diagram. Short video coming soon.

Laser Layout

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQM3FQRodSI

KMitch, you are a lucky dog! :drool:
I'll bet most everyone here would love to get a personal tour like that; thanks for sharing your experience and pics with us!

Neat, some of that equipment looks old and some new, very interesting. +rep

That's pretty amazing that they let you take a tour of the facility. Makes me wanna apply for a job there haha Great post, +rep well deserved cheers :beer:

HydroSean said:

That's pretty amazing that they let you take a tour of the facility. Makes me wanna apply for a job there haha Great post, +rep well deserved cheers :beer:

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They all seem like nice people to work with. One of the research scientists in the control room gave me a warm greeting as soon as I entered, the grad students were curious about my lasers because they weren't used to seeing CW, and the person helping me was casual and down to Earth. "That's the brightest blue I've ever seen!" was his comment on my Sanwu 3W after it melted his plastic alignment cards . He hasn't heard of LPF though, and he asked if the Sanwu was from Wickedlasers.

Thanks for the +rep you guys.

An amazing experience, I'm very envious. Did they allow you to take your own photos? I look forward to your video.

Was a lucky day finding someone to show you around and meter your lasers.

Very interesting facility for sure.

Any additional images? If so please post them.

paul1598419 said:

An amazing experience, I'm very envious. Did they allow you to take your own photos? I look forward to your video.

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I was expecting them to refer me to photos and videos online, but they had no problem with me taking my own. I posted a very short video, which you can see at the very bottom of my first post now. I was running a little low on battery at the time and wanted to save the rest for pictures of the LPM readout. You'll see some nice green flashes and the "pop" of the arc lamps though.

Yeah, when you said short, you meant it. Would have liked to have seen more. You should post more so your positive reputation can be reflected in your avatar.

paul1598419 said:

Yeah, when you said short, you meant it. Would have liked to have seen more. You should post more so your positive reputation can be reflected in your avatar.

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I took video as an afterthought, thinking that some people would have liked to hear the noise and see the flashes. Fortunately, my office is 500 feet away from the facility and I'll probably have a chance to go back there some time. If I do, I'll definitely remember to take a long video from the oscillator to the compressor.

I look forward to seeing that. Thanks.

Very nice experience you have had there. +rep for sharing.

Hell of an experience. Thanks for sharing.
But, but, will it pop a balloon??? Haha

+ rep