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Paris, February 27, 2008
Towards extreme light : the ELI project
As part of the 7th Framework Programme (1), the European Commission has recently entrusted CNRS with the coordination of the preparatory phase of the ELI (Extreme Light Infrastructure) project which aims to construct an ultra powerful laser between 2013 and 2015. Spearheaded by the Laboratoire d'Optique Appliquée (LOA), whose director Gérard Mourou is one of the prime motivators behind the project, and under the joint trusteeship of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Techniques Avancées (ENSTA), Ecole Polytechnique and CNRS, this preparatory phase is scheduled to span three years.
300 persons over 3 years
The European Commission has entrusted 6 million Euros to CNRS, which will be responsible for managing the project. From 2008 to 2011, the LOA, based in Palaiseau near Paris, will spearhead, orchestrate and coordinate the works of 300 European researchers in 50 laboratories in 13 different countries of the European Union. The study will initially focus on the technical aspects, examining the manufacture of more efficient laser crystals and new optical components. The project site also needs to be determined. The Czech Republic, Romania and France (Palaiseau) have put themselves forward as candidates. The first ELI “extreme light” could be generated as of 2013. Sixty scientists, representing the 50 laboratories from the countries involved in the project, came together on the 20 and 21 February 2008 for the kick off meeting in Paris to officially launch the preparatory phase of ELI and define how it will be organized.
At the outcome of the preparatory phase, funded by the European Commission, the ELI Project aims to construct, between 2013 and 2015, an ultra powerful laser - delivering a pulse of around 200 petawatts (2) - which will open the way to a totally new branch of physics. This infrastructure has been identified by ESFRI (European Strategic Forum on Research Infrastructures) as one of the key priorities in terms of major research equipment. Unique in the world, its cost is estimated at 400 million Euros and it aims to provide scientists, engineers and physicists with the most powerful lasers that have hitherto existed, thanks to ultra short pulses. This Pan-European infrastructure represents a first: it will have at its heart the most powerful laser in the world and will generate, for extremely short periods, power intensities equivalent to 100,000 times the energy produced by all of the electricity generating installations on the planet.
The fields of study of ELI and its applications
ELI aims to realize a long standing ambition of physicists since lasers were first developed in the 1960s: to be able to break down vacuum into elementary particles and anti-particles using extreme laser intensities. The ultra short time span of these pulses will enable extremely fleeting movements and reactions measured in attoseconds (10-18s) or even zeptoseconds (10-21s) to be observed in real time. Such ultra intense laser pulses could also reduce, by one thousand to ten thousand times, the distances required by particle accelerators to produce particle or radiation beams. ELI will open the way to a new branch of optics, ultra relativistic optics, giving rise to new avenues of research in particle physics, nuclear physics, astrophysics and cosmology.
The applications associated with extreme light are particularly widespread in the medical field, particularly in biology, materials science, X-ray radiography and even X-ray radiotherapy.
The European Commission has entrusted 6 million Euros to CNRS, which will be responsible for managing the project. From 2008 to 2011, the LOA, based in Palaiseau near Paris, will spearhead, orchestrate and coordinate the works of 300 European researchers in 50 laboratories in 13 different countries of the European Union. The study will initially focus on the technical aspects, examining the manufacture of more efficient laser crystals and new optical components. The project site also needs to be determined. The Czech Republic, Romania and France (Palaiseau) have put themselves forward as candidates. The first ELI “extreme light” could be generated as of 2013. Sixty scientists, representing the 50 laboratories from the countries involved in the project, came together on the 20 and 21 February 2008 for the kick off meeting in Paris to officially launch the preparatory phase of ELI and define how it will be organized.
At the outcome of the preparatory phase, funded by the European Commission, the ELI Project aims to construct, between 2013 and 2015, an ultra powerful laser - delivering a pulse of around 200 petawatts (2) - which will open the way to a totally new branch of physics. This infrastructure has been identified by ESFRI (European Strategic Forum on Research Infrastructures) as one of the key priorities in terms of major research equipment. Unique in the world, its cost is estimated at 400 million Euros and it aims to provide scientists, engineers and physicists with the most powerful lasers that have hitherto existed, thanks to ultra short pulses. This Pan-European infrastructure represents a first: it will have at its heart the most powerful laser in the world and will generate, for extremely short periods, power intensities equivalent to 100,000 times the energy produced by all of the electricity generating installations on the planet.
The fields of study of ELI and its applications
ELI aims to realize a long standing ambition of physicists since lasers were first developed in the 1960s: to be able to break down vacuum into elementary particles and anti-particles using extreme laser intensities. The ultra short time span of these pulses will enable extremely fleeting movements and reactions measured in attoseconds (10-18s) or even zeptoseconds (10-21s) to be observed in real time. Such ultra intense laser pulses could also reduce, by one thousand to ten thousand times, the distances required by particle accelerators to produce particle or radiation beams. ELI will open the way to a new branch of optics, ultra relativistic optics, giving rise to new avenues of research in particle physics, nuclear physics, astrophysics and cosmology.
The applications associated with extreme light are particularly widespread in the medical field, particularly in biology, materials science, X-ray radiography and even X-ray radiotherapy.
Notes:
(1) 7th Framework Programme for Research and Development funded by the European Commission
(2) One petawatt = 1000 million Megawatts
Contact information:
Priscilla Dacher (CNRS)
01 44 96 46 06
priscilla.dacher@cnrs-dir.fr
Jean Deschard (Ecole Polytechnique)
01 69 33 38 90
jean.deschard@polytechnique.edu
Agence MCM / ENSTA
Marie-Claude ZITRONE
04 91 31 47 37
contact@mcmconsultants.fr
and
Valérie Toomeh
01 45 52 54 58
communication@ensta.fr
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