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Science and research

The biggest research laser facility in Europe will be built on the site of a dilapidated cowshed in the village of X2 Dolní Černošice X2 (map) near Prague. The laser, which will be as big as an airport hall, will be used by not only Czech physicists but by experts from all over the world as well.

The purpose of the laser is aptly expressed in the motto of the project: ELI = “from cancer treatment research to astrophysics”. The ultra-short and extremely intensive pulses of light and particles created by the ELI laser can be used not only in basic research, i.e. chemistry, biology, medical sciences and the development of new materials, but also in the field of practical applications. The extremely intensive electromagnetic impulses will facilitate the imitation of conditions in the vicinity of the horizons of black holes. The laser should also help in saving people’s lives. One of the six research programmes will be dedicated to the development of the most intensive laser accelerator which should be used, among other things, for curing cancer, for which quality but cheap sources of protons are required. The laser might offer new possibilities and techniques for storing radioactive waste.

The main aim of the ELI project is to build the most modern laser facility in the world, where research and application projects concerning interaction between materials and a light pulse of an intensity about thousand times higher than the current maximal attainable values will be implemented. ELI will produce ultra-short laser pulses that typically last a couple of femtoseconds (one thousandth of a trillionth of a second) and power up to 200 PW.

In the future, other research centres may become a part of the ELI project: the Attoseconds Facility planned to be constructed in Hungary will be dedicated to the physics of ultra-short optical pulses in the order of magnitude of attoseconds. A third centre, the Photonuclear Facility, focused on photonuclear physics, is planned for Romania.