Descrizione del progetto
Potenziare i laser ultraveloci per la ricerca fondamentale
La ricerca sui laser ultraveloci e la loro messa in pratica hanno portato grandi benefici alle applicazioni mediche e alle tecnologie di produzione industriale. Tuttavia, la loro importanza va oltre le applicazioni pratiche e si estende alla continuità della ricerca fondamentale. Purtroppo, questi progressi sono limitati dai requisiti di alta potenza e dall’ampia gamma di energia in uscita, con scenari estremi che presentano differenze che vanno dai petawatt ai megawatt. Il progetto MIMAS, finanziato dal CER, mira a sviluppare e mettere in atto una soluzione che riduca la necessità di fibre e semplifichi il processo di aumento di scala. Grazie a questo risultato, il progetto consentirà ai nuovi laser ultraveloci di raggiungere energie di uscita più elevate con una maggiore efficienza e precisione. Tali progressi farebbero potenzialmente progredire la scienza fondamentale.
Obiettivo
Ultrafast lasers, which allow the concentration of light in space and time, have been instrumental in revolutionizing industrial production technologies, medical applications and cutting-edge fundamental research. A common demand for many applications is the combination of maximum pulse peak powers with maximum average powers, in extreme cases involving petawatt (PW) peak powers and megawatt (MW) average powers. Additionally, these parameters must be achieved together with an optimum beam quality and high efficiency. The MIMAS project aims to address these demands and enable new realms of performance for ultrafast lasers.
The basic idea is spatially and temporally separated amplification of ultrashort laser pulses followed by coherent combination. This overcomes all the scaling limitations known in single-emitter systems. Moreover, the spatially separated amplification will be developed to an integrated and highly compact configuration: an ytterbium-doped multicore fiber. In addition, it is proposed that a sequence of pulses be amplified with an encoded phase pattern, causing a coherent pulse stacking at the system output.
The targeted laser pulse parameters are completely beyond the scope of current laser technology and therefore able to revolutionize many applications. The target is to generate a pulse energy of >1J at 10kHz repetition rate, i.e. an average power of >10 kW, with a wall-plug efficiency of >10%. Together with a pulse duration of <200fs, such performance results in a pulse peak power of >5 TW in a scalable architecture. This outstanding performance, which is three orders of magnitude above the capabilities of today’s laser systems, is emitted from only two fibers and features excellent beam quality.
I am deeply convinced that such an ultrafast laser source will be the key element in a number of experiments in modern sciences; not only in fundamental physics but also in biology and medicine, it will stimulate seminal discoveries and breakthroughs.
Campo scientifico
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
ERC-ADG - Advanced GrantIstituzione ospitante
07743 JENA
Germania