Speaker
Description
The University of Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics (UR/LLE) has proposed to the National Science Foundation (NSF) to design OMEGA EP-coupled Optical Parametric Amplifier Lines (EP OPAL), a user facility dedicated to the study of ultrahigh-intensity laser–matter interactions. A potential future implementation of EP OPAL would enable high-impact science with broad community interest in fields that include relativistic plasma physics, ultrahigh field science, high-energy particle beams, x- and gamma-ray sources, matter under extreme conditions, and nuclear physics.
Ultrahigh-peak-power lasers employ chirped-pulse amplification, a technique invented at UR/LLE and recognized by the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics. UR/LLE proposed leveraging its current infrastructure to deliver two 25-PW laser beamlines with focused intensities up to 10$^{24}$ W/cm$^2$ along with four OMEGA EP kilojoule beamlines. The proposed OMEGA EP-coupled optical parametric amplifier lines (EP-OPAL) user facility will have kJ-class beamlines with nanosecond, picosecond, and femtosecond pulses to provide flexible experimental configurations in multiple target areas. This infrastructure would dramatically expand scientific opportunities, and leverage proven expertise in laser engineering, target diagnostics, and user-facility operations. A prototype Multi-Terawatt OPAL system completed in 2020 demonstrated scalable laser technology and provides a smaller user facility.
The proposed NSF Mid-scale Research Infrastructure (Mid-scale RI-1) design project will: (1) design the EP-OPAL facility, including OMEGA EP long-pulse beam transport to the two EP-OPAL target areas; (2) design and prototype actively cooled, high-energy laser amplifiers with shot cycle times of a few minutes that will increase experimental productivity by >10x over existing high-energy laser systems; (3) design and prototype large-optics production and characterization systems; and (4) design experimental systems and diagnostics to address a wide array of compelling science.
A future EP-OPAL facility will provide a unique laboratory platform for exploring four areas of frontier research. Particle Acceleration and Advanced Light Sources (PAALS) promises accelerating electrons and ions beyond 100 GeV and 1 GeV energies, respectively. High-Field Physics and Quantum Electro-Dynamics (HFP/QED) will experimentally access particle and quantum radiation dynamics in the high-acceleration regime to test strong-field QED theories. Laboratory Astrophysics and Planetary Physics (LAPP) will build a bridge between the laboratory and astrophysical observations. Laser-Driven Nuclear Physics (LDNP) will employ proven and new regimes of ion acceleration and photon generation to provide a unique platform for testing modern nuclear theory, studying nuclear structure and nucleosynthesis, and offer novel methods of radiography and nuclear spectroscopy.
This material is based upon work supported by the U. S. Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration under Award Number DE-NA0003856, the University of Rochester, and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.
