Extreme Light Infrastructure - Beamlines
ELI Beamlines Laser Center is a unique top-class device built for Czech and international scientific research – for users who carry out basic and applied research experiments using four ultra-intensive laser systems (L1-L4), which are gradually put into full operation.
The ELI Beamlines research center aims to runs the world's most intense laser system. With ultra-high peak powers of 10 PW (petawatt) and focused intensities up to 1024 W/cm2 we offer unique sources of radiation and particle beams to our users. These beamlines are enable groundbreaking research not only in the fields of physics and material science, but also in biomedical research and laboratory astrophysics.
ELI Beamlines is a part of the ELI (Extreme Light Infrastructure) project, a new pan-European research infrastructure, and part of the European Strategy Forum for Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) plan.
The ELI project research infrastructure includes several workplaces and additional facilities located in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania. It will gradually explore the interaction of light with matter at the highest intensities and shortest time spans.
ELI lasers will reach well beyond the state of the art in high-power laser technology in terms of intensity and repetition rates. This will enable new approaches and results in science and novel societal applications .
X-RAY SOURCES
One of the main goals within the ELI scientific community is to produce ultra-short X-ray beamlines, both coherent and incoherent ones, to pave the way toward imaging nature with atomic resolution in space as well as time using devices that are suitable for university labs. Applications range from structure analysis in solid-state, atomic physics and molecular chemistry via imaging applications in medicine and the life sciences through to the discovery of the basic building blocks of life.
The X-ray laser-based sources developed at the ELI-Beamlines facility have the capability, unlike large-scale facilities such as third-generation synchrotrons or X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs), to offer a much broader accessibility because only a few large-scale facilities exist throughout the world. In addition to reducing size and costs, these X-ray sources provide intrinsic synchronization between the optical driver laser and the X-ray pulses that are generated, as well as the full spectrum of different X-ray sources that each deliver specific properties.
Four paths have been developed within the ELI research area for transforming optical laser pulses into brilliant bursts of X-rays:
High-order harmonic generation
Incoherent plasma X-ray sources
Betatron/Compton radiation
Laser-driven X-ray free-electron lasers.
For each of these research areas, dedicated beamlines will be built to provide a unique combination of X-ray sources to the user community. This is the mission of the Research Activity 2 (RA2). The RA2 application has a well-defined balance between fundamental science and applications in different fields of science and technology. Emphasis will be placed on providing an international user facility. Therefore, most of the areas have been conceived so that potential users from different fields will be attracted by the advanced laser parameters concerning pulse widths, repetition rates, broad wavelength ranges and intensities. Another important feature will be the combination of perfectly synchronized sources of short pulse coherent optical radiation, UV radiation, XUV radiation and X-ray radiation (coherent and incoherent). The available wavelength range of short pulses will be extended in the future to the gamma range well above 100 keV.
PARTICLE ACCELERATION
ELI Beamlines offer the prospect of producing and studying versatile and stable particle (ions and electrons) sources at high repetition rates, while simultaneously enhancing the high energy tail of the spectrum, the beam monochromaticity and the laser-to-particle conversion efficiency, all of which are crucial points for the production of additional secondary sources.
The Research Program 3 (RP3) will also focus on the demonstration of proof-of-principle experiments aimed at envisioning future societal applications in various areas with special attention paid to biomedical ones. Thus, the optimization of particle beam quality and reproducibility (spatial profile, pointing, divergence and energy stability) will be a crucial issue. In order to realize such a challenging and wide range of envisioned activities, two scientific groups are currently working on the implementation of two different target areas, the ELIMAIA ion acceleration beamline and the HELL electron acceleration platform, with the main goal being to fulfill the expectations of the scientific user community, which are summarized in the ELI-White Book.
Laser-driven particle acceleration is a new field of physics that is rapidly evolving thanks to the continuing development of high power laser systems, thus allowing researchers to investigate the interaction of ultrahigh laser intensities (> 1019 W/cm2) with matter. As a result of such interaction, extremely high electric and magnetic fields are generated. Such tremendous fields, which can be supported only in plasmas, allow for the acceleration of particles at relativistic energies by way of very compact approaches. In particular, spectacular progress in the acceleration of electrons and protons has been achieved. On the one hand, electrons are currently being accelerated to very high energies (several GeV) from gas targets, which are transformed in plasma by high intensity laser pulses [ Leemans et al ]. On the other hand, 100-MeV-class protons are presently being accelerated in thin solid targets through the energy transfer of high energy electrons [ Macchi et al ].
BIO AND MATERIAL APPLICATIONS
Laser-driven secondary sources at ELI-Beamlines will be used for applications in molecular, biomedical, and materials (MBM) sciences. Planned applications include coherent diffractive imaging, atomic, molecular, and optical (AMO) sciences, soft X-ray materials science, hard X-ray scattering, diffraction, spectroscopy and imaging, advanced optical spectroscopic techniques, and pulse radiolysis.
Bio and material applications
The research group for applications in molecular, biomedical, and materials (MBM) sciences develops and runs experimental stations using the secondary sources that are driven by the uniquely powerful ELI-Beamlines lasers as well as the lasers themselves. The MBM group mainly develops scientific end stations for time-resolved photon science applications in the THz-to-hard X-ray range with a focus on dynamics in the femtosecond-to-microsecond time scales. These stations are:
A multi-purpose end station for atomic, molecular, and optical (AMO) sciences and coherent diffractive imaging (CDI)
A materials science platform based on a time-resolved spectroscopic ellipsometry in the optical range and VUV magneto-optical ellipsometry
A modular station for hard X-ray sciences covering applications in diffraction, spectroscopy, pulse radiolysis and imaging
Advanced optical spectroscopy capabilities in the THz-to-UV range, including a setup for stimulated Raman scattering, transient optical absorption, IR (1D and 2D) and pulse-shaping and coherent control.
Already in 2018, the MBM team provided more than 1 200 hours of experimental time for external collaborators. In February 2019, we published our first open call for users to participate in user-assisted commissioning and early experiments resulting in the scheduling of about 20 experiments during the period June to September.
