Laserlab-Europe Talk: Lasers, related radiation sources and diagnostics at ENEA-Frascati for applications to material science, radiation hardness of materials and components

Title: Lasers, related radiation sources and diagnostics at ENEA-Frascati for applications to material science, radiation hardness of materials and components
Speaker: Fabrizio Consoli (ENEA, Italy)
Date: Wednesday, 20 March 2024, 4:00pm CET

The ENEA-Centro Ricerche Frascati has a very long-standing tradition on lasers and applications. The first laser operated here in the ‘60s, just after the first Maiman’s experiment [1]. The activity has embraced over the years different laser approaches and regimes. In the frame of high energy and high intensity lasers, the “ABC laser facility” has been operating here for many years. It is a Nd: phosphate glass laser delivering two beams of 100 J energy each, for intensity on target up to the PW/cm² level. It is equipped with an extremely large number of diagnostics for the description of the laser-produced plasma and electromagnetic and particle radiation, allowing a very good characterization of the interaction. It has been historically used for experiments of inertial confinement fusion and laser-plasma interaction, and it has been recently employed also for the use of the produced radiation for other applications such as material testing, biology, sensor calibration, thanks also to a patent recently issued. The diagnostics includes a four-frame time resolved shadowgraphy and interpherometry for the description of plasma evolution during time, two Thomson spectrometers and an array of time-of-flight detectors for ion and plasma spectroscopy (including Faraday cups, diamond sensors and a large area scintillator), an X-ray transmission grating and two arrays of X-ray diodes with different filters for time-resolved X-ray spectroscopy, one X-ray and two optical streak cameras, two X-ray gated cameras, several probes for radiofrequency-microwave fields, imaging plate and CR39 sensors. The experimental activity has always been performed together with theoretical activity and development of tailored numerical codes and diagnostics development.

The ENEA FEL group operates in Frascati since the very beginning of the FEL era and continues to investigate the FEL emission mechanisms in different operating regimes, both theoretically and experimentally. In ENEA-Centro Ricerche Frascati a research program started in the mid 80’ for the realization of compact Free Electron Lasers (FELs) operating in the long wavelength part of the electromagnetic spectrum. The “Compact FEL” is based on a 5 MeV Microtron powered by a 2 MW Magnetron. The electron energy can range from 2.5 MeV to 5.5 MeV. The electron beam performances are suitable for millimetre (MM) and sub-millimetre (sub-MM) operation. The source generates radiation over a wide band emission spectrum of around 150 GHz with a power level of about 1.5 kW over a macro-bunch duration of 4 microsecond, and a peak power of about 10 kW over a bunch length of 15 ps. The ENEA Compact FEL is part of the larger CETRA infrastructure, that includes many other different sources operating in a wide spectral region, ranging from microwaves up to the infrared region. Most of these CETRA sources exhibit a low power output and are suitable for spectroscopic studies in several application fields. Many applied activities have been conducted over the years on electron dynamic studies in solid state devices, biological studies, cultural heritage diagnostics and agricultural diagnostics.

References

[1] P. Di Lazzaro, R. De Angelis, G.P. Gallerano, A. Doria, "Tutti i ‘colori’ dell’ENEA", EAI Energia, Ambiente e Innovazione 6, 38 (2015), DOI 10.12910/EAI2015-092.

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This Talk is part of a series of webinars where Laserlab-Europe members introduce their techniques available to academic and industry users in the field of recyclable materials. Transnational Access is provided to international scientists to more than 50 research infrastructures being part of the ReMade@ARI project.

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