Research Areas
The efforts for approaching new challenging goals in fundamental physics by combining high-power lasers and brilliant beams of highly charged ions are devided into the following five main Research Areas of the institute:
- Improving petawatt laser performance:
The focus of this project is the high-energy high-repetition rate laser technology. Deliverables of the project are the proof of principle for a high-repetition-rate laser at FAIR (Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research), with the experimental demonstration of the key technological issues at the POLARIS (Petawatt Optical Laser Amplifier for Radiation Intensive Experiments) and PHELIX facilities (Petawatt High Energy Laser for Heavy Ion Experiments) and a major upgrade in the existing facilities in terms of pulse contrast, polarization control and routine operation.
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- Merging advanced solid-state laser technology with FEL sources:
The long-term goal of this research area is the development of high-repetition-rate phase-stabilized few-cycle lasers for seeding free-electron lasers, for two- color pump probe experiments and eventually for the generation of intense attosecond hard x-ray pulses at the European XFEL (X-Ray Free-Electron Laser).
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- Laser-driven particle acceleration:
IOQ (Institut für Optik und Quantenelektronik) has been among the pioneers of laser acceleration of ions and electrons. Laser particle acceleration is an exiting new approach providing ultra-short and brilliant particle pulses for a number of novel applications. This research area will benefit from GSI's competence in conditioning ions via monochromatization and bunch rotation, their expertise at PHELIX as well as FZD's (Forschungszentrum Dresden-Rossendorf) and DESY's (Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron) expertise in the handling and diagnosing of sub-ps scale high-charge electron bunches.
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- X-ray science including high-resolution x-ray spectroscopy, polarimetry and laser-based x-ray generation:
GSI (Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung), DESY and FSU (Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena) are key centres of competence an x-ray spectroscopy and instrumentation. The new institute will use the combination of this world leading expertise for the development of novel spectrometers and polarimeters with unprecedented levels of resolution needed for e.g. detecting QED effects in strong laser fields. It will also develop novel x-ray sources, e.g. for seeding FELs or for diagnostics of WDM.
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