Gentec-EO would like to congratulate the recent amazing work by the HiLASE team in Czechia, who improved on their previous record for the highest amount average power from an high-energy laser. HiLASE managed to produce 10 ns pulses with a whooping 145 J per pulse with a 1030-nm laser, which is 40% more than their previous record.

We at Gentec-EO are familiar with the measurement of kW continuous lasers, but a pulsed one with 145 J per pulse? Now that's something! HiLASE's ''Bivoj'' laser system is an elaborate system involving cryogenically cooled amplifiers and other intricate optical components to amplify the output from Diode Pumped Solid State Lasers (DPSSL) from a few millijoules to a mind-boggling 145 J.

Gentec-EO is proud to have provided the energy detectors used by HiLASE to make this achievement. One can see in the official HiLASE videos that a QE50LP-S-MB-D0 energy detector was the detector used to determine and put a number on this amazing feat. (Pictured above: QE50LP-S-MB-D0 Pyroelectric detector for laser energy measurement up to 15 J.)

The maximum measurable energy with a QE50 doesn't go that high, so it goes without saying that the measurement here is not picked up directly: the laser is sampled so that only a small fraction of the energy is actually being measured.

When the attenuation factor of this system is known, its reverse value can then be applied to the attenuated measurement to find the original energy level, before attenuation. This underlines how even the smallest detector can be used to measure the most powerful of lasers, when used smartly! We are glad to have contributed in our little way to this big project!

The BIVOJ laser has broken its own performance record that it set in 2016! In a recent test, the system was operated for an hour at a PULSE ENERGY IN EXCESS OF of 145 J (with a maximum of 146.5 J) in 10 ns pulses at a repetition rate of 10 Hz at a wavelength of 1030 nm. A team of scientists from the High Energy Slab Lasers group, led by Dr. Martin Divoký at Hilase Centre, managed to significantly improve the world record of average power output from a high energy laser on 26 January 2021. This achievement was accomplished in cooperation with British partners from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Central Laser Facility. The project is jointly funded by the Horizon2020 “Widespread Teaming” programme and the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic.