Companies Cooperate to Upgrade Laser System of ELI for Nuclear Physics
Advanced technology corporation Thales has partnered with German fusion technology company Marvel Fusion and the ELI-NP (Extreme Light Infrastructure - Nuclear Physics) in Romania to upgrade the laser system and to perform research relevant to nuclear fusion as a future energy source. Over the course of 2023, the partners intend to enhance parameters of the laser system, such as the temporal laser pulse contrast, to enable unique research capabilities of laser-based fusion processes. As part of an ongoing cooperation with ELI-NP, Thales will supply a new stretcher unit that is used to stretch laser pulses over time, which initially reduces their peak power. The stretched, less powerful pulses can then be amplified and then compressed again. This process is part of the chirped pulse amplification, the development of which earned Donna Strickland and Gerard Mourou the Nobel Prize in physics in 2018. Mourou is part of Marvel Fusion’s Science and Technology Board. Marvel Fusion, which wil