Central Laser Facility

Interested in applying for a Year in Industry at the CLF? 👩‍🔬 👨‍🔬 Get a better idea of what your experience will entail by hearing directly from Ella, Narata, Thaddeus, and Ellie - our current 2024/2025 industrial placement students! 🌱 ➡️orlo.uk/qtJGN

2024 brought exciting progress to our Vulcan 20-20 project, HiLUX upgrade, and EPAC facility. However, our wonderful staff, users, and contractors are what really made the year special!⭐ Thank you all, and Merry Christmas from our CLF family to yours! Artwork by @HelenTowrie

We were delighted to show @PoppyGustafsson and team around EPAC today! We very much enjoyed your visit. ✨

Day 2 of the CLF High Power Laser Conference is complete! We shall soon find out who won the Student Poster Competition 👀🏆

The first people are beginning to arrive for the High Power Laser Christmas Conference here in Abingdon! ✨

Organic cooking emissions account for up to 10% of particulate emissions in the UK. But, what happens to them once they're out there?🤔 Research by @unibirmingham used @DiamondLightSou & a laser brought over from the CLF to help tackle this question. ➡️ orlo.uk/YnK8G

Science is linked to the Humanities in more ways than we may think. Join us as we explore the Humanities behind Science through our #STFCinContext campaign! Keep track of upcoming #STFCinContext projects from STFC's different departments here: linktr.ee/stfcincontext

Congratulations to @_Suman_Dutta for being awarded the Octopus/Ultra-Facility Access funded by @UKRI_News to analyse brain-derived extracellular vesicles in one of the world's leading laser facilities, @CLF_STFC 📸 Super-resolution images of #EVs by Suman @NDCNOxford @KavliOxford

Happy #EngineersDay!👷‍♀️ Over a year ago now, the CLF's Engineering Division: ✅Officially became the CLF's largest Division ✅Opened their brand-new state-of-the-art Engineering & Technology Centre Curious to know what they've been up to since then? ➡️ orlo.uk/CLFEngineers_h…

While installations for the HiLUX labs are underway elsewhere, this little room harbours a very important setup! This is a miniature replica of the new Ultra laser system which allows scientists test stuff, such as fully automated processes, ahead of the real thing! 🧑‍🔬

These have to be put together in a very particular order. Once finished these will hold all the control equipment for the lasers and experiments. 🧪 This concludes another step in the HiLUX project! ✅ ➡️ orlo.uk/445Aa

Specifically designed to fit together like a jigsaw, the gantry that’s part of the HiLUX upgrade has just been installed in the rooms where Ultra A used to be. 🧩✨

It's #NationalColorDay 🌈 a day to celebrate the impact colours have on our lives. "Colours", or wavelengths of light, are /everything/ when it comes to the different types of laser experiments we do. Scientists, what's your wavelength of choice?

The team are adding to the wealth of research they’ve conducted over the years on Li-ion battery degradation, with the hope that it may help lead towards longer lasting battery efficiency in the future. 🔋🌱

The team are using the Ultra setup in the Artemis lab using Kerr-Gated Raman to “gate” out the fluorescence whilst still letting the useful information through Simultaneously, they’re using Fluorescence Imaging in the Octopus lab to study the nature of the fluorescence itself! 🔬

For the first time ever, a user groups is using our Artemis, Ultra and Octopus facilities simultaneously for one experiment! Why? Because what they’re studying is an especially awkward specimen…

The @LivUni group is looking at what’s happening inside lithium-ion batteries (like in our phones) as they lose efficiency over time🪫 Li-ion batteries are notoriously hard to study due to the obscuring fluorescence they emit when you try to extract Raman light from them

This is how to show off your multi-tasking skills @AnaGherghelas @CLF_STFC

Today is the National Labs Conference, a hybrid event spanning across multiple STFC sites to highlight the various Research & Development projects going on. It's been great to be able to share what we're up to, as well as hear from the other departments! 🧑‍🔬👩‍🔬

Had a fantastic time at the LSF @CLF_STFC user meeting in St. Hilda's College Oxford. Well done @ClaraZehe, @dan_graczyk & Eleanor Windle @ucdchemistry on their fab poster presentations & huge congratulations to Daniel on winning the best student poster prize. 🥳📷.