Periodic Reporting for period 2 - LASERLAB-EUROPE (The Integrated Initiative of European Laser Research Infrastructures)
Reporting period: 2021-06-01 to 2022-11-30
Laserlab-Europe is the European consortium of major national laser research infrastructures (RI), covering advanced laser science and applications in most domains of research and technology, with particular emphasis on areas with high industrial and social impact, such as bio- and nanophotonics, materials analyses, biology and medicine.
The field of advanced lasers has recently experienced remarkable advances and breakthroughs in laser technologies and novel applications. Laser technology is a key innovation driver for highly varied applications and products in many areas of modern society, thereby substantially contributing to economic growth. Through its strategic approach, Laserlab-Europe aims to strengthen Europe’s leading position and competitiveness in this key area. It facilitates the coordination of laser research activities within the European Research Area by integrating major facilities in most European member states with a long-term perspective and providing concerted and efficient services to researchers in science and industry.
The main objectives of Laserlab-Europe are:
• to promote, in a coordinated way, and on a European scale, the use of advanced lasers and laser-based technologies for research and innovation,
• to serve a cross-disciplinary user community, from academia as well as from industry, by providing transnational access to a comprehensive and complementary set of advanced key laser research installations,
• to increase the European human capital in laser science and applications through user training activities, both from yet underrepresented regions and in novel domains of science and technology,
• to improve the European technological and scientific expertise through staff exchange and through coordinated Joint Research Activities that enable world-class research and innovations for future laser-based applications.
The field of advanced lasers has recently experienced remarkable advances and breakthroughs in laser technologies and novel applications. Laser technology is a key innovation driver for highly varied applications and products in many areas of modern society, thereby substantially contributing to economic growth. Through its strategic approach, Laserlab-Europe aims to strengthen Europe’s leading position and competitiveness in this key area. It facilitates the coordination of laser research activities within the European Research Area by integrating major facilities in most European member states with a long-term perspective and providing concerted and efficient services to researchers in science and industry.
The main objectives of Laserlab-Europe are:
• to promote, in a coordinated way, and on a European scale, the use of advanced lasers and laser-based technologies for research and innovation,
• to serve a cross-disciplinary user community, from academia as well as from industry, by providing transnational access to a comprehensive and complementary set of advanced key laser research installations,
• to increase the European human capital in laser science and applications through user training activities, both from yet underrepresented regions and in novel domains of science and technology,
• to improve the European technological and scientific expertise through staff exchange and through coordinated Joint Research Activities that enable world-class research and innovations for future laser-based applications.
Networking activities tie the project partners together and link Laserlab-Europe to the user community and to emerging Pan-European laser research infrastructures. They provide the means to secure and furthermore boost the efficiency of R&D and help to exploit its innovation potential. Publication of three issues of the Laserlab newsletter, a bridge workshop Science@FELs, two online User Training Workshops on Modelling and on Data Analysis as well as hands-on training for high power laser experiments are among the most important networking activities conducted during the reporting period.
Laserlab-Europe merges the capabilities of a comprehensive consortium of 35 leading European laser RIs in 18 countries. It offers research opportunities to scientists from all over the world through transnational access (TNA) to an Integrated Infrastructure whose combined technical capability and expertise have no counterpart worldwide. During the second 18 months period, after the end of travel restrictions, the Laserlab-Europe TNA activity has taken up speed and the delay has been significantly decreased. A total of 1387 days of access were granted to 344 users, including 93 days of remote access (7%). It is worth noting that 70% of the users are new users, i.e. persons who have not benefited of Laserlab-Europe’s access activity during previous projects. The user community of Laserlab-Europe thus shows a high turnover thanks to Laserlab-Europe’s capacity to attract new users.
Two Joint Research Activities (JRAs), pursued in parallel, strongly support developments of innovative equipment and techniques to improve, beyond the present state-of-the-art, the participating RIs and their services. The topics tackled within these JRAs results from a strategic process that addresses major societal needs, key bottlenecks and challenges in laser technology, diagnostics and metrology, evolving industrial needs, and materials and biomedical science in demand of innovative analytical tools and advanced imaging techniques.