PLASMA PHYSICS
Plasma physics is a fundamental subject of relevance to many research areas such as astrophysics, laboratory ionized gases, laser-matter interaction, and controlled thermonuclear fusion. Plasmas are one of the fundamental states of matter and represent most of the non-dark matter in the universe. Plasma physics is the self-consistent description of charged particles and electromagnetic fields.
GRAVITATIONAL WAVES GENERATED BY LASER-MATTER INTERACTIONS
The research is performed in the area of gravitational waves generation which connects fundamental gravitational theory with the laser—plasma interaction in the high intensity regime 10PW or higher. This area of research started to be interesting thanks to the remarkable progress in the technology of high power lasers which might enable applications also in the research field of gravitation in the future.
The gravitational wave generation is investigated in the laboratory conditions in various models and the properties of radiation such as metric perturbations and luminosity, spectrum, polarization and the behaviour of test particles are analyzed. The models are based on acceleration of matter to very high velocity by an intense laser pulse. The resulting gravitational waves are in frequency range of GHz to THz. Therefore the currently available detectors, such as resonant detectors and interferometers LIGO or Virgo , are not usefull for their detection and a new technology should be developed to enable experimental research in this area. In the future, such experiments could be possibly performed at our facility ELI Beamlines or other research facilities like PETAL , NIF-ARC or APOLLON.
Current research is even more relevant after the recent detection of gravitational waves in 2016 by LIGO. The detection will definitely open a new era of research in many fields especially in astrophysics.
HIGH-ENERGY DENSITY PHYSICS
High-energy density plasmas are generally characterized by pressures above 1 Mbar or energy densities above 1011 J/m3. Lasers are the only way to create such conditions in a controlled way in the laboratory on a small scale (an uncontrolled way would be nuclear explosions).
Laser-plasma interaction for HEDP conditions:
Contributes to new schemes for inertial confinement fusion (ICF) such as shock ignition and fast ignition
Helps to understand strongly correlated systems
Provides opacity data of compressed materials
Has many applications for astrophysical phenomena
In contrast to “standard” plasma physics, HEDP-plasmas have often very few particles in the Debye-sphere which makes any numerical or analytical treatment very difficult due to strong correlation effects. Experiments in this field will also help us to refine the theories for HEDP and make prediction models more reliable. HEDP experiments will provide information on the phase transition of insulators to metal-like conductors. In optically thick material radiation is an important player in HEDP as it is altering the structure and dynamics of shocks. Modeling radiative shocks is challenging as it is a multi-scale problem. The physics of pre-pulses in high-intensity laser-matter interaction is a difficult problem of HEDP as up- and down-stream optical depths are very different, affecting the shock-physics. HEDP is strongly linked to laboratory astrophysics (→ html link) and comprises WDM (→ html link). The lasers available in P3 will allow to drive strong shocks and provide sophisticated diagnostic tools for HEDP-research.
LABORATORY ASTROPHYSICS
Laboratory astrophysics is the study of astrophysical and cosmological phenomena on a laboratory scale using high-power lasers.
The notion of laboratory astrophysics goes back to the late 1960s, and the user of lasers in this respect dates back to the 1970s (CO2 lasers). With the advent of new, short-pulse, high-power laser systems this field is taking a step forward. Many astrophysical plasma phenomena can be reproduced on a laboratory scale with intense lasers, such as the following:
Magnetic reconnection
Collisionless shocks
Particle acceleration (cosmic-ray physics)
Coherent nonlinear structures (e.g., solitons)
Magnetic field generation
Jet formation
Rayleigh-Taylor instability
Radiation hydrodynamic physics (stellar atmospheres, etc.)
Radiative shocks.
Modeling astrophysical phenomena in the laboratory is based on the principle of limited similarity. The principle states that exact equivalence of the relevant dimensionless parameters is not required, but that it is enough for these parameters to be large or small with respect to unity, as they are in reality. This assures that the observed physics in the experiment is relevant for the corresponding phenomena on astrophysical scales.
Laboratory astrophysics also has a strong overlap with WDM (→ html link) and High Energy Density Physics (HEDP → html link) as far as calculations such as radiative opacities and the equation of state (EOS) are concerned. It is not possible to imagine plasma astrophysics without magnetic fields. The collisionless interaction of exploding plasmas with magnetized media is fundamental to an understanding of particle acceleration in the universe, Weibel instability, supernova remnants, and gamma-ray bursts, to name just a few.
WARM DENSE MATTER
Warm Dense Matter (WDM) is the study of matter under extreme conditions of pressure. It is a particular sub-field of high-energy density physics.
This field of research is relevant to an understanding of the following:
Inertial confinement fusion
Planetary cores
The fundamentals of the quantum nature of matter
The physics of shock waves in dense material
The non-equilibrium and phase-transition aspects of matter.
The main goal of WDM is to gain an understanding of the equation for determining the states and opacities of compressed matter. Of particular interest are conditions where there is very high-density matter (tens of grams per cubic-centimeter) but moderate and therefore warm temperatures (a few eV to a few tens of eVs). Simulating matter in these conditions is challenging, and effective simulation methods are still under development. The difficulties arise from the fact that matter under these conditions is a system of strongly interacting particles.
The complexity arises from the fact that in this state the potential energy between the interacting electrons and the nuclei is of a similar order to the kinetic energy of the electrons, as opposed to a plasma state where the kinetic energy of the electrons is much greater than the potential energy between the interacting electrons and the nuclei. Well-defined experiments can help to distinguish between conflicting theoretical models. The kilojoule laser, which is available in P3, L4n, will allow important research to be performed in WDM. Having the use of a local betatron as a diagnostic tool for exploiting the highly energetic electrons and the X-rays simultaneously will be a step forward in diagnosing the state of WDM. Even what occurs when hydrogen, the simplest atom, is exposed to extreme pressures is not yet fully understood. Although Wigner suggested in the 1930s that hydrogen has a phase transition to a metallic state, this has still not been fully confirmed.
