FPN14-03

Livermore Builds Petawatt Laser for New European Laser Center

February 13, 2014

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is designing and building a 10 Hz petawatt laser to be delivered in 2017 to a new European laser research center located near Prague, Czech Republic. Livermore was awarded a $46 million contract for the laser, which will be the centerpiece of the new $350 laser research center. The center, called ELI (Extreme Light Infrastructure), is one of three new laser research center planned in Europe. The others will be in Hungary and Romania. They are part of the European Research Infrastructures (ERIC) consortium, that includes Germany, Great Britain, France and other countries.

The 10 Hz petatwatt laser will be a major advance over currently available petawatt lasers, which operate typically at only 1 Hz. The technology is a an outgrowth of Livermore's diode-pumped Mercury project that was part of the U.S. High Average Power Laser (HAPL) program, led by Chris Barty. HAPL was a ten year Congressionally-mandated effort aimed at developing the technologies for commercial laser fusion energy. That effort was steadfastly opposed at the time by the U.S. Department of Energy as not being needed for its weapons program.

The ELI petawatt laser will be used for a broad range of research, including physics, medicine, biology, and material sciences and for education. The center will be under the jurisdiction of the Czech Academy of Sciences and will involve 14 Czech universities and research institutes supported by the Ministry of Education.

Livermore's Mike Dunne was involved in negotiations that resulted in an agreement on September 16, 2013 to construct the laser. Other Livermore scientists involved in the project include Constatnin Haefner, Andy Bayramian, and Steve Telford.

Details can be found at: https://str.llnl.gov/january-2014/haefner