ELI Beamlines

The ELI Beamlines Research Facility, which houses some of the world's most intense laser systems, was transferred from the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences (FZU) to the ELI ERIC (Extreme Light Infrastructure ERIC) international research consortium at the beginning of this year. The centre in Dolní Břežany has thus joined the ranks of scientific centres such as CERN or the European Southern Observatory in Chile.

The Extreme Light Infrastructure ERIC (ELI ERIC) and Institute of Physics (FZU) of the Czech Academy of Sciences have signed agreements to integrate the Beamlines Facility into ELI ERIC. The 6th ELI ERIC General Assembly (GA) approved the agreement and endorsed key policies critical for future operations of ELI ERIC.

Minister Gazdík had the opportunity to talk to the representatives of ELI research teams in the laser and experimental halls. The head of the centre, Roman Hvězda, informed minister Gazdík about the history of the construction and the commissioning of unique research technologies and about current activities for research users.

Operation of the L3-HAPLS laser system (ELI Beamlines Research Centre) at 0.5 PW level was demonstrated through compression of the full energy output pulses currently generated by the laser chain, in the Petawatt vacuum compressor. The L3-HAPLS is a system designed for sustained operation with repetition rate 10 Hz.

ELI Beamlines is a European research centre operating the most powerful laser system in the world. On the occasion of the 60^th anniversary of laser discovery, we spoke about the details of the inception of and the planned research at ELI Beamlines with Professor Jan Řídký, who conceived the project in cooperation with his colleagues.