PLASMA OPTICS
Plasma optics makes use of plasmas in a controlled way to manipulate light.
Plasma optics refers to the use of plasmas to manipulate light in ways that are similar to solid-state optics. The disadvantage of standard solid-state-based optics is that they have a damage threshold that limits the admissible power and energy densities. Plasma has already been broken down and can therefore withstand extremely high light intensities and energy densities.
Plasmas can, then, be used for areas such as the following:
Amplify light pulses
Focus light pulses to the diffraction limit
Diffract light.
Plasmas might present a way forward for creating Exawatt light pulses using very small spatial scales. Light can be amplified in plasma by relying on parametric instabilities that occur when laser light is interacting with preformed plasma. Parametric instabilities such as Raman or Brillouin backscattering are detrimental in inertial confinement fusion but can be beneficial when exploited in a controlled way to create short and intense light pulses. The mechanism relies on the fact that two transverse electromagnetic waves can be coupled in plasma by either Raman backscattering (SRS), an electron plasma wave, or Brillouin backscattering (SBS), an ion-acoustic wave. This three-wave coupling process takes the form of an instability that allows the amplitude of one wave to grow at the expense of the other wave. The plasma wave is necessary to fulfill the fundamental conservation laws of momentum and energy. A long pump pulse of moderate intensity collides with a short seed pulse inside the plasma. The three-wave coupling process then provides an energy transfer from the pump to the seed, thereby increasing the intensity of the latter. In the ideal case, pump-depletion occurs, which means that all the energy of the pump pulse is scattered into the seed pulse. In this scenario, the seed provides the time scale and the pump is the energy reservoir. By properly selecting the parameter space of the operation, competing instabilities such as filamentation can be avoided. This implies that the amplification process can take place over large cross-sectional areas. The next step involves focusing the amplified pulse by using an ellipsoidal plasma mirror. Research in this area generally involves the use of the Brillouin instability in the so-called strong-coupling regime (sc-SBS) because it has several advantages over the Raman instability. The key feature of sc-SBS is that it is a driven mode rather than an Eigenmode of the plasma. In this quasi-mode regime the properties of the electrostatic mode (the plasma response) are determined by the laser pump field. Plasma optics is quite a young field in optics and laser science, but it has huge potential because there is a constant push for ever higher laser intensities and ways to handle and manipulate it. P3, which can use both high-energy laser beams and short-pulse beams, offers a unique way to perform research on plasma optics.
ULTRAHIGH INTENSITY INTERACTIONS
Ultrahigh intensity laser-matter interaction becomes possible because of the ELI-Beamlines 10 Petawatt (PW) laser.
A 10 PW laser pulse (L4f ELI-laser), when focused on a diffraction-limited spot with a FWHM of 1 micron, would result in an intensity of 1024 W/cm2. This light intensity is unprecedented in the history of laser-plasma/matter interaction. At these high intensities new physics effects such as the following can be studied:
Production of gamma-ray flashes
Generation of electron-positron pairs
Radiation-friction force
Relativistic flying mirror
Unruh physics
Vacuum birefringence.
E3 will accommodate the first 10 PW lasers worldwide and initiate research for “exotic” physics phenomena using extreme intensities. Ultra high intensity (UHI) phenomena are also important for laboratory astrophysics (→ html link) phenomena, which are sometimes called laser cosmology. Ultrahigh intensity lasers might help to shed light on such phenomena as cosmic acceleration (ultrahigh energy cosmic rays) and quantum gravity (Hawking radiation). Achieving the focusing of a 10 PW laser pulse will require the use of sophisticated ellipsoidal plasma mirror setups. Over the long term, plasma optics (→ html link) might also provide a way to increase laser intensities even further towards the Schwinger limit. UHI laser-plasma physics will also require a way to diagnose the predicted intensities in a reliably. This is a challenging task in itself but is an essential part of UHI interaction.
LASERS
The most important activity in the ELI Beamlines project is the development of new laser technologies. This includes, for example, developing new techniques for growing laser crystals, new solutions for the cryogenic cooling of high-power repetition rate laser amplifiers, new techniques for femtosecond synchronization of laser pulses, advanced repetition rate diagnostics of femtosecond pulses, advanced control systems, and developing innovative solutions for petawatt (PW) pulse compressors. Some of these activities are carried out in cooperation with industry.
DPSSL TECHNOLOGY
The Diode Pumped Solid State Laser (DPSSL) technology is actively developed by the ELI-Beamlines laser team in the context of L1 and L2 laser systems.
In the case of the L1 system, the team has designed and developed kHz repetition-rate laser amplifiers based on the so-called thin-disk technology, providing more than 100 mJ of energy in the pulse in a beam of excellent spatial quality. The diode-pumped thin-disk laser heads were delivered by a commercial company. For the L2 system, developed in partnership with the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (U.K.), the ELI-Beamlines team works on technologies for Helium-cooled multislab amplifiers. These include advanced methods of cryogenic He cooling based on the Brayton cycle, new laser active materials based on Yb:doped YAG monocrystals, new techniques of temporal shaping of the laser pulse, advanced repetition-rate laser diagnostics, and control and timing systems.
NONLINEAR LASER AMPLIFICATION
Optical parametric amplification (OPA) is one of the few techniques that allow for amplification of broadband laser pulses. Therefore, it is well suited for amplification of ultra-short laser pulses. At ELI Beamlines, this technique is used in the main broadband amplifers of the L1 and L2 laser systems.
OPA is based on a phenomenon called three-wave mixing, which is a second order nonlinear process. When an optical material is exposed to high intensity optical radiation (typically GW/cm2), the material’s response to the incident electromagnetic wave becomes nonlinear. This nonlinear response allows for new frequencies to be generated.
