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DOE Funded to Renovate Part of the Central Laboratory (Building 40) for the Photon Ultrafast Laser Science and Engineering
:: 12 March, 2008
Conceptual renovation plans have just become concrete. A project to renovate part of the Central Laboratory (Building 40) for the Photon Ultrafast Laser Science and Engineering (PULSE) center has been approved and funded by the Department of Energy.
The offices, labs and machine shops currently occupying the two-story wing of Building 40 will be relocated over the coming months to make way for renovations. The move will include the library and InfoMedia Solutions, which will continue to offer services in their new spaces.
The scope of renovations includes refurbishment of existing offices and laboratories, resulting in laser and molecular biology laboratories, offices for faculty members and a conference room.
"The work is not going to change the building structurally," said Project Manager David Rich, "but it will be a major interior renovation."
The renovation project's management team has worked with PULSE Director Philip Bucksbaum and the PULSE staff for over a year to establish user requirements for the facility. Now that the DOE has granted Critical Design 1 (CD-1) for the project, SLAC procurement will search out and hire an architecture and engineering firm to develop a detailed preliminary design.
"This renovation will update the services, as well as create safe environments for modern laser research," said PULSE Director Philip Bucksbaum. "These laboratories will give SLAC vital new research capabilities in ultrafast laser physics, chemistry and biology."
The first wave of renovations is scheduled to begin in May, with the renovation of the facility expected to be completed by the end of 2010.
About Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
The Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) is a United States Department of Energy National Laboratory operated by Stanford University under the programmatic direction of the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science. The SLAC research program centers on experimental and theoretical research in elementary particle physics using electron beams and a broad program of research in atomic and solid-state physics, chemistry, biology, and medicine using synchrotron radiation. The 3.2-kilometer (2.0-mile) long underground accelerator is the longest linear accelerator in the world, and is claimed to be "the world's straightest object." SLAC's meeting facilities also provided a venue for the homebrew computer club and other pioneers of the 1980s home computer revolution, and later SLAC hosted the first webpage in the U.S. The above-ground klystron gallery atop the beamline is the longest building in the United States.
Founded in 1962, the facility is located on 1.72 square-kilometers (426 acres) of Stanford University-owned land on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, California—just west from the University's main campus. The main accelerator, a 3.2-kilometer-long RF linear accelerator, which can accelerate electrons and positrons up to 50 GeV, has been operational since 1966. It is buried 10 metres (30 feet) below ground and passes underneath Interstate 280. As of 2005, SLAC employs over 1,000 people, some 150 of which are physicists with doctorate degrees, and serves over 3,000 visiting researchers yearly, operating particle accelerators for high-energy physics and the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL) for synchrotron light radiation research.
SLAC plays host to part of the GLAST project, a collaborative international project also known as The Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope, the principal objectives of which are:
To understand the mechanisms of particle acceleration in AGNs, pulsars, and SNRs.
Resolve the gamma-ray sky: unidentified sources and diffuse emission.
Determine the high-energy behavior of gamma-ray bursts and transients.
Probe dark matter and early Universe.
About Photon Ultrafast Laser Science and Engineering
PULSE (Photon Ultrafast Laser Science and Engineering) is based on a remarkable new venture at SLAC/Stanford – the construction of the world’s first x-ray free electron laser. The construction of this new x-ray source, called the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), is funded by the DOE, and its operation is planned to begin toward the end of calendar 2008. LCLS will provide x-ray beams of unprecedented brightness, delivered in femtosecond pulses with full transverse coherence. Pushing the frontiers of LCLS performance will challenge and engage the talents of accelerator, laser, and x-ray physicists for years to come.
Four areas will form the core competencies of PULSE. PULSE builds on, and leverages existing strengths in, atomic physics, chemistry, biology and condensed matter physics. It creates an opportunity of attracting outstanding scientific talent in advance of the beginning of LCLS operations. The coming of the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), the world's first hard x-ray laser, and the Ultrafast Science Center will help ensure that Stanford and SSRL will be at the forefront of advances in the studies of ultrafast phenomena using x-rays and electrons. The Center will focus on ultrafast structural and electronic dynamics in materials science, the generation of attosecond laser pulses, single molecule imaging, and the origin of efficient light harvesting and solar energy conversion in molecular systems during the first three years of operation.
