The development of dynamic compression at the ESRF and the High Power Laser Facility Project

Dynamic compression using powerful lasers offers a route to extreme conditions of pressure and temperature that go beyond what is possible today by static compression with the laser heated DAC. This is relevant for planetary science, fundamental science, energy science and industrial applications. In more moderate conditions, dynamic compression can be used to look at the behavior of matter and materials under high strain rates that can strongly differ from the static case. This area of research also encompasses industrial processes such as laser machining or synthesis of new materials. These new scientific cases triggered the development a synergetic approach to dynamic compression at the ESRF, and activities were launched on the absorption beamline ID24, on the X-ray imaging beamline ID19, and on the time resolved XRD beamline ID09, demonstrating the feasibility of single X-ray bunch XAS, XRD and XRI to probe matter under dynamic solicitation. First successful experiments, carried in the 2014-2018 years, had an important echo in the community and finally triggered the launching of the High Power Laser Facility (HPLF) project at the ESRF. This two phases project foresees the installation of a 100J laser on beamline ID24 in 2020 (HPLF-I) to perform dynamic compression experiments. In the second phase (HPLF-II, from 2023) the laser might be shared with an adjacent beamline to extend the applications to time resolved XRD, XRI and XES. The front end of the HPLF laser, delivering 15J, has been already installed on ID24 in September 2018, and first experiments have been performed before ESRF long shutdown last December.