Usually, there are three beams, referred to as the signal, pump, and idler, that interact in the parametric amplifier. The signal beam is amplified as a result of this interaction, and the idler beam, which is the difference between the photon energies of the signal and pump, is created. However, great care must be taken to phase-match the interacting pulses in order to add up constructively contributions of the nonlinearly amplified signal from the entire volume of the nonlinear crystal. A so-called phase-matching condition can be expressed by a simple equation,
ks+ki=kp,
where ks, ki, and kp are wave vectors of the signal, idler, and pump, respectively. The phase-matching condition can be met through the proper orientation of a birefringent crystal, which is used as the nonlinear medium. Noncollinear geometry is often considered for this because it allows for broadband phase-matching. A schematic of the noncollinear OPA geometry is shown below in Figure 1.
The main advantages of OPA are:
Scalability to high power levels
Tunability of broadband amplification bandwidth and wavelength
High amplification gain over a short distance
Good temporal contrast in the signal beam
Small heat load of the nonlinear medium, since the excess energy is taken out by the idler.
PETAWATT LASERS
ELI Beamlines' laser team already developed and is developing and co-developing, in partnership with major laser technology suppliers of the project, a number of essential systems for Petawatt (PW) and 10 PW lasers.
The development at ELI Beamlines involves real-time controls and femtosecond-precision timing systems, which make it possible to synchronize operation of the individual lasers to the ELI Beamlines facility clock. A major activity is the design and development of spectrally broadband laser pulse stretchers and large PW and 10 PW laser pulse compressors. Other significant developments include sophisticated laser diagnostic instrumentation capable of providing online information on parameters of the PW and multi PW repetition-rate laser pulses.
PULSE SYNCHRONIZATION
The timing of laser beamlines and their synchronization with ELI systems play a key role in the operations at the ELI Beamlines facility. The concept of this laser operation recognizes time-driven control in order to assure the correct operation of the laser beamlines themselves and to provide a facility for the synchronized operation of ELI experiments.
A typical duration for laser pulses at the ELI Beamlines facility is from several nanoseconds (pump beams) to tens of femtoseconds (e.g., compressed signal beam at L1). Taking into account that within the time interval of 10 fs light propagates only 3 µm, any change in the optical path of the laser beam that is induced by thermal drift, air turbulence, and vibrations will cause significant synchronization instabilities. To assure correct operations, requirements for precise timing and pulse synchronization are addressed through several methods, and several subsystems are used through the whole facility. Some of these methods are described as follows:
Oscillator repetition rate stabilization–laser beamline oscillators must be phase-locked to a single clock (frequency) reference using either RF or optical signals.
Electronic Timing systems are used for the generation of electronic trigger signals, the definition of timing event sequences, and the precise timed control of beam line operations.
Passive synchronization provides some degree of synchronization between two pulses. With this method, the optical paths of both beams are of fixed equal lengths, and both pulses are derived from a single event (single oscillator pulse); however, this passive synchronization alone is not sufficient because the synchronization instabilities might be accumulated over several km of propagation over different optical paths.
Active jitter stabilization compensates for any delay between two independent laser sources. It is based on a precise measurement of the delay using a nonlinear balanced cross-correlator that has been developed by ELI’s laser team. The jitter stabilization system allows for two-ps pulses to be stabilized with a precision of approximately 20 fs. A picture of the jitter stabilization prototype is shown in the figure above.
The ELI Beamlines facility holds a unique position in the arena of high-power laser facilities: it is the first infrastructure of such dimensions that is fully dedicated to users. Thanks to the tunability of its laser system, the ELI Beamlines facility is able to deliver high-quality sources of various kinds adapted to the needs of a wide variety of users.
Multi-purpose center
ELI Beamlines’ infrastructure is the most multifunctional of all existing and projected laser facilities. It has been designed not only to serve researchers who specialize in laser science, but it will also accommodate researchers from other fields such as material sciences and engineering, medicine, biology, chemistry, and astrophysics. With this variety in its research activities, it is expected to deliver significant benefits to society in the medium and long term.
Groundbreaking discoveries
The exceptional opportunities offered by the facility, especially in very high resolution imaging and in particle acceleration, might well lead to breakthroughs in the field of nanotechnologies, to the development of new drugs, and to major improvements in the treatment of cancer tumors, especially proton therapy. Industrial applications are also expected in areas such as aeronautics and the automotive industry. Numerous industrial companies have already expressed their interest in the project.
Laser for all
The facility will be open for user experiments by 2018. In line with the recommendations of the European Union and the European Strategic Forum on Research Infrastructures, the ELI Beamlines facility will enforce an open access policy for researchers, irrespective of their countries or institutions of origin. The same access policy will prevail in all three facilities of the ELI-ERIC (European Research Infrastructure Consortium). These facilities, which will be widely open to the international user community, will allocate access time on the basis of open competition and evaluation of the research proposals by international peer review. This will guarantee the scientific excellence of the facility. Furthermore, significant access will be given to students, technology co-developers, and contractual users from within the industry.
E1: MATERIAL AND BIOMOLECULAR APPLICATIONS
Experimental hall E1 houses laser-driven secondary sources and experimental end-stations for applications in molecular, bio-medical, and materials sciences. Experiments in the E1 hall exploit synchronized laser beams and photon beams in the VUV and hard X-ray range.
Secondary sources in E1
High harmonic generation (HHG): This beam line delivers a coherent collimated beam of photons with energies in the range 10 eV–120 eV.
Plasma X-ray source (PXS): This is an incoherent source of hard X-ray radiation.
Scientific stations in E1
MAC: a Multi-purpose chamber for AMO (Atomic, molecular, and optical) sciences and CDI (Coherent Diffractive Imaging).
ELIps: A scientific station for time-resolved spectroscopy ellipsometry in the optical range and XUV materials science.
Hard X-ray end-station: TREX; a modular station for Time Resolved Experiments (scattering, diffraction, spectroscopy, pulse radiolysis and imaging) with X-rays.
Ultrafast optical spectroscopy including setups for stimulated Raman scattering, transient optical absorption, IR (1D and 2D) and pulse-shaping and coherent control.
