Abbreviation | ELI ERIC |
---|---|
Formation | April 30, 2021 |
Headquarters | Dolní Břežany, Czech Republic (ELI Beamlines), Szeged, Hungary (ELI ALPS), and Măgurele, Romania (ELI NP) |
Services | Research Institute |
Subsidiaries | ELI Beamlines, ELI ALPS, and ELI NP. |
Website | https://eli-beams.eu |
The Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) is a research organization with the world's largest collection of high power-lasers. [1] ELI operates several high-power, high-repetition-rate laser systems which enable the research of physical, chemical, materials, and medical sciences. [2]
ELI is part of the European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC), where the official name and abbreviation came from: ELI ERIC. The organization consists of three complementary facilities, [3] as well as collaborations with universities and research labs across the world. One of the facilities is ELI Beamlines, located outside of Prague in Dolní Břežany, Czech Republic; [4] another facility, ELI ALPS (Attosecond Laser Pulse Source), is located in Szeged, Hungary; [5] and the third facility is located in Măgurele, Romania (ELI Nuclear Physics, abbreviated as ELI NP). [6]
From 2007 to 2010 ELI entered into a European-Commission-funded preparatory phase, comprising 40 laboratories from 13 countries. Gérard Mourou, the initiator of the ELI project, was the coordinator of the preparatory phase. [7]
At the meeting of the Steering Committee in October 2009 in Prague, the ELI Preparatory Phase Consortium officially gave the mandate to the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania to proceed towards the construction of ELI. [8] On December 10, 2010, at the end of the preparatory phase, the project was fully handed over to the ELI Delivery Consortium, consisting of representatives from the three host countries. ERDF funding of the ELI-Beamlines facility in the Czech Republic was granted by the European Commission on April 20, 2011, followed by ELI-Nuclear Physics in Romania on September 18, 2012. Funding for the ELI-ALPS facility in Hungary was granted in early 2014.
The ELI Delivery Consortium International Association (ELI-DC) non-profit association was founded on April 11, 2013. On April 30, 2021, the European Commission granted ELI the legal status of an ERIC. [9]
ELI Beamlines is located in Dolní Břežany near Prague, Czech Republic. ELI Beamlines operates high peak-power femtosecond laser systems with high-energy and high-repetition-rate capability, as well as secondary sources (X-rays and accelerated particles). [10] The facility opened in 2015. User experiments started in 2018. There are four primary sources at ELI Beamlines, seven secondary sources and five scientific endstations and experimental platforms. [11]
L1 ALLEGRA – TW laser, 100 millijoule, 1 kHz – status: in operation - The L1 ALLEGRA laser was developed in house by the ELI Beamlines laser team. [12] The concept of the laser is based entirely on amplification of frequency chirped picosecond pulses in an optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA) chain consisting of a total of seven amplifiers. The OPCPA amplifier stages are pumped by precisely synchronized picosecond pulses generated by state-of-the-art thin-disk-based Yb:YAG laser systems. [13]
L2 AMOS – 100TW laser, 2 joule, 50 Hz - status: in operation - The L2 AMOS laser is designed to provide 100 TW-level pulses at a high repetition rate (50 Hz) at 820 nm, falling between L1-ALLEGRA and L3-HAPLS in terms of peak power. [14] L2-DUHA is the newest of the ELI Beamlines laser systems and is currently in development with expected completion in the first half of 2024. [15]
L3 HAPLS – 1PW laser, 30 joule, 10 Hz – status: in operation - This laser system was developed at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, with ELI Beamlines cooperating on the development of the PW pulse compressor, the short-pulse diagnostics, and the short-pulse part controls and timing. [16] These are the highest peak-power pulsed laser diode arrays in the world. [17]
L4 ATON – 10PW laser, 2 kilojoule – status: in operation - This laser system is designed to generate an extremely high peak power of 10 PW (Petawatt) in pulses with duration of 150 fs, pulse energy 1.5 kJ and repetition rate 1 shot per minute. [18] The laser was built by the consortium of National Energetics (USA) and EKSPLA (Lithuania), with major contribution of ELI Beamlines, which developed the 10 PW compressor and participated in development of numerous subsystems including the OPCPA preamplifiers, diagnostics or integrated electronic control system. [19]
ELI-ALPS is located in Szeged, in southern Hungary. The ELI-ALPS research facility houses lasers which are used for the generation of ultra-intense, ultrashort pulses of laser light and various electromagnetic particles. [20] These ultrafast, high-repetition-rate bursts span a broad electromagnetic spectrum, ranging from terahertz frequencies ( Hz) to X-ray wavelengths ( to Hz). [21] The facility contains a variety of powerful laser systems, allowing for in-depth studies of the dynamics involved in interactions between light and matter. These studies encompass both non-relativistic and relativistic speeds, allowing for the study of phenomena occurring on timescales as brief as a few femtoseconds. [22] The facility opened in 2017. User experiments started in 2018.
