Laser-driven particle beamline for applications

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The research proposal is based on the generation and use of novel laser-based high-brillance ultra-short particle sources and applications. It will make best use of the ALLS laser facility located at INRS, perfectly suited for laser-generated particle acceleration (proton, electrons and neutron sources). These particles have currently very interesting characteristics in comparison to conventional accelerator sources and allow for manifold applications in the field of material science, medicine, fusion energy, biology, astrophysics and Cultural Heritage. The proposal will profit from preliminary promising results and different ongoing collaborations with other national or international laboratories. The research topics embrace several domains such as Lasers, Conventional Accelerator technologies, Advanced Materials and Cultural Heritage. Several students, post-docs and research associate shall be trained on those topics in order to obtain a broad overview about project related work and different innovative science with many links to industry (local and abroad). More in detail, the research project will focus on the following main areas: 1) Development of a stable and reliable high-repetition rate laser-driven proton beamline; 2) Use of this protons for stress testing materials, for advanced material synthesis and for the development of improved diagnostics in the Cultural Heritage; 3) Use of laser-generated protons for high-brillance ultra-short neutron sources; 4) Laser-based Ultra-Fast Electron Diffraction (UED) experiments and applications. The benefits of the proposed research are: (i) Developing expertise in an area of great relevance to future needs in laser/accelerator and material science; (ii) Training of HQP who will be in high demand from both academia and industry; (iii) Providing seed technology and expertise for the creation of technology transfer in Quebec and Canada; (iv) Keeping abreast of developments in the rapidly expanding field of laser-plasma acceleration and applications by being effectively networked nationally and internationally; (v) Reinforcing Canada in the field of photonics and in the role material science innovator, positioning Canada as a key player.