The PXS beam line
operates with the in-house developed L1 Allegra. X-ray radiation is in the spectral range of 3–77 keV. Using an off-axis parabola, the laser beam is focused onto the continuously restoring solid-density target, enabling long-term 1 kHz operation of the beam line. The beam delivery chamber and the plasma interaction chamber are separated by an anti-reflection (AR)-coated quartz window to suppress contamination of the beam transport system by debris. Several diagnostics will be implemented in order to monitor the driving laser beam and the output X-ray radiation:
An imaging system to monitor the position and spatial profile of the visible emission from the plasma plume (integral part of PXS)
A focal spot imaging system to monitor the focusing of the attenuated driving laser beam (integral part of PXS)
An X-ray spectrometer, consisting of an X-ray photodiode, an amplifier, and a digital pulse processor emission spectra measurement (integral part of PXS)
On-shot spectrometer and ultra-fast photodiode to analyze the shot-to-shot stability and determine the flux as an online monitoring system (additional monitoring system)
The X-ray output port has three output Beryllium windows: two for user end stations and one for the X-ray emission monitor. Following end stations are deployed at the PXS beam line:
1. Goniometer-based diffractometer including a Cu-Ka X-ray tube to provide CW X-ray pump beam and additional X-ray analysis
2. Von Hamos X-ray absorption/emission spectrometer
Both end stations are complemented by single-photon counting (Dectris EIGER X 1M) and charge integrating (Princeton MTE 2048B, Andor iKON B-DD) X-ray detectors as well as scintillator-based photodiode arrays (Hamamatsu S-11866-128G-2).
E2: X-RAY SOURCES
The experimental hall E2 is located at the basement of the ELI Beamlines building and will be dedicated to the generation of ultrafast and bright hard X-ray beams for user experiments.
In the E2 hall, a PW-class laser will be available at a 10 Hz repetition rate. The X-ray beam lines rely on focusing the L3 laser into a gas jet or a gas cell. For an appropriate choice of experimental parameters (laser intensity, laser spot size and duration, and electron density in the gas), electrons are accelerated to relativistic energies by plasma wakefield acceleration and wiggled by the plasma itself (Betatron source) or by a second laser pulse (Compton source). This results in the emission of intense femtosecond X-ray or gamma-ray beams emitted from a micron-size source. The features of the radiation that is produced will depend on the needs of the end user. It will be possible to deliver either narrow spectrum (10% energy spread) or broadband radiation in a spectral range from keV to a few MeVs.
E3: PLASMA PHYSICS PLATFORM
The plasma physics platform located in the experimental hall E3 is a multi-functional experimental infrastructure designed to perform laser-plasma and laser-matter interaction research predominantly on the following topics:
High energy density physics (HEDP)
Warm dense matter (WDM)
Plasma optics (PO)
Laboratory astrophysics (LA)
Ultra-high intensity interaction (UHI).
P3 features a unique infrastructure that includes the following:
Up to 5 synchronized laser beams (initially ~ps; later ~fs level)
High repetition rate lasers (10 Hz and 1 Hz)
High intensity (10 PW) as well as high energy (kJ) operation
A large versatile vacuum chamber (~45 m3)
A pulsed power device for magnetic field generation (>50 Tesla)
A Betatron for diagnostic purposes
A plasma mirror chamber for contrast enhancement
An optical switchyard and manipulation station (MOB) including delay lines, frequency conversion, leakage optics for pulse characterization, adaptive optics, etc.
P3 is oriented towards fundamental research applications that do not involve any predefined secondary sources. This chamber accommodates the ELI lasers L2, L3, and L4. L4 is provided with a flexible energy partition between L4n (nanosecond-scale), L4f (femtosecond-scale), and L4p (picosecond-scale).
What the users get:
Initially the experimental hall E3 will provide two fundamental experimental configurations in the P3 infrastructure:
a short-focal length setup for experiments related to X-rays and ions
a long-focal length setup for experiments related to electrons
Basic diagnostics for plasma and laser beam characterization will be available.
Short focal-length setup (SFL)
The L3 laser beam 10 J, 30 fs, 3 Hz can be focused to a focal spot size of 5 mm FWHM using a gold coated f/#3 OAP available at the facility. The current setup can provide focused intensities of about 5 x 1021 W/cm2. Targets can be mounted on a XYZ translation stage and a rotation stage. The minimum angle of incidence on the solid target is limited to 15 degrees. If a port is desired in the direction of target normal, then the angle of incidence is limited to either 18 degrees or 53 degrees. A set of visible, electron, ion and X-ray detectors will be available to characterize the interaction.
Targets
Solid targets can either be shot as individual foils assembled on a rastor or in the form of tape delivery system. The current configuration of the tape system can provide a position accuracy of ± 2 μm. The tape delivery system is design to dispense tape targets of 2 cm width and thickness in the range of 5 μm to 50 μm.
Long focal-length setup (LFL)
We can provide the long focusing setup for L3 laser, using a gold coated spherical mirror with focal length of 5 m. For the first phase of user experiment, we will provide electron from laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) and related radiation, especially betatron radiation, inverse Compton radiation. A set of electron and X-ray diagnostics will be available to characterize the electron and X-ray beam. A second laser beam (40 mm) would be available which is synchronized with L3 laser. It can be used for plasma probing (shadowgraphy/interferometry) or pump-probe experiment with the betatron X-ray beam.
The research program in E3 is accompanied and supported by strong theory and simulation activities that will help to interpret experimental data, to do predictive modeling of experiments, and to help to design future experiments. Due to the variety of phenomena that will be studied, many different simulation tools are available.The simulation work becomes possible due to a local ELI-BL HPC cluster.
E4: ION ACCELERATION
The E4 experimental hall is located in the basement of the ELI Beamlines building and is dedicated to user experiments that involve ion acceleration.
The ELI Multidisciplinary Applications of laser-Ion Acceleration (ELIMAIA) beamline is located in E4 hall.
Most of the building services in E4 are provided through hubs with unified connection panels. The building services provide HVAC and lights as well as several distributed utilities for specific usage, such as primary vacuum (backing and rough), de-mineralized cooling water, compressed, clean, dry air, gaseous nitrogen at room temperature, communication networks, drainage, and exhalation exhaust.
The E4 experimental area allows users to test various samples with laser accelerated ion sources because of its ion beam transport and dosimetry section, as well as to investigate innovative schemes for laser-driven ion acceleration that can be accommodated in the flexible interaction chamber.
E5: ELECTRON ACCELARATION & LASER UNDULATOR X-RAY SOURCE
The E5 experimental hall is located in the basement of the ELI-Beamlines building and will be dedicated to electron acceleration and to X-ray user experiments. The High-energy Electron by Laser Light (HELL) experimental platform and the Laser Undulator X-rays (LUX) beam lines are located in E5.
Most of the building services in E5 are provided through hubs with unified connection panels. The building services provide HVAC and lights as well as several distributed utilities for specific usage, such as primary vacuum (backing and rough), de-mineralized cooling water, compressed, clean, dry air, gaseous nitrogen at room temperature, communication networks, drainage, and exhalation exhaust.
The large size of this experimental hall (about 50m extendable up to 110m for the future use of the 10PW kilo-Joule class laser) enables the use of very long focal lengths for laser-matter interaction and allows for various possibilities such as testing a multi-stage electron acceleration approach and, most important, the use of magnetic undulators for the future perspective of generating X-ray radiation in the so-called XFEL scheme.
The E5 experimental hall covers a wide range of user needs based on the LWFA method. The LUX beam line is dedicated to users interested in the irradiation of various samples through the most advanced techniques; the HELL platform is a flexible experimental area mainly dedicated to users who want to test innovative concepts or simply to use the most advanced technologies for accelerating electrons by lasers at multi-GeV level.
LABORATORIES
BIOLAB
The ELI Beamlines building hosts an advanced biological laboratory (BioLab, LB.02.37) for the ELIBIO Project. This large laboratory has approximately 400 sq. m. of lab space and is located on the 2nd basement, close to the experimental halls.
Aside from the instrumentation utilized for research activities on femtosecond laser spectroscopy which is described elsewhere, the BioLab is equipped with the following instrumentation:
Sample preparation
Cell culture
Incubator POL-EKO CLN53, 50l capacity, up to 100oC
Refrigerated incubating orbital shakers
Labwit ZWYR-240 (cap. 4 x 2l bottles)
2x Labwit ZWYC-290A (cap. 4 x 5l bottles)
Protein purification
Centrifuges
Large volume – HIMAC CR22N (4l up to 15 300g)
Ultra – Beckman Coulter Optima X-PN80 (up to 210 000g)
Benchtop – Medium volume (15 ml) – Hermle Z 326 K
Microliter refrigerated – Hermle Z 216 MK
Microliter x2 – Hermle Z216 M
Homogenizer (Avestin EmulsiFlex C3)
Sonicator (QSonica 700)
FPLC – (BIORAD NGC Quest™ 10 Plus)
Molecular Genetics
Benchmark H5000-HC-E shaker (20 x 1.5 ml, 6 x 50 ml)
PCR cycler – Analytic Jena TAdvanced Twin 48 G
Electrophoresis equipment (power supply, tanks, etc.)
Gel and Blot Imager (Bio-Rad Chemidoc MP)
Crystallisation
Incubators for crystal growth (Schoeller PHCBi MIR-554)
refrigerated thermomixer for 15 ml vials
Development of sample delivery methods
Differential mobility analyzer / Particle sizer (TSI)
Laser for injector tests (Litron Nano PIV)
Camera for Mie scattering
Nanoparticle tracking analyzer (Malvern Nanosight)
Pressure systems, liquid jet injectors, aerosol generation equipment (electrospray, GDVN)
Sample characterisation
Spectroscopy
Time-correlated single photon counting system (Picoquant)
FTIR Spectrometer (Shimadzu IRSpirit 7800-350 cm-1)
double-beam UV-VIS-NIR absorption spectrophotometer (JASCO V-770, 190-2700 nm)
Microscopy
Fluorescence microscope (Zeiss AxioImager Z2)
Inverted microscope (Zeiss AxioObserver)
High-end polarizing stereomicroscope (Zeiss Discovery V-20)
Environmental scanning electron microscope
Thermo Scientific / FEI Quattro S
detectors: ETD, GSED, DBS, STEM
wet-STEM cold stage
Quorum Cryo-SEM PP3010T preparation system
Freezing and drying samples
Platinum plasma sputtering
In-chamber cryo-stage
BIOCHEMICAL AND CHEMICAL LABS
Regular user operations are supported by two small laboratory rooms oriented at work with “wet” samples, the Biochemical laboratory (BioChemLab, LB.1.05) and the Chemical laboratory (ChemLab, LB.1.12). The labs support manipulation and basic sample preparation and characterization for the molecular and biological research applications at ELI Beamlines.
The two labs contain the following equipment:
Controlled environment chambers:
chemical fume hood (width: 150 cm)
hazardous chemical storage cabinets (corrosives, flammables, toxics)
biological safety cabinet/box (width: 120 cm)
inert gas glove-box (acrylic, w: 85 cm) with transfer chamber (30 cm)
combined refrigerator-freezer (+4°C/-18°C), deep freezer (-85°C)
heating water bath shaker (28 liter, temp.: from ambient up to 99 °C)
ultrasonic bath (heated, 3 liters capacity)
forced convection drying oven (up to +250°C)
Tools and consumables:
small unit for purified deionized water (type I, 18.2 MΩ.cm)
magnetic stirring hot plates (up to 550°C), shakers, and a vortexer
pipettors
centrifuges (small: 15000 rpm, large: 4200 rpm)
glassware, plasticware
storage of chemicals (acids, bases, buffer salts, organic solvents)
Instruments:
analytical balance (+/- 0.01 mg), precision balances (+/- 10 mg)
UV-VIS-NIR spectrophotometer (190-1100 nm) for liquid cells
compact fiber spectro-fluorimeter with LED excitation sources
optical stereomicroscope (8x – 80x magnification) with a digital camera
pH/ORP/mV-meter and conductometer
Since working in the bio+chemical labs entails potential contact with various safety hazards, to get permission for independent access and work in the labs, an approximately 1,5 hour on-site training needs to be performed.
