18th, Laser Aided Plasma Diagnostics

High-energy lasers at the Extreme Light Infrastructure

Sep 27, 2017, 8:30 AM

40m

INVITED TALK Instrumentation development General

Speaker

Jonathan Green (ELI-Beamlines)

Description

The Extreme Light Infrastructure – Beamlines facility in Prague, Czech Republic, is an EU funded research facility aiming to investigate new regimes of laser-matter interactions. One of three such laser facilities in Europe, it aims to provide users with state-of-the-art, high repetition rate petawatt-class lasers and laser-driven secondary sources to perform experiments in material science, molecular science, and particle acceleration. Three lasers are under construction which will drive the experimental stations. In order to drive a wide range of experiments, the lasers have very different parameters, with peak pulse powers ranging from 6 TW to 10 PW, and focus on different applications. These lasers will be used to produce high harmonic X-ray sources, accelerate protons through target normal sheath acceleration, and accelerate electrons via laser plasma wakefield acceleration. Many technical challenges must be confronted when producing such ultra-powerful laser sources and the development of these lasers pushes conventional laser technology to its limits. One of the primary topics of this talk is an overview of the technology used in the production of high energy, ultra-short laser pulses: specifically dispersion management, ultra-short pulse production, high average power lasers, and methods of broadband amplification (optical parametric chirped pulse amplification, and Ti:Sapphire amplification). These general topics will be supported by discussion of specific technologies used in the lasers developed in the ELI-Beamlines project. The other focus of this talk is on the applications of these lasers. While there are many experimental programs under development at ELI-Beamlines, the main topics discussed here will be related to particle acceleration. Laser plasma wakefield electron acceleration has been demonstrated to produce an accelerating force on the order of 100 GeV/m, and the use of these packets of relativistic electrons as a source of X-rays will be a major component of research at ELI. Laser driven proton acceleration, also a key research activity at ELI-Beamlines, has potential applications in radiation therapy and nuclear fusion.