The European Cluster of Advanced Laser Light Sources - Guiding light for the world’s brightest light sources
For the past half-century, two special kinds of light have changed the landscape of research. Advanced visible-spectrum optical lasers have propelled studies into ultrafast processes, new materials, telecommunications, and many other fields, while intense X-rays produced at synchrotrons have helped image tiny structures and otherwise invisible parts of matter, enabling huge leaps in biochemistry, pharmacology, and materials science. New developments have enhanced the generation of X-rays at optical-laser and accelerator facilities, resulting in the creation of large international research centres. Thousands of scientists in biomedicine, physics, materials science and many other fields from around the world come to these centres to use the unique radiation available there. The European Union is now funding a 7 million-euro effort to bring these research centres together through the European Cluster of Advanced Laser Light Sources (EUCALL) project. The project will be managed by European XFEL, an X-ray free-electron laser facility currently under construction in the Hamburg area of Germany. EUCALL is a Horizon 2020 project which addresses the emerging overlap of technological and scientific applications of free electron laser (FEL) and optical laser (OL) radiation. The aim of EUCALL is to support the efficient implementation and operation of the ESFRI advanced laser light source projects European XFEL and the Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) and to initiate a process assuring that the ensemble of advanced laser light sources in Europe is optimally used and further developed for science and innovation in the European Research Area. EUCALL essentially has four components: One work package is about overall coordination and management of the project. The second work package deals with dissemination and outreach, which includes promotion and support of communication and training between EUCALL partners, toward users and international neighbouring Research Infrastructure (RI) communities, as well as support of the exploitation of the innovation potential. The third work package of EUCALL aims to identify and strengthen synergies between the OL and FEL user communities, and between their respective RIs at the national and pan-European level. This involves identification of novel research opportunities arising due to the combined ensemble of RIs, promotion of optimised combined use of different types of laser light sources, identification of joint foresight topics in science and research policy, development of the innovation potential of the network and a new strategy for coordinated user training and organisation of experience exchange. Work Packages 4-7 are of a technical nature, and consist of development of a platform to fully simulate experiments at the various light sources; ultrafast online image processing, data transfer and processing of digitiser data for experiments at the RIs; an integrated concept for decentralised sample characterisation and fast sample positioning at EUCALL’s facilities; and pulse characterisation tools with femtosecond time resolution, wavefront sensor and analysis software, and a transparent intensity monitor for use at the advanced laser light sources. EUCALL is carried out by the European X-ray Free Electron Laser Facility GmbH as project coordinator and as its partners, the German Electron-Synchrotron (DESY), Elettra Synchrotron Trieste, the Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI), the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Lund University and Paul-Scherrer-Institute. The users of FEL radiation are represented in EUCALL by a member of the cluster "FELs of Europe" while the users of OL are represented by a member of the cluster "LaserLab Europe". EUCALL launched on 1. October 2014 runs for the project period 2015-2018. www.eucall.eu contact@eucall.eu
Countries
Switzerland, Czechia, Germany, France, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Sweden