ELI celebrates 50 Years of the Laser

Date: 2010/06/23 @ Paris | Edited: 2010.09.06

Invited by ELI's coordinator Gerard Mourou, six Nobel Prize winner and other 13 important figures in the field of Laser's gathered in Paris, the City of Light, on June 22 and 23 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first laser demonstration by Theodore Maiman on May 16, 1960. On the first day the event took place at the Louvre and was devoted to the 600 researchers in attendance for the occasion.

The wife of Theodor Maiman, inventor of the first Laser, came to present this first "pocket-sized" laser, "the Ruby Laser", which emits a laser through a ruby crystal. The 95 year old Charles H. Townes, Nobel Prize winner in 1964, spoke out about his discovery of the first Maser (M for "microwaves", as opposed to the L for "light" in Laser) in 1954 and the progress made since in this domain: "the laser has truly transformed science and technology". "You must be open-minded and take risks," Charles H. Townes advised the young researchers.

On the second day, June 23, the event took place at the prestigious École Polytechnique that for this occasion opened its doors to the general public and presented scientific conferences, as well as educational sessions and activities prepared for several hundred young high school students from France and abroad. More information can be found at http://www.laser50paris.com/


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Extreme Light Infrastructure in a few words

A european facility opening new avenues to reveal the secrets of matter on ultra-short timescales

The first infrastructure worldwide dedicated to :

  • Investigation of laser-matter interactions in the unexplored ultra-relativistic regime.
  • Development of unprecedented intense ultra-short particle and radiation sources for fundamental and applied sciences.

“Physicists are planning lasers powerful enough to rip apart the fabric of space and time”
Nature, 446 (2007)

A unique exawatt-class laser 100 times more powerful than any other laser worldwide.

The most intense laser facility : the dawn of a new discipline

ELI will be the only European and International Centre for high-level research on ultra-high intensity laser, laser-matter interaction and secondary sources with unparalleