Movses and Aaron learning how to align an OPA
In the past month, we built up our laser lab in Remsen Hall from scratch. We set up a 12'X5' optical platform with pneumatic isolation, which is covered by an in-house cleanroom with upper air filters. The platform holds a femtosecond pulse regenerative amplifier from Uptek. This laser generates ~100 fs, 4 mJ pulses at 800 nm with 1 KHz repetition rate to pump a TOPAS optical parametric amplifier (OPA) and a second-harmonic bandwidth compressor (SHBC). Both optic setups are supported by Light Conversion, and are employed to produce correct pulses colors and temporal features for spectroscopic exploration we will carried out in the near future.