World’s most powerful laser points to uncharted arenas

Subject: Science and tech

Section: Msc

Context:

Antonia Toma, an engineer at a research centre in Romania, activates the world’s most powerful laser as part of the European Union’s Infrastructure ELI project, aiming for significant advances across various sectors including health and space.

Details:

The laser facility is located near Bucharest, Romania, and is operated by the French company Thales, leveraging inventions that won the Nobel Prize.
The 2018 Nobel Physics Prize was awarded to France’s Gerard Mourou and Canada’s Donna Strickland for developing precision instruments using laser technology, which the Nobel Academy cited as opening new avenues for understanding and shaping the world.
Gerard Mourou describes the process of amplifying a “small luminous seed” of energy millions of times to achieve “phenomenal powers.”
Mourou envisions applications for the laser including treating nuclear waste to shorten its radioactivity and cleaning space debris, marking a shift from the “century of the electron” to the “21st century being that of the laser.”

Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) Project:

ELI is an international laser user facility open to the global scientific community, representing the first ESFRI Landmark in newer EU Member States.
ELI aims to study extreme light-matter interactions at unprecedented intensities and time scales, contributing to pan-European research efforts.
Three high-power, high-repetition-rate laser facilities have been established in Czech Republic (ELI Beamlines), Hungary (ELI-ALPS), and Romania (ELI-NP) through this investment.
The three ELI pillars will be managed by the European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC), involving governance and funding aspects.
ELI ERIC’s Founding Members include the Host Countries (the Czech Republic and Hungary), Italy (a supporter since ELI’s preparatory phase), and Lithuania (noted for its contributions to laser physics).
Germany and Bulgaria are participating as Founding Observers, with the prospect of future membership.

Romania, which hosts the ELI-NP facility, is expected to join ELI ERIC shortly after its establishment.