ALLS Facility (Advanced Laser Light Source)

			Dream of ALLS
			Based on the dream of imaging fast molecular dynamics in chemical and biological media, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI) agreed to fund the proposal with a $20,000,000 grant. ALLS will be a world-class research facility for imaging molecular dynamics. Since the scientific aim of ALLS is unique, the design had to be as well.

Background

Synchrotron light sources, currently the premiere source of tunable light, are used to study the structure of matter. The Canadian Light Source (CLS), now operating in Saskatoon, is the latest such facility. Yet synchrotrons still cannot compete with ultrafast lasers in producing brief yet intense pulses of light. The Advanced Laser Light Source (ALLS), being constructed in Varennes, Quebec, near Montreal, is designed to study the structure of molecules, ranging from diatomics up to biological molecules. ALLS will produce femtosecond-duration light pulses in a range of wavelengths from the infrared to the x-ray range.

Origin of ALLS

ALLS began with the Canadian Light Source (CLS), now operational in Saskatoon. Paul Corkum (NRC), J-C. Kieffer (INRS-EMT) and Dwayne Miller (University of Toronto), were asked to organize a meeting between the Canadian laser and

AndreiNaumov beside NRC's Attosecond Chamber.
Dr Naumov is in charge of developing the first two
experimental chambers for ALLS.

synchrotron communities to see if there were important experiments to do on the CLS.

As the laser community began to understand the opportunities and limitations of synchrotrons, they naturally began to look for laser solutions to molecular imaging. Although the wavelength of laser light is too long to image molecules, surprisingly there are a number of laser-based approaches to imaging. All are in the early stages of development — but so is single-molecule x-ray imaging.

ALLS and Molecular Imaging

ALLS will be a major world-class research facility for imaging molecules. When fully supported, it will allow four complimentary laser-based approaches to imaging.

ALLS in the design phase, from an NRC whiteboard. Click on image to enlarge.

• Laser-plasma x-rays for imaging.
• Femtosecond laser Coulomb explosion.
• Femtosecond electrons for gas-phase electron diffraction.
• Laser induced electron re-collision for diffraction, tomography and holography.

Building ALLS

NRC's Atomic, Molecular and Optical Science (AMOS) group is the only Canadian institution that is organized on the scale of ALLS. The NRC group is positioned on the same physics-chemistry interface where ALLS will work.

NRC staff are part of the ALLS design team. Most of the laser system is being constructed by commercial laser companies.

An NRC team, led by David Villeneuve, has designed the initial research equipment for ALLS. This includes the components related to generating extreme ultraviolet (XUV) radiation, attosecond pulses, laser induced electron diffraction and tomography.

Top row from left: John Parsons (NRC),
Daniel Comtois (INRS), Pat Dooley (INRS and
former NRC student), Harry Dickson (NRC) and
Orson Bourne, (NRC Business Development Officer).

Bottom row: David Villeneuve (NRC), Paul Corkum (NRC), and Andrei Naumov (INRS and formerly of NRC)

The NRC team is engineering and building these components under a $1M contract from ALLS. This work is on schedule and about 60% complete as of December 2004.
 
When completed, the ALLS system will be able to produce synchronized femtosecond pulses as follows:

• High power tunable XUV pulses
• Attosecond-duration XUV pulses
• Extremely high power (100 TerraWatt) 800 nm pulses for flash x-ray generation.
• High power tunable near-infrared pulses
• High power tunable mid-infrared pulses

In addition, a much longer infrared pulse whose amplitude can be modulated with arbitrary intensity will be available to control molecular alignment. These beams will be able to be used in combination as needed for each particular research interest.

NRC's Molecular Imaging Research

At NRC we have also continued to develop the ideas needed for laser-based molecular imaging. "Laser Induced Electron Diffraction," Orbital Tomography and Laser Coulomb Explosion imaging. Two researchers from INRS, Daniel Comtois (a postdoctoral fellow) and Jerome Levesque (a Ph.D. student), have worked at NRC over the past two years to contribute to the effort.

Related Information

Institutes:

• NRC Steacie Institute for Molecular Sciences