Mid-scale RI-1 (M1:IP): Zettawatt-Equivalent Ultrashort Pulse Laser System (ZEUS)

美国密歇根大学Gerard Mourou超快光学科学中心（CUOS）是由美国国家科学基金会（National Science Foundation）创立的，作为一个跨学科研究中心已有25年以上的历史。CUOS促进了超短持续时间激光脉冲在基础科学探索和新技术中的应用。由于目前的拨款，CUOS现有的HERCULES激光系统将变成一个独特的，世界级的激光器，作为美国国家科学基金会学术社区的科学用户设施。该设施将被称为ZEUS，将为科学、医疗、国防和工业研究提供世界领先的能力，如新型粒子加速器、先进放射工具和工业诊断。这项研究的主要社会影响将包括下一代激光科学家的培训，新技术专利的许可和衍生公司的形成，以及对极端电磁场中的物质的科学理解。ZEUS设施的建立将使CUOS能够继续培养大量的博士科学家，他们将继续在学术界，高科技行业和美国国家实验室工作。过去二十年见证了革命性光源的发展，光源具有前所未有的以原子尺度精度探测和控制物质的能力。超快光学科学中心一直处于这种高功率激光技术发展的前沿，目前HERCULES激光器的峰值功率高达500 TW。根据这笔拨款建造的ZEUS设施将包括一个双光束线3 PetaWatt激光系统，该系统将提供独特的新能力。这将成为美国科学家以及更广泛的国际研究界的高功率激光用户设施，并将对设施访问进行公开透明的外部审查过程，并将每年30周专门用于外部用户实验。ZEUS（泽瓦当量超短脉冲激光系统）的名称是指佩瓦激光脉冲与GeV能量电子束碰撞的相互作用，电子束可以由两条光束线中的一条产生。这种几何结构在电子束的剩余框架中提供了相当于“齐瓦”功率激光相互作用（10^21瓦）的能量。因此，它将允许探索相对论等离子体中非线性量子电动力学的基本但尚未解决的问题，包括非微扰量子辐射反应和电子-正电子对产生机制。进一步的实验将包括使用飞秒x射线作为超短时间尺度上的物质动力学探针的泵浦探测实验，GeV离子束的产生，电子-正电子射流不稳定性的产生，真空极化效应的探索，相对论天体物理冲击，以及“外来”粒子如介子和介子的产生。一旦完成，ZEUS激光系统将成为美国最高功率的激光系统，并将在未来十年成为世界上最高功率的激光器之一。该项目是基金会范围内的中等规模研究基础设施计划的一部分，该设施的能力将使科学家能够解决NSF“宇宙之窗：多信使天体物理学时代”大构想的目标。该项目的主要支持是由多学科活动的数学和物理科学办公室和物理系提供的。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Gerard Mourou Center for Ultrafast Optical Science (CUOS) at the University of Michigan was founded by the National Science Foundation and has been an interdisciplinary research center for more than 25 years. CUOS promotes the use of ultra-short duration laser pulses for basic scientific exploration and new technologies. As a result of the present grant, the existing HERCULES laser system at CUOS will be turned into a unique, world-class suit of lasers to be available as an NSF scientific user facility for the academic community. The facility will be called ZEUS and will provide world-leading capabilities for scientific, medical, defense and industrial research, such as novel particle accelerators, advanced radiological tools, and industrial diagnostics. Major societal impacts of this research will include the training of the next generation of laser scientists, the licensing of patents in new technologies and the formation of spin-off companies in addition to scientific understanding of matter in extreme electromagnetic fields. The establishment of the ZEUS facility will enable CUOS to continue to produce a large number of PhD scientists who will go on to work in academia, high technology industries and at US national laboratories.The past two decades have witnessed the development of revolutionary light sources having the unprecedented ability to probe and control matter with atomic scale precision. The Center for Ultrafast Optical Science has been at the forefront in the development of this high-power laser technology, with the HERCULES laser presently operational at peak powers up to 500 TW. The ZEUS facility to be constructed as a result of this grant will include a dual-beamline 3 PetaWatt laser system that will provide unique new capabilities. This will be a high power laser user facility for US scientists as well as for the wider international research community, and will have an open and transparent external review process for facility access and 30 weeks per year dedicated to external user experiments. The name ZEUS (Zettawatt-Equivalent Ultrashort pulse laser System) refers to the interaction of a PetaWatt laser pulse colliding with a GeV energy electron beam that can be generated by one of its two beamlines. This geometry provides the equivalent of a "Zettawatt" power laser interaction (10^21 Watts) in the rest frame of the electron beam. It will consequently allow exploration of fundamental yet unanswered questions regarding non-linear quantum electrodynamics in relativistic plasmas, including non-perturbative quantum radiation reaction and electron-positron pair production mechanisms. Further experiments enabled by this facility will include pump-probe experiments using femtosecond x-rays as a probe of material dynamics on ultra-short timescales, the production of GeV ion beams, the generation of instabilities in electron-positron jets, the exploration of vacuum polarization effects, relativistic astrophysical shocks, and the production of "exotic" particles such as pions and muons. Once completed, the ZEUS laser system will be the highest-power laser system in the US and will be among the highest-power lasers worldwide for the next decade. This project is part of the Foundation-wide Mid-scale Research Infrastructure program and the facility capabilities will allow scientists to address the goals of NSF's "Windows on the Universe: The Era of Multi-Messenger Astrophysics" Big Idea. Primary support for the project is provided by the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Office of Multidisciplinary Activities and the Division of Physics.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.