NSF Award
2329970
This award supports the design of a new, world-leading, high power laser user facility at the University of Rochester. This design project for the facility to be called EP-OPAL envisions two new powerful lasers to be located at the university's Laboratory for Laser Energetics (UR/LLE). EP-OPAL will employ a technique developed at UR/LLE for the generation of very powerful, ultrashort laser pulses that was recognized by the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics. EP-OPAL aims to push beyond the current state of the art in peak laser power to achieve and study extreme physical conditions, such as ultrahigh electromagnetic fields, temperatures, and pressures that represent the frontier of science in studying matter in the Universe. Once completed, EP-OPAL will be the highest-power laser system in the world. The two laser beams combined will deliver approximately the same total power as incident on the Earth’s surface from the Sun, but focused into an area smaller than the cross-section of a human hair. The design effort will engage the U.S. industry to develop critical laser optics and will include hands-on training of a new generation of laser facility designers and builders.<br/><br/>The EP-OPAL facility design award supports design of two 25-petawatt lasers using optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification, as well as associated experimental and diagnostics systems. The design will be guided by the most pressing scientific questions that can be answered using such a laser system in four areas of frontier research: Particle Acceleration and Advanced Light Sources, High-Field Physics and Quantum Electrodynamics, Laboratory Astrophysics and Planetary Physics, and Laser-Driven Nuclear Physics. Specifically, the main aims of the project are: (1) design the EP-OPAL facility, including lasers, experimental systems and diagnostics, to address a wide array of compelling science; (2) design and prototype high-energy laser amplifiers with shot-cycle times of a few minutes; (3) design and prototype large-optics production and characterization systems. The EP-OPAL facility is envisioned to serve as a learning environment and a hub for diverse scientific networks, offering opportunities for fundamental research and innovation as well as medical, industrial and national security applications. The EP-OPAL facility design effort will engage collaborators at the University of Buffalo, the University of California - Irvine, the University of Notre Dame, the Ohio State University, the University of Maryland - College Park, the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, and an industrial partner Plymouth Grating Laboratory.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
