Grant: Alliance Grants

All over the world, governments and companies are investing massively in the development of high-power laser technologies and their applications for the generation of secondary sources from the THz to the hard X-ray, as well as beams of particle bunches, including electrons, protons, and neutrons. Scaling and operating these sources at the highest repetition rate is crucial for achieving higher photon fluxes and particle doses. This challenge was clearly stated in a recent report by the US Department of Energy (DOE), which identified the development of high-power ultrafast infrared (IR) and mid-IR laser systems as one of the technological priorities to generate high flux table-top secondary sources. To address this challenge, it is necessary to develop approaches capable of broadband laser amplification or efficient narrowband amplification followed by pulse compression. In the context of this collaborative project, supported by the Canadian company few-cycle Inc. and the French company Amplitude, we have three objectives with the common goal of developing ultrafast IR and mid-IR laser technologies for the generation of high flux soft X-ray and hard X-ray source for advanced material characterization. The two applications are the characterization of quantum materials and materials for batteries. More specifically, our objectives are (i) to develop a TW peak power few-cycle laser source at 1.5 microns and operated at 1 kHz repetition rate, (ii) to develop a millijoule class mid-IR laser source at 5 microns central wavelength and operated at 1 kHz, and (iii) to develop high-flux plasma-based X-ray sources for spectroscopy and diffractive imaging. Our team has all the expertise to address this major research challenge, including ultrafast optics, plasma physics, advanced characterization of quantum materials, and X-ray spectroscopy of materials for batteries. This project will enable the training of five Ph.D. students, nine undergraduate students, and six postdoctoral fellows, which is highly valuable for Canada's knowledge-based economy.