On May 18, 2016, the EuPRAXIA "Laser Design and Optimization" Work-package 4 held its first workshop in the premises of SOLEIL - France. Leading international laboratories were represented including the Intense Laser Irradiation Laboratoy (INO - Italy), the Laboratoire d’Utilisations des Lasers Intenses (CNRS - France), the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (USA), the Centro de Láseres Pulsados Ultracortos Ultraintensos (University of Salamanca, Spain), the Central Laser Facility (Science and Technology Facilities Council, UK), The Petawatt Laser Facility (University of Texas at Austin, USA) and international laser manufacturers such as Thales (France), National Energetics (USA), Amplitude Technologies (France), Amplitude Systèmes (France) and Proton Laser (Spain).

At the beginning of the event, following an introduction of the EuPRAXIA scientific case, highlights from the current and future laser development projects, including the Extreme Light Infrastucture (ELI) project, the APOLLON, and the ILIL PW facilities were presented. These lasers shall cover energies ranging from ten Joule up to kilo-Joule, pulse durations from attoseconds to hundred femtoseconds, and repetition rates from one shot per minute to 10 Hz. It was emphasized that these projects needed tremendous investments and major developments in new materials arising from research projects launched as early as 2006.

A wide range of laser technologies and quite different architectures emerged from this overview, suggesting a range of potential solutions for the development of the future EuPRAXIA laser concept.

In a second “brainstorming” session an open discussion was triggered about the starting basic specifications of the EUPRAXIA laser identified during the first EUPRAXIA steering committee. A “100 cube” operating point was considered, providing 100 Joule, 100 fs pulses at 100 Hz, with a contrast of 1010 at 10 ps. Whilst ambitious for a scientific laser issued in 2025, it was found a generally realistic scenario, with warnings about a potentially longer timescale needed to attain an "industrial" version of such a system.

Discussions focused on the intermediate milestones, which could serve both the scientific community and the laser companies. A clear focus was also made on the need to develop new, scalable materials for reliable and long operation time at high rep-rate. Recommendations were issued on how to list laser specifications to enable a secure path towards technology down selection, while stressing the importance of a strong link between laser and acceleration work-packages.

EuPRAXIA WP4 convenors, Leonida A. Gizzi (INO-CNR) and Francois Mathieu (LULI – CNRS/Ecole Polytechnique) acknowledge participation to the meeting of Erhard Gaul (University of Texas), Constantin Häfner (LLNL), Christophe Simon Boisson, Sandrine Ricaud and Sebastien Laux (Thales), Gilles Riboulet and Franck Falcoz (Amplitude Technologies), Dimitrios Papadopoulos (LULI – CNRS/Ecole Polytechnique), Guido Toci and Luca Labate (INO-CNR), Luis Roso (CLPU), Roberto Lera and Miguel Galan (Proton Laser),  Klaus Ertel (CLF, STFC).

First Workshop of Work Package 4 held at SOLEIL

2016 - 06 - 13