RADLAB
RadLab is a laboratory dedicated for radiation protection purposes. RadLab is used mainly for calibrations requiring usage of radioactive sources, gamma spectrometry, and optical luminescence detectors (OSL – Optically stimulated luminescence).
The lab contains the following equipment:
Sealed calibration ionizing radiation sources
Am-241, Cs-137, Co-60, Am-Be
Marinelli Beaker Radionuclides mixture for HpGe calibration
Ionizing radiation monitors
RDS-31 (Modular radiation survey meter) with GMP-11-3 (External beta probe)
RT-30 (NaI(Tl) Scintilation handheld spectrometer)
RDS-80 (Survey contamination monitor)
CoMo-170 (Contamination monitor)
Ionizing radiation spectrometry
ORTEC High Purity Germanium (HpGe) detector
DSPEC-50 Multichannel analyzer
Personal dosimeters
EPD Thermo (gama)
EPD-N2 Thermo (gama + neutrons)
TL (Thermoluminescence) / OSL (Optically stimulated luminescence) equipment
Lexsyg smart reader
BeO chips (gama dosimetry)
6LiF + 7LiF chips (neutron dosimetry)
LE 09/11 (Laboratory chamber furnace up to 1100 °C)
TARGETLAB
For valuable results and statistics, all experiments require well defined and reliable targets and here comes the role of the TargetLAB.
The main goals of the TargetLAB are fabrication, characterization, handling and assembly of various types of targets being investigated during experimental research campaigns within ELI Research Programs.
Dedicated personnel is responsible for high quality micro and nano fabrication together with delivering full characterization of the samples, especially key features like, topography, uniformity, structure, defects, homogeneity etc.
Available instrumentation in the area includes:
– Digital optical microscope with optical profilometer
– Glove box for manipulation in inert gas and low vacuum conditions
– Analytic weigh sensor with accuracy +/- 1 microgram and stability below +/- 10 micrograms
– Tools for assembly
OPTICAL LABS
Research Programmes 1-6 have their own optical labs for preparation of optical components and setups. There are all together two smaller labs (RP1) and one larger lab (RP2-RP6) in ISO 7 in the laboratory building.
INTEGRATION LAB CS
Primary tasks of the lab are acceptance testing and commissioining on experimental setups control hardware before they final cleaning and integration to beamlines endstations. The tests are to be conducted on the experimental setups which were developed and assembled outside of the ELI Beamlines and are brought to the ELI Beamlines by visiting research teams as a part of their scheduled experimental works. The goals are to conduct functional tests, possible hardware and software faults or dammages isolation and mittigation and the compatibility checks against the ELI Beamlines local control systems. Lab is equipped with the most advanced measuring and diagnostic instruments, has direct connection to all ELI Beamlines key premisses (laser and experimental halls, their control rooms, CS server room and the time etalon) via dedicated CS fibre optics network. For easy manipulation with large experimental setups, the CS Integration Lab is also equipped with freight gate towards the cargo lift.
At this period (2019Q3-2020Q2) there are evaluation and developers works on the unified control software for White Rabbit system under go, which is intended for real time delivery and sub-nanosecond synchronization purposes accross ELI Beamlines.
WORKSHOPS
OPTO-MECHANICAL WORKSHOP
The workshop serves for assembly, adjustment and testing of optomechanical devices prototypes. It is used for metrology of optomechanical devices, acceptance tests, cleaning, repairs and maintenance.
VACUUM WORKSHOP
The Vacuum Workshop is the place for testing various vacuum related devices, such as gauges, pumps, valves, and components that are used in vacuum environment.
The following activities are carried out in the laboratory:
Assembling, adjustment and testing of vacuum devices,
Outgassing tests of material,
Testing of electrical devices in vacuum environment,
Detecting leaks in vacuum systems,
Mass spectrometry,
Cleaning of vacuum equipment,
Maintenance of vacuum components,
Calibration vacuum gages.
The lab contains the following equipment:
Helium leak detectors
Vacuum chambers
Turbomolecular pumps
Mass spectrometry
Rotary vacuum pumps
Measurement vacuum devices (different type of vacuum gauges)
Mobile pumping systems
FINE MECHANICS WORKSHOP
Individual systems of ELI Beamlines facility contain large number of optomechanical devices, for example adjustable mirror mounts, alignment units, motorized translation stages, beamsplitter mounts, telescopes, beamreducers, diagnostics optomechanics and many others. Part of optomechanics is commercially available. The rest has to be developed, designed and manufactured. Development of a new optomechanics requires in many cases prototyping and testing which can be performed only in a devoted and appropriately equipped Fine Mechanics Workshop.
Fine Mechanics Workshop serves for:
Assembly, adjustment and testing of optomechanical devices prototypes
Metrology of optomechanical devices
Acceptance tests of delivered optomechanical devices
Cleaning, assembly and adjustment of optomechanical devices for laser facility
Maintenance of optomechanical devices (scheduled parts exchange)
Optomechanical devices repairs (in case of disorder or malfunction)
ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING WORKSHOP
The main tasts:
design of power supply, LSS system, cable trays
manufacturing large electrical devices, switchboards, power distribution boards, cable trays
testing of electrical devices,
assembly of high and low current distributors,
manufacture of connecting cables
preparing, manufacturing and repairing various small electrical and electronic devices
testing of electrical and electronic devices
design and testing of suitable methods for repairing components of power distribution system
manufacturing of PCB (printed circuit boards).
COMPUTING & SIMULATIONS
New insights into complex processes which happen during interactions of ultra-intense laser pulses with targets oftec come from computer simulations. Such simulations enable the scientist to see what happens on the shortest length and time scales. With options to zoom in, pause, and rewind which are naturally unavailable in real experiments, they can explore these processes in great depths.
HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING CENTER
Physics research of matter in extreme conditions is concerned with complex phenomena whose understanding can be illuminated by insights given by computer simulations. At a user facility such as ELI, simulations can help design and interpret experiments by exploring aspects that may be difficult to probe in the real world. It is for reasons like this that development of relevant physics models and massively parallel codes are active areas of work in major laboratories around the world. At the same time, modern trends in computer architectures deployed in current supercomputers point to a greater difficulty of efficiently exploiting the capabilities of modern machines, as more responsibilities fall on the programmers to be able to profit from various parallelism features. Yet, world-class supercomputers keep growing… Scientific computing is thus a field rich with opportunities and challenges and ELI aims at establishing a core capacity that can allow it to profit from future developments in this field. By regarding computer software as an embodiment a research group’s knowledge and by nurturing the cross-disciplinary possibilities that exist between physics and computing, ELI aims at strengthening its R&D capabilities and its value to its users.
ELI seeks to develop its high-performance computing center based on two main fronts: firstly, to count with a relatively small but modern computing infrastructure capable of supporting the development, testing and deployment of good-quality scientific software. Such software can thus be deployed locally or in larger computing centers as needs may arise. Secondly, to develop and nurture the core human skills capable of deploying the computational solutions that ELI’s research demands. At the core of such scientific computing team we have a mixture of physics (for models), mathematics (for numerical schemes) and informatics (for algorithms and implementation) all fueled by and centered in solving the problems posed by the experiments at ELI. Such fertile, interdisciplinary environment can foster scientific development on multiple fronts.
COMPUTER CLUSTER
Complex physical simulations require immense computing power utilizing large cluster computers. ELI provides its scientists with an in-house cluster for fast access to testing their new ideas.
The Eclipse (Extreme Coherent Light Interaction: Plasma Simulations of the Extreme) Cluster provides computational resources for scientists and engineers who work at the ELI facility as well as for ELI’s users who may benefit from computer simulations. From calculations related with radiation activation for design of experimental areas to more detailed aspects of laser-target interactions like laser-plasma phenomena, particle acceleration and such, computer resources such as Eclipse’s can help ELI’s scientists gain further insights into complex phenomena.
The presence of an in-house cluster also serves as a meeting point for the disciplines of physics (theory and applications), mathematics and computer science, fostering collaborative efforts. From code development to optimization, scientists can gain further experience as they locally improve their tools before deploying them in larger computer centers within the Czech Republic or other places in Europe.
Initially Eclipse will make available the following hardware to ELI’s personnel and users:
Number of compute nodes 84
Total number of cores 1,344
Processor Haswell-EP (Intel Xeon E5-2630v3)
Node RAM 128GB (DDR4)
Node hard disk 180GB
Total RAM 10.75 TB
Maximum theoretical peak performance 103 Tflops (single precision)
Network infrastructure Infiniband non-blocking fat-tree configuration
User data storage (home) 768TB
Job data storage (scratch) 192TB
SIMULATION CODES
Advanced computer codes engineered to work on large cluster computers with tens of thousands of CPU cores fine-tuned to use every clock cycle a computer processor has to offer are crucial in simulating the complex physics involved in interactions of ultra-intense laser pulses with matter.
Simulations of laser-target interactions are investigated using the open source, plasma physics simulation code EPOCH (Extendable PIC Open Collaboration) provided in 1D, 2D and 3D versions by CCP-Plasma (The Collaborative Computational Project in Plasma Physics). This relativistic, MPI parallelised PIC code includes, among others, physical processes that may take place in laser-target interactions at ultra-high laser intensities, such as barrier suppression ionisation, quantum electrodynamics (QED) emission and pair production via Breit-Wheeler and Trident processes (in which probabilities of gamma-photon emission or electron-positron pair generation are modelled using a Monte-Carlo technique). Therefore, with the EPOCH code it is possible to simulate laser-target interactions at intensities that ELI-Beamlines is expected to achieve. Data obtained from these simulations can be consequently analysed by several visualisation tools like Mathworks MatLab, VisIt or IDL.
The potential for laser-produced plasmas to yield fundamental insights into high energy density physics (HEDP) is of great interest. Plasmas created in laser laboratory experiments resemble to exciting physical phenomena like astrophysical jets, inertial confinement fusion (ICF) or warm dense matter (WDM). In order to investigate crucial plasma properties (e.g. opacities, equation of state) corresponding to HEDP relevant densities and temperatures, scientists at ELI employ and develop radiation hydrodynamics simulation codes appropriate to reflect theoretical and experimental results. These codes are designed to cover either macroscopic (e.g. expanded plasma profile) or microscopic (e.g. photon spectra) properties of plasma generated in long time scales. This is of special importance in the design of ultra-short pulses experiments, where an expansion of plasma occurs due to nanosecond pre-pulse.
Beside the simulations dedicated to laser-target interactions, at ELI-Beamlines the Monte Carlo transport code FLUKA is used to study the propagation of the radiation. It is an integrated particle physics simulation package developed in cooperation between CERN and INFN. It has many applications in high energy experimental physics and engineering, shielding, detector and telescope design, cosmic ray studies, dosimetry, medical physics and radio-biology. Particularly, at ELI-Beamlines it is used for radiation protection studies and to simulate experiments.
VIRTUAL BEAMLINE
Virtual Beamline is a set of interactive 3D applications for complete contextual virtual simulation of ELI Beamlines facility and research.
Future users of experimental stations at ELI Beamlines will be able to benefit from Virtual Beamline (VBL) – a complex interactive 3D web application that combines detailed models of the facility and equipment with physics simulations and experimental data. The main objective is to provide an integrated tool that helps users to design, configure, simulate, and visualize proposed experiments. Furthermore, the application will also allow access to layouts and datasets for already conducted campaigns.
Notice: Please contact international@erc-assoc.org if you represent this Research Institution and have identified any required additions or modifications to the above information.