The Intensity-Pulse Duration Conjecture: ELI’s Lynchpin ELI-NP: The Way Ahead Bucharest March 10, 2011 Gérard Mourou, Institut de Lumière Extrême 28/02/11mourou CEA Bruyere

The laser is 50!! T. Maiman Hughes Laboratory May /02/11mourou CEA Bruyere

Laser Physics 1eV 1960 Cold Atoms feV-neV 2010 Relativistic Optics GeV-TeV 2010 Atomic, molecular and optical (AMO)Physics Atom Optics Quantum Optics Metrology Condensed-Matter Physics Quantum Information Science ( Quantum Computer) Chemistry Relativistic/ultraRelativistic Optics Plasma physics Accelerator physics Nuclear Physics Cosmology NL QED General Relativity Extradimension physics 9/3/103Présentation Site ILE G. Mourou

Mission: “”””””Study matter from atom to vacuum

Until today Fundamental Research has been carried out and dominated by the Particle-based Paradigm: namely accelerator 28/02/11mourou CEA Bruyere

20 th Century, the Electron Century Basic Research Dominated by Massive and Charged Particles 28/02/11mourou CEA Bruyere

21 st Century; the Photon Century Could basic research be driven by the massless and chargeless particles; Photons? The First exemple is the Extreme Light Infrastructure ELI. ? 28/02/11mourou CEA Bruyere

21 st Century; the Photon Century Could basic research be driven by the massless and chargeless Photons? ? 28/02/11mourou CEA Bruyere

Large Scale Lasers: Could they become the Next Large Scale Fondamental Research Infrastructures? 28/02/11mourou CEA Bruyere

Tool Boxe Includes, large fields to induce large scale perturbations in Atoms, Nuclei and Vacuum. To produce ultrashort pulses of radiation and particle to probe ultrafast events in atomic, nuclear physics,.., in femto, atto, zepto, yocto second regime.

28/02/11mourou CEA Bruyere

28/7/11G Mourou CEA Bruyere Power/intensity and Pulse Duration are naturally linked together 1)To get high peak power you must decrease the pulse duration. 2)To get short pulses you must increase the intensity The Peak Power -Pulse Duration Conjecture:

The Pulse Duration-Intensity Conjecture G.A. Mourou and T. Tajima, “More intense Shorter Pulse”, SCIENCE VOL 331, 7, p 41JANUARY /02/11mourou CEA Bruyere

Europe has decided to build the highest intensity laser ELI PW, 1  m ~highest power laser today 2PW, 20cm Few Facts about ELI Peak Power 200PW Energy per Pulse 2kJ Pulse duration 10fs Intensity>10 25 W/cm 2 OPCPA-CPA Ti:sapphire 10 beams 1shot /mn First Light 2017 Linewidth =50TW 28/7/11G Mourou CEA Bruyere

Ultrashort pulses can provide Photons and Particles with Short and Synchronized Time Structure in the femtosecond, attosecond, zeptosecond regimes Visible Particules: Electrons Protons, muons,… High energy radiation: X, gamma ray 28/7/11G Mourou CEA Bruyere

ELI Nuclear Physics Fundamental Physics of Perturbative and Non- perturbative High-Field QED: Pair creation, high energy  rays, birefringence of the quantum vacuum. High-resolution nuclear spectroscopy: –Neutron halo-isomers, chaotic properties of nuclear states, nuclear potential landscpe, parity- violating meson-nucleon coupling, pygmy dipole resonance. Astrophysics of the r-, s-, p-processes in nucleosynthesis: masses of waiting point nuclei, pygmy resonance. 28/02/11mourou CEA Bruyere