PRISES integrates the improvement of both ultra-short high-power lasers and secondary energetic radiation and particle sources to the development of workstations for multi-scale applications. During the reporting period, new diagnostics were implemented to investigate aging and damaging of laser materials and optics in order to improve the robustness of the primary lasers. Thanks to a better understanding of laser-matter interaction, and in combination to new simulation codes, the reliability of the secondary sources was also optimized, as well as their beam parameters that reach now unprecedented values. X-ray and ion irradiation workstations were thus established and optimized.
ALTIS addresses the needs for new and innovative methodologies and platforms for advanced imaging and spectroscopy in the fields of biomedicine, bio- and nano-materials and environmental science. The partners have jointly worked to expand current tools from the nano- to the micro-metre scale and implement their combination with manipulation methods to probe the biophysical response of samples to external stimuli, while expanding the usability of label-free, non-perturbing, techniques. Capabilities of already developed technologies have also been joint together and powered to allow fast single-cell resolution imaging and probing rapid signalling in living samples.
Laserlab-Europe merges the capabilities of a comprehensive consortium of 35 leading European laser RIs in 18 countries. It offers research opportunities to scientists from all over the world through transnational access (TNA) to an Integrated Infrastructure whose combined technical capability and expertise have no counterpart worldwide. During the second 18 months period, after the end of travel restrictions, the Laserlab-Europe TNA activity has taken up speed and the delay has been significantly decreased. A total of 1387 days of access were granted to 344 users, including 93 days of remote access (7%). It is worth noting that 70% of the users are new users, i.e. persons who have not benefited of Laserlab-Europe’s access activity during previous projects. The user community of Laserlab-Europe thus shows a high turnover thanks to Laserlab-Europe’s capacity to attract new users.
Two Joint Research Activities (JRAs), pursued in parallel, strongly support developments of innovative equipment and techniques to improve, beyond the present state-of-the-art, the participating RIs and their services. The topics tackled within these JRAs results from a strategic process that addresses major societal needs, key bottlenecks and challenges in laser technology, diagnostics and metrology, evolving industrial needs, and materials and biomedical science in demand of innovative analytical tools and advanced imaging techniques.
PRISES integrates the improvement of both ultra-short high-power lasers and secondary energetic radiation and particle sources to the development of workstations for multi-scale applications. During the reporting period, new diagnostics were implemented to investigate aging and damaging of laser materials and optics in order to improve the robustness of the primary lasers. Thanks to a better understanding of laser-matter interaction, and in combination to new simulation codes, the reliability of the secondary sources was also optimized, as well as their beam parameters that reach now unprecedented values. X-ray and ion irradiation workstations were thus established and optimized.
ALTIS addresses the needs for new and innovative methodologies and platforms for advanced imaging and spectroscopy in the fields of biomedicine, bio- and nano-materials and environmental science. The partners have jointly worked to expand current tools from the nano- to the micro-metre scale and implement their combination with manipulation methods to probe the biophysical response of samples to external stimuli, while expanding the usability of label-free, non-perturbing, techniques. Capabilities of already developed technologies have also been joint together and powered to allow fast single-cell resolution imaging and probing rapid signalling in living samples.
Laserlab-Europe has a very strong impact on the European Research Area by pushing the forefront of laser research beyond the state-of-the-art - thereby improving the capabilities and services provided by the participating research infrastructures - and by promoting the use of advanced lasers and laser-based technologies in a wide range of cross-disciplinary applications for the benefit of a wide user community in academia, industry and medicine.
All JRAs include cooperation with industry, SMEs and/or hospitals and medical centres and actions to enhance exploitation and interaction with these latter were launched for a rich exchange of knowledge and ideas and an increased potential of turning innovation into new products and jobs. A new series of regular online Laserlab Talks has been started, which also target topics of relevance for industrial and medical partners. They provide a platform for raising awareness of the opportunities offered by laser technologies and for showcasing Laserlab-Europe activities and expertise to the broader community. The talks are recorded and available on YouTube.
All JRAs include cooperation with industry, SMEs and/or hospitals and medical centres and actions to enhance exploitation and interaction with these latter were launched for a rich exchange of knowledge and ideas and an increased potential of turning innovation into new products and jobs. A new series of regular online Laserlab Talks has been started, which also target topics of relevance for industrial and medical partners. They provide a platform for raising awareness of the opportunities offered by laser technologies and for showcasing Laserlab-Europe activities and expertise to the broader community. The talks are recorded and available on YouTube.