Laser Source | Central Wavelength | Pulse Energy | Pulse Duration | Repetition Rate | Peak Power | Average Power |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
HR 1 | 1030 nm | 1 mJ | 7 fs | 100 kHz | 200 GW | 100 W |
HR 2 | 1030 nm | 5 mJ | 6.7 fs | 100 kHz | 1 TW | 500 W |
SYLOS 2 | 900 nm | 35 mJ | 7 fs | 1 kHz | 5 TW | 35 W |
SYLOS ALIGNMENT | 850 nm | 40 mJ | 12 fs | 10 Hz | 3 TW | 0.4 W |
HF PW | 800 nm | 34 J | 17 fs | 10 Hz | 2 PW | 340 W |
MIR | 2.8–4 μm | 150 μJ | 40 fs | 100 kHz | 3 GW | 15 W |
THz pump | 1 μm | 500 mJ | 500 fs | 50 Hz | 1 TW | 25 W |
ELI NP (Nuclear Physics) is located in Măgurele, Romania. It will host two machines, a very high intensity laser, where beams from two 10 PW lasers are coherently added to get intensities of the order of – W/, and a very intense, brilliant gamma beam obtained by incoherent Compton back scattering of a laser light off a brilliant electron beam from a conventional linear accelerator. [23] Applications include frontier fundamental physics, new nuclear physics, astrophysics, nuclear materials and radioactive waste management. ELI NP is the largest investment ever made in scientific research in Romania, co-financed by the European Commission and the Romanian Government from Structural Funds via the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). [24]
In a decision made during ELI ERIC's 8th General Assembly (GA) Meeting on 13 June 2023, Romania was accepted as a Founding Observer to ELI ERIC. [25] The facility will be integrated into the ELI ERIC organization over the next three years. [26]
Romania's journey to join the ELI ERIC consortium has been controversial due to a protracted legal disagreement over the construction of a gamma beam at the ELI-NP facility. [27] Romania's national institute of physics, IFIN-HH, and the EuroGammaS consortium became embroiled in this dispute, [28] which spiraled into a larger legal dispute involving contractual disagreements. The contention reached a climax when the Franco-Italian consortium EuroGammaS halted work on the gamma beam, [29] [30] alleging non-compliance of the building with equipment specifications. In response, IFIN-HH sought delay penalties and even hinted at canceling the €67 million contract. As counteraction, EuroGammaS initiated a legal battle in Bucharest, demanding contract extensions and fine reimbursements. [31]
Such disagreements led to Romania's omission from the ELI-ERIC consortium when it was officially launched in 2021. In May 2021, a significant turn of events occurred when the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, and Lithuania, with the UK as a founding observer, applied to the European Commission to form the ELI-ERIC, excluding Romania. [32] This exclusion was met with resistance from the management of ELI-NP, which criticized the decision as an attempt to "isolate" the Bucharest facility and called for the application's rejection. [33] The ongoing litigation and political nuances created a divide. Romania felt blindsided by the decision to proceed without them, whereas the consortium claimed Romanian stakeholders were informed. Additionally, there were differing visions about the operational autonomy of each laser site within the ERIC. While the Czech Republic and Hungary advocated for an integrated international facility, Romania sought greater autonomy, aiming to leverage its funding surplus to aid local research projects. [34]
Romania has since secured a "founding observer" status in the consortium, which may eventually lead to full membership in the organization. [35] Following the EuroGammaS contract's termination, the responsibility was passed to a US company, Lyncean Technologies, with a €42 million deal. The controversy continued as Lyncean declared bankruptcy, leaving the gamma beam project in limbo. [36] [37] Financial pressures also loom large, with the €300 million project heavily reliant on EU structural funds, necessitating its completion by 2023 to preserve funding. [38]
DESY, short for Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, is a national research centre for fundamental science located in Hamburg and Zeuthen near Berlin in Germany. It operates particle accelerators used to investigate the structure, dynamics and function of matter, and conducts a broad spectrum of interdisciplinary scientific research in four main areas: particle and high energy physics; photon science; astroparticle physics; and the development, construction and operation of particle accelerators. Its name refers to its first project, an electron synchrotron. DESY is publicly financed by the Federal Republic of Germany and the Federal States of Hamburg and Brandenburg and is a member of the Helmholtz Association.
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, originally named the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, is a federally funded research and development center in Menlo Park, California, United States. Founded in 1962, the laboratory is now sponsored by the United States Department of Energy and administrated by Stanford University. It is the site of the Stanford Linear Accelerator, a 3.2 kilometer (2-mile) linear accelerator constructed in 1966 that could accelerate electrons to energies of 50 GeV.
The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is a laser-based inertial confinement fusion (ICF) research device, located at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, United States. NIF's mission is to achieve fusion ignition with high energy gain. It achieved the first instance of scientific breakeven controlled fusion in an experiment on December 5, 2022, with an energy gain factor of 1.5. It supports nuclear weapon maintenance and design by studying the behavior of matter under the conditions found within nuclear explosions.
