The section on ELI ALPS, co-authored by its three leading researchers – Ádám Börzsönyi, Péter Dombi and Katalin Varjú – starts with an introduction of the three ELI Facilities: ELI ALPS (Attosecond Light Pulse Source) in Szeged, ELI Beamlines in Dolní Břežany near Prague and ELI Nuclear Physics in Măgurele near Bucharest, Romania.
According to the authors, a specific feature and potential strength of ELI (Extreme Light Infrastructure) is the complementary nature of its facilities, which allows it to support a particularly wide range of disciplines and to develop new technologies together. Since 2022, the three ELI Facilities have been accessible for users from the international scientific community through open calls for proposals subject to evaluation by an expert panel. The research institutes have so far attracted researchers from 27 countries, who have access to 30 different pieces of equipment to carry out their physical, biological, chemical, materials science and multidisciplinary projects.
The main mission of ELI ALPS is to study processes with extremely fast dynamics. The availability of state-of-the-art lasers, advanced secondary sources and experimental workstations offers unique capabilities for the time-resolved investigation laser–matter interactions. To support a wide range of basic and applied laser-based research projects, our research institute has twelve dedicated laser systems. The laser systems have been designed with the high operational load in mind, leading to a paradigm shift in modern ultrafast laser technology.
Our laser pulses drive twelve different secondary sources. The special experimental endstations allow the use of primary (laser) and secondary sources in various investigation techniques. The Institute’s profile includes photochemical studies and experiments with intense THz pulses. Time-resolved surface physics and surface chemistry studies of solids and topological materials, and the mapping of band structures are performed with the NanoESCA endstation. This equipment is suitable for capturing photoelectron emission microscopy (PEEM) and k-space (band structure) images of different surfaces. In an internationally unique configuration, the instrument can also be illuminated with femtosecond and attosecond pulses, therefore the experiments mentioned above can be carried out as time-resolved measurements.
ELI ALPS also operates an advanced nanofabrication laboratory with electron beam lithography and focused ion beam equipment, where in addition to producing samples for external users, our colleagues are also engaged in the advancement of metrology methods. A good example for the latter is our ellipsometric measurement method devised for the detection of so-called hot electrons.
The installation of the research equipment started in 2017, after the completion of the purpose-designed buildings. 2023 saw the closure of the construction phase of the ELI ALPS project, so now the main activity is the continued operation and development of the equipment and the implementation of user proposals submitted by members of the scientific community.
Our facilities are available to international researchers to study the dynamical processes of atoms, molecules, condensed matter and laser-generated plasma on attosecond and femtosecond timescales. ELI ALPS provides not only beam time but also technical and scientific support for national and international user experiments.
The full article is available here:
https://fizikaiszemle.elft.hu/uploads/2024/09/04_varjuk-etal_11_12_39_1725268359.5267.pdf