The facility is dedicated to studying the applications of high energy lasers.
[1] As of 2013 there are 5 active laser laboratories at the CLF: Vulcan, Astra Gemini, Artemis, ULTRA, and OCTOPUS.
[1] Astra Gemini is a dual-beam Titanium:Sapphire laser system.
[8] By combining laser, detector and optical tweezers, ULTRA provides molecular dynamics to study physical and life sciences.
Ultra manipulates microscopic particles suspended in liquid in such a way that the forces are not intrusive or destructive.
In collaboration with laser facilities around the world, PETAL (France), OMEGA-EP (USA) and FIREX (Japan), CLF is studying the feasibility of using fast ignition to create an inertial fusion energy.
The HiPER facility is planned to be constructed in Europe with panellists from 9 countries overseeing the studies.
Using a dense relativistic electron mirror created from a high-intensity laser pulse and nanometre-scale foil, the frequency of the laser pulse was shown to shift coherently from infrared to the ultraviolet.