The TeWaTi Research Group led by laser physicist Károly Osvay at the University of Szeged (SZTE) and the research group led by Katalin Hideghéty, professor at SZTE’s Department of Oncotherapy, are also involved in the development of the next generation of laser-plasma accelerated free-electron lasers of the international consortium of EuPRAXIA, i.e. the European Plasma Research Accelerator with Excellence in Applications. (Several of the collaborating researchers are also active at ELI ALPS.)
In an interview with the University’s website Károly Osvay explained that in free-electron lasers (which emit laser-like light but are not lasers in the classical sense) electrons are accelerated and forced to oscillate in undulators. The electrons move along a wave-like trajectory and whenever they change direction, they emit high-frequency electromagnetic radiation, or soft X-rays. The effect is the same as in synchrotrons; in these particle accelerators, electrons are circulated and accelerated in a closed ring, and they emit radiation on each small turn.
There are around 30,000 particle accelerators, small and large, in operation worldwide. Most of them are electron accelerators used in industrial materials testing. Smaller particle accelerators are utilized in applications such as ion implanters for semiconductor manufacturing, oncological particle therapy, radioisotope production for medical diagnostics and mass spectrometers for rare isotope measurements.
As Károly Osvay said, free-electron lasers are a novel class of large research infrastructures emitting electromagnetic waves, such as synchrotrons. Electron acceleration by plasma, which can be created by ions or lasers, is a new procedure even within this class. EuPRAXIA’s plasma-based facility is already under construction at INFN (Istituto Nazionale Fisica Nucleare – National Institute for Nuclear Physics) in Frascati, Italy, while the consortium has just selected ELI Beamlines in Prague as the site for its laser-driven plasma acceleration project.
The University of Szeged has participated with two research groups in the preparatory phase of EuPRAXIA’s laser-plasma based free-electron laser project. Katalin Hideghéty’s group has been investigating the biomedical effects of soft X-ray radiation and accelerated electron radiation, while the TeWaTi Research Group at the Department of Optics and Quantum Electronics of the Institute of Physics has been working on the experimental and design tasks of the EuPRAXIA laser for electron acceleration.
The Conceptual Design Report of the EuPRAXIA project was drafted by a consortium of 74 academic institutions. From Hungary, three institutions have been involved in the project: the University of Szeged, the University of Pécs (PTE) and the HUN-REN Wigner Research Centre for Physics. Researchers at PTE are investigating terahertz waves, while scientists at the Wigner Research Centre mainly contribute theoretical simulations and background data storage and processing capacity.