Overview of Astra

Astra laser area

Astra is a high power, ultra-short pulse, high repetition-rate laser. It uses titanium-doped sapphire (TiS) as its active material, and works at 800 nm in the near infra-red part of the spectrum, just outside the region visible to the human eye.

The pulses from Astra are so short that they are like sheets of light energy thinner than a human hair, which in addition can be focused to a spot a few thousandths of a millimetre across. The energy they contain is thus delivered to a very small target extremely quickly, allowing experimenters to study the way matter behaves under extreme conditions of temperature and pressure.

Astra Gemini is an extension of Astra that can deliver thirty times as much energy in each of two beams. The extreme concentration of energy possible with Gemini makes it one of the most intense lasers in the world.