Experimental capabilities

GCLT

Post-Image

Figure 1: Inside view of the vacuum chamber showing the focusing lens with its debris shield on the right, the target holder at the center, and a PDV probe and a relay imaging lens on the left.

GCLT

GCLT, which is the French acronym for “Générateurs de Choc Laser Transportable”, is a high power laser facility dedicated to the study of the dynamic behavior of materials (inert or reactive) at high pressures. The laser has a very versatile pulse shaping capability allowing to generate laser pulses with duration ranging from 4 to 100 ns, with any desired temporal shape (defined by 800 steps of 125 ps). This allows the generation of various kinds of dynamic compressions (shocks or ramps), covering a very large range of strain rates. The use of different DOE (Diffactive Optical Elements) allows generating uniforms compressions over focal spots ranging from 100 m up to 5 mm. The facility is portable, which allows to move it to benefit from specific diagnostics (it has already been moved 2 times at ESRF to perform dynamic XAS experiments) or to perform experiments on “hazardous” materials (explosives or actinides) at dedicated laboratories. This facility is mainly used to study different aspects of the dynamic behavior of materials (EOS, strength, spall and fragmentation, micro-jetting, …), detonation physics (EOS, reactivity), and also various plasma physics and HED applications (WDM, stopping power, …).

Publications

  1. A. Sollier and E. Lescoute, « Characterization of the ballistic properties of ejecta from laser shock-loaded samples using high resolution picosecond laser imaging », Int. J. Impact Eng. 136, 103429 (2020). DOI
  2. C. M. Pépin, R. Torchio, F. Occelli, E. Lescoute, O. Mathon, V. Recoules, J. Bouchet, L. Videau, A. Benuzzi-Mounaix, T. Vinci, R. Briggs, S. Pascarelli, R. Gaal, P. Loubeyre, and A. Sollier, « White-line evolution in shocked solid ta evidenced by synchrotron x-ray absorption spectroscopy », Phys. Rev. B, 102 (2020). DOI
  3. V. Jaulin, J.-M. Chevalier, M. Arrigoni, and E. Lescoute, « Characterization of a carbon fiber composite material for space applications under high strains and stresses : Modeling and validation by experiments », J. Appl. Phys. 128, 195901 (2020). DOI
  4. T. de Rességuier, S. Hemery, E. Lescoute, P. Villechaise, G. I. Kanel, and S. V. Razorenov, « Spall fracture and twinning in laser shock-loaded single-crystal magnesium », J. Appl. Phys. 121, 165104 (2017). DOI
  5. R. Torchio, F. Occelli, O. Mathon, A. Sollier, E. Lescoute, L. Videau,T. Vinci, A. Benuzzi-Mounaix, J. Headspith, W. Helsby, S. Bland, D. Eakins, D. Chapman, S. Pascarelli, and P. Loubeyre, « Probing local and electronic structure in warm dense matter : single pulse synchrotron x-ray absorption spectroscopy on shocked Fe », Sci. Rep. 6, 26402 (2016). DOI