BENEFICIARIES
ELI-ERIC
The ELI ERIC Facility is a leading laser research centre and part of ELI (Extreme Light Infrastructure) pan-European Research Infrastructure hosting the world’s most intense lasers. ELI provides unique tools of support for scientific excellence in Europe.
The Czech Republic has a long and remarkably impressive history of research and development in the field of high-power, short-pulse lasers. As a reflection of this, the European Strategy Forum for Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) supported the location of one pillar of the pan-European Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) project ELI-ERIC in Donli Brezany south of Prague under the auspices of the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Science. The infrastructure of this new facility has been completed and the envisaged high repetition rate lasers with unprecedented parameters are under development at ELI-ERIC to drive advanced short pulse optical, IR, X-ray and particle beams (secondary sources) beyond of state of the art by controlling and extending the parameters of lasers and secondary sources, mainly their intensities, stability, synchronization, quality, energy range and repetition rates. It allows performing new investigations spanning the range from fundamental to applied sciences and medicine, ultimately leading to a better understanding of nature and providing future societal benefits.
ELI ERIC entrance.
The ELI-ERIC development as a part of the pan-European ELI project has two major aspects: enhancing the capabilities and versatility of the laser systems and subsequently use these improved lasers for new experimental possibilities, leading to interconnectivity/interdependence of lasers and experimental applications. The ELI-ERIC project is a unique endeavor in the field of photonic-based research worldwide and the first large-scale facility in this domain. ELI-ERIC has to innovate in parallel to construction and commissioning to be an incubator for new coming Projects, which will be initiated by the prospective user community.
The specific nature of the ELI-ERIC user facility is its multi-disciplinary features opening extremely wide opportunities for worldwide user community to develop new secondary radiation and particle sources, thus as a consequence improving user capabilities at new end-stations creating new paths of applied and fundamental research, pushing the boundaries of science and technology. ELI-ERIC after the commissioning phase will be able to produce ultra-short laser pulses of a few femtoseconds (<30fsec) duration at the peak power of up to 10PW with. The PW-class laser systems of ELI-ERIC aim to increase the repetition rate up to 50Hz in nearest future. It will lead to development of new techniques for time-resolved spectroscopy, scattering and diffraction techniques, medical imaging, medical diagnostics and radiotherapy including new tools for design, development and testing new materials, improvements of X-ray optics.
LUIS technologies in the experimental hall at ELI-ERIC.
All ELI-ERIC achievements will provide input and guidance on key components for high repetition rate laser-driven Free Electron Laser community, including the worldwide X-ray user community. ELI-ERIC is a platform for development new laser technology, improvement of the radiation sources and acceleration of particles (protons and electrons) as well as a platform for educating a new generation of scientists and engineers.
The ADONIS-LUIS research activity at ELI-ERIC aims to deliver the incoherent undulator photon ‘water-window’ radiation to the users with step-by-step improving the electron beam parameters to reach the requirements determined by the SASE free-electron laser operation. Realization of this research program will open the way to build a new-generation compact laser-driven FEL, providing the user community extremely demanding tool for medicine, biology and material science. ELI-ERIC is a full member of the EuPRAXIA international community. ELI-Beamlines is considered by the EuPRAXIA Consortium as a candidate to build the laser-driven FEL side.