A free-electron laser (FEL) is a fourth generation light source producing extremely brilliant and short pulses of radiation. An FEL functions much as a laser but employs relativistic electrons as a gain medium instead of using stimulated emission from atomic or molecular excitations. In an FEL, a bunch of electrons passes through a magnetic structure called an undulator or wiggler to generate radiation, which re-interacts with the electrons to make them emit coherently, exponentially increasing its intensity.
Măgurele is a town situated in the southwestern part of Ilfov County, Muntenia, Romania. It has a population of 14,414 as of 2021 and hosts several research institutes.
Nova was a high-power laser built at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California, United States, in 1984 which conducted advanced inertial confinement fusion (ICF) experiments until its dismantling in 1999. Nova was the first ICF experiment built with the intention of reaching "ignition", the condition where self heating of the fusion plasma exceeds all losses. Although Nova failed in this goal, the data it generated clearly defined the problem as being mostly a result of Rayleigh–Taylor instability, leading to the design of the National Ignition Facility, Nova's successor. Nova also generated considerable amounts of data on high-density matter physics, regardless of the lack of ignition, which is useful both in fusion power and nuclear weapons research.
The Schwinger effect is a predicted physical phenomenon whereby matter is created by a strong electric field. It is also referred to as the Sauter–Schwinger effect, Schwinger mechanism, or Schwinger pair production. It is a prediction of quantum electrodynamics (QED) in which electron–positron pairs are spontaneously created in the presence of an electric field, thereby causing the decay of the electric field. The effect was originally proposed by Fritz Sauter in 1931 and further important work was carried out by Werner Heisenberg and Hans Heinrich Euler in 1936, though it was not until 1951 that Julian Schwinger gave a complete theoretical description.
The Virgo interferometer is a large Michelson interferometer designed to detect the gravitational waves predicted by general relativity. It is in Santo Stefano a Macerata, near the city of Pisa, Italy. The instrument has two arms that are three kilometres long and contain its mirrors and instrumentation in an ultra-high vacuum.
Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste is an international research center located in Basovizza on the outskirts of Trieste, Italy.
The High Power laser Energy Research facility (HiPER), is a proposed experimental laser-driven inertial confinement fusion (ICF) device undergoing preliminary design for possible construction in the European Union. As of 2019, the effort appears to be inactive.
The European Spallation Source ERIC (ESS) is a multi-disciplinary research facility currently under construction in Lund, Sweden. Its Data Management and Software Centre (DMSC) is co-located with DTU in Lyngby, Denmark. Its 13 European contributor countries are partners in the construction and operation of the ESS. The ESS is scheduled to begin its scientific user program in 2027, when the construction phase is set to be completed. The ESS will assist scientists in the tasks of observing and understanding basic atomic structures and forces, which are more challenging to do with other neutron sources in terms of lengths and time scales. The research facility is located near the MAX IV Laboratory, which conducts synchrotron radiation research. The construction of the facility began in the summer of 2014 and the first science results are planned for 2027.
The European X-Ray Free-Electron Laser Facility is an X-ray research laser facility commissioned during 2017. The first laser pulses were produced in May 2017 and the facility started user operation in September 2017. The international project with twelve participating countries; nine shareholders at the time of commissioning, later joined by three other partners, is located in the German federal states of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein. A free-electron laser generates high-intensity electromagnetic radiation by accelerating electrons to relativistic speeds and directing them through special magnetic structures. The European XFEL is constructed such that the electrons produce X-ray light in synchronisation, resulting in high-intensity X-ray pulses with the properties of laser light and at intensities much brighter than those produced by conventional synchrotron light sources.
The Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) is a Dresden-based research laboratory. It conducts research in three of the Helmholtz Association's areas: materials, health, and energy. HZDR is a member of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres.
SwissFEL is the X-ray free-electron laser at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), which was inaugurated in December 2016.
A European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) is a full juridical person and a corporation under European Union law. With a membership of at least one European Union member state and two EU member or associated states, it has legal personality and full legal capacity recognized in all Member States. Currently there are 25 ERICs established.
The Orion Laser Facility is a high power laser facility based at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) on the former RAF Aldermaston site in the United Kingdom.
Wolfgang Sandner was a German physicist who was employed in atomic and laser physics. From 2010 to 2012 he was president of the German Physical Society. Until his death, he was director general of the ELI Delivery Consortium International Association (AISBL) located in Brussels.
Adrian Curaj is a Romanian electrical engineer who was named Education Minister in the new government of Dacian Cioloș in November 2015. He was removed during a cabinet reshuffle the following July.
Janos Hajdu is a Swedish/Hungarian scientist, who has made contributions to biochemistry, biophysics, and the science of X-ray free-electron lasers. He is a professor of molecular biophysics at Uppsala University and a leading scientist at the European Extreme Light Infrastructure ERIC in Prague.
Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences is a public research institution in the Czech Republic and a part of the Czech Academy of Sciences. The Institute specialises in fundamental and applied research across five fields: particle physics, condensed matter physics and solid-state physics, optics and physics of plasma. FZU is also involved in education at the university level, supervision of Master and PhD students and science communication.