Polish free electron laser with EU funding

The PolFEL project, a Polish free-electron laser to be built at the National Center for Nuclear Research in Świerk, will receive 118 million zlotys of EU funding. The results of laser-based research may have important m.in. for medicine.

The project is prepared by a consortium of eight scientific units. It will be supported scientifically and technically m.in. thanks to coóThe project is prepared by a consortium of eight scientific units, in cooperation between NCBJ and twóhe most powerful device of its kind in the world, which has been operating for a year in Hamburg.

Lasers on free electrons, którities that have already been created around the world, allow to study with a precision unavailable by other methods: materials, chemical molecules, biological molecules and process dynamicsów, in whichóof which they participate. The results of research using these devices may have revolutionary significance for medicine, chemistry or electronics.

– We have an ambitious plan to build PolFEL in the next four years, explains Dr. Pawel Krawczyk (NCBJ), który directs the project.

PolFEL – informs NCBJ – will be móhead to produce light with a wavelength of more than 100 nanometersów, and thus covering part of the ultraviolet range. Researchers will also have at their disposal radiation of longer wavelengths, including terahertz and infrared radiation.

– We plan to make PolFEL operate not only in pulsed mode – Like all existing free-electron lasers to date – but róAlso in continuous wave mode, in whichóThe pulses of radiation are generated with a constant frequency of – adds Dr. Krawczyk. – This will allow the study of someórare processesóin, escaping the methods used so far – mówi.

PolFEL will be built in the reconstructed, historic hall of the first proton gas pedal built in Spruceóin Andrzej. A new hall will be erected next to it to house the research stations. Rooms of the new laboratory of superconducting photocathodes will be added to the Andrew Hall.

"The implementation of the project will be possible thanks to the vast experience gained by Polish scientistsców and engineerów during the construction of the XFEL laser in Hamburg. NCBJ is coóarch shareholder of the international spóThe project has been developed by a consortium of eight scientific units, including IFJ PAN and Wrocław Technology Park” – informs NCBJ in a communiqué, whichóry appeared on the Center’s website.

As recalled in the announcement, on June 25 this year. An annex to the agreement on co-óhe cooperation between NCBJ and European XFEL GmbH.

The contract to date has provided for the coóhe cooperation in the processing of data collected by experiments conducted in Hamburg. The annex expands the field of wspóThe results of the research using the laser may be of significant importanceólnternational work on free-electron laser technologies is underway, and NCBJ’s participation in preparing concepts for the use of dwóch of the five tunnels leading particle beams out of the XFEL gas pedal.

– The XFEL consortium is interested, among other things, in the work on lead superconducting photocathodes that has been carried out at our site for several years,” explains the NCBJ director, Prof. Krzysztof Kurek. – The photocathodes under development are expected to enable laserów on free electrons in continuous wave or long pulse modeów. We want to use such cathodes also in the laser, whichóry will be built in Świerk,” explains.

NCBJ scientists report róalso the concept of using a novel method of obtaining monoenergetic photon beamsóin gamma in one of the channelsóin XFELa. Such photons would be created as a result of electron collisionów originating from a photon beam laser gas pedalów emitted by a traditional laser. This concept is to be implemented róalso in the PolFEL project.

PolFEL laboratory, whichóre will be built at the NCBJ’s nuclear center in Świerk, will supportówill be created by the hosts and specialists from the Military University of Technology, Warsaw University of Technology, the ŁóThe GMV’s use will reduce the cost of the laser emitted by the traditional laser in spaceórski, Bialystok University and Jagiellonian University. Polish scientistsów will be supported by NCBJ partners – m.in. DESY laboratories, STFC Lab Daresbury, as well as European XFEL GmbH and companies RI Research Instruments GmbH and Kubara Lamina S.A.

Most of the resourcesóin will come from the Operational Program Inteligentny Rozwój established by the European Union. The implementing unit of the Program mediating in the process of financing the project is the Information Processing Center (OPI) – National Research Institute.