Extreme light in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania
The ELI (Extreme Light Infrastructure) project has taken another major step forward: three countries earmarked to host a new generation of ultra-powerful lasers have been chosen, namely the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania. The location of a fourth site will be decided in 2012. ELI is thus set to become the leading pan-European research infrastructure based in new Member States of the European Union. The preparatory phase of the ELI project, which encompasses nearly 40 research institutes from 13 European countries, is being coordinated by CNRS and managed by the Institut de Lumičre Extrême (CNRS / Ecole Polytechnique / ENSTA Paris(1) / IOGS(2) / Université Paris-Sud 11).
Initiated in 2005 by France and more specifically by a team now incorporated within ILE (Institut de Lumičre Extrême), the ELI project is attracting the interest of numerous countries (currently standing at 13) throughout the world. Its objective is to provide Europe with the most powerful lasers in the world delivering, in the long run, pulses with power levels approaching 200 petawatts(3). Four complementary sites will be hosting this new generation of lasers within the framework of a pan-European structure. The first three sites have just been selected, namely the Czech Republic (on the outskirts of Prague), Hungary (Szeged) and Romania (Magurele), and are scheduled to be operational by late 2015. The fourth site, which will be equipped with the highest intensity laser, will be selected in 2012 and is scheduled for commissioning in 2017. A total of more than 700 million Euros has already been allocated for the development of the first three key sites. A significant proportion of this investment should come from EU structural funds. )
France has invested heavily in the extreme light field over the last ten years. In addition to the large scientific community involved in this sector, an important number of backers from industry, especially from France and coordinated by ILE, is investing in the development of multi-petawatt lasers with the expectation of reaping considerable benefits at a future stage.
The infrastructure will be placed under the sole governance of a European consortium known as ERIC (European Research Infrastructure Consortium). This type of pan-European organization, which has recently been specifically created the European Commission to meet the needs of such infrastructures, will be open to all European countries wishing to contribute to ELI. The transition from the preparatory phase to negotiations on the creation of the consortium is scheduled to be completed by late 2010.
In the Czech Republic, the main objective of the installation will be the production of secondary radiation sources for applications for the benefit of society, in particular the production of ultra-short and intense pulses of highly energetic particles (going up to around ten GeV(4)) created from compact laser plasma accelerators.
In Hungary, the installation will focus on the study of extremely rapid phenomena at the attosecond (10-18s) scale, thus attaining the timescale of the dynamics of electrons in matter.
In Romania, the research will mainly involve nuclear physics, using the very high intensity of the laser, and the gamma radiation produced by the laser.
Unique in the world, ELI is a first. Destined to become the reference in the field of ultra-intense lasers, ELI will deliver the highest laser intensities in the world, equivalent to 100,000 times the power produced by all of the electricity-generating plants on Earth. This equipment will open the way to a completely new branch of physics: ELI could for instance rip apart the vacuum, breaking it down into elementary particles and anti-particles. This project should lead to a whole host of multidisciplinary applications, both fundamental and applied, in optics, particle physics, nuclear physics, astrophysics, cosmology, materials sciences, fundamental physics and in the health sector.
Find out more at: www.eli-laser.eu
Provided by CNRS
