MRI: Acquisition of New Pump Lasers for Upgrade of Hercules Laser System to 500 TW

MRI：采购新型泵浦激光器，将 Hercules 激光系统升级至 500 TW

• 批准号: 1725482
• 负责人: Karl Krushelnick
• 金额: $ 131.3万
• 依托单位: Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-08-15 至 2020-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1725482&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: MRI; Acquisition; New; Pump; Lasers

This grant provides funding to increase the power of the HERCULES laser facility at the University of Michigan to enable fundamental research in frontier areas of plasma, laser and optical physics. This research will foster new technologies that impact medicine, energy and national security in addition to scientific applications across a very broad range of other fields: from biology to materials science. Particular applications of this research include the development of compact laser generated sources of energetic ion and gamma-ray beams for cancer treatment, high resolution imaging, and detection of nuclear materials for Homeland Security purposes. Another potential major application for this laser system is as a "table-top" electron accelerator and x-ray source. The development of such table-top systems will be transformative, since they would be very compact and relatively inexpensive. Over the past decade the high power laser systems at Michigan have become important facilities for graduate student training. US and international researchers and students will continue to take part in the research projects using the extreme laser intensities available with the upgraded HERCULES facility.This grant will enable acquisition of two new pump lasers and associated equipment for the final two amplification stages of the HERCULES laser system at the Center for Ultrafast Optical Science at the University of Michigan. HERCULES will then operate either at a peak power of 500 TW (five times its present capability) or at 50 TW with an increased repetition rate of 5 Hz. These upgraded amplifiers will replace two existing "home-built" pump laser systems which have recently degraded in performance and reliability. The HERCULES laser system has previously achieved the world's highest focused laser intensities, however one of the most exciting frontiers for these lasers is to go beyond this -- to explore the dynamics of plasma in ultra-relativistic fields and observe the effects of radiation reaction and the effects of nonlinear Quantum Electrodynamics on laser plasma interactions. Research in this unexplored regime will be made possible by the upgraded system.

该赠款提供了资金，以提高密歇根大学的大力神激光设施的力量，以在等离子体，激光和光学物理学的边境地区启用基础研究。这项研究还将促进新技术，这些技术除了在其他广泛领域的科学应用外，还会影响医学，能源和国家安全：从生物学到材料科学。这项研究的特殊应用包括为癌症治疗，高分辨率成像以及用于国土安全目的的核材料的检测而开发紧凑的激光产生的能量离子和伽马射线梁的来源。该激光系统的另一个潜在主要应用是“桌面”电子加速器和X射线源。这种台式系统的开发将具有变革性，因为它们将非常紧凑且相对便宜。在过去的十年中，密歇根州的高功率激光系统已成为研究生培训的重要设施。美国和国际研究人员和学生将继续使用升级的大力神设备可用的极端激光强度参与研究项目。这项拨款将在密歇根州大学的超级武装科学中心的最终两个扩增阶段获得两个新的泵激光器和相关设备。然后，大力神将以500 TW的峰值功率（目前功能的五倍）或50 TW的峰值运行，重复率提高了5 Hz。这些升级的放大器将替换两个现有的“家用”泵激光系统，这些系统最近在性能和可靠性上降低了。大力神激光系统以前已经达到了世界上最高的激光强度，但是对于这些激光器而言，最令人兴奋的边界之一就是超越这一点 - 探索在超偏见的领域中等离子体的动态，并观察到辐射反应的效果以及非线性量子量子量动力动力学对激光对激光质量相互作用的影响。升级的系统将使这种未开发的制度进行研究。