AP-Seminare

ELI-Beamlines and its ultrahigh intensity laser beam transport system

by Stefan Borneis (ELI)

Europe/Berlin
SB3 2.283 (GSI)

SB3 2.283

GSI

Description

Since Mike Perry's milestone achievement of breaking the petawatt (PW) peak power barrier in 1996 at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, new high-intensity laser facilities around the world have revolutionized both our understanding and use of Plasma Physics. The "ELI-beamlines facility" currently under construction in Dolní Břežany, close to Prague in the Czech Republic is based on the European ESFRI (European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures) process. The project is executed in close partnership with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and a European-US consortium from Ekspla (Lithuania) and National Energetics. The international user facility will provide access to laser technology that is beyond the current state-of-the-art. 1 PW at 30 J, 30 fs and at a repetition rate of 10 Hz (High-Repetition-Rate Advanced Petawatt Laser System, HAPLS) and 10 PW at 1.5 kJ in 150 fs at a shot rate of one pulse per minute will allow the generation of ultra-high focused laser intensity approaching the ultra-relativistic regime (1024 W/cm2) for fundamental Physics research including vacuum interactions. Applications are foreseen for high-brightness X-ray sources and particle acceleration at multi PW peak powers and repetition rates up to 10 Hz which will open the path to societal applications for instance in the medical field.

This talk will mainly focus on the technological challenges of the complex high-intensity beam transport system of the compressed 30 fs, 10 Hz HAPLS beam over up to 107 meters, but will also describe the basic technological concepts of the ELI facility and sketch a few basic science and multidisciplinary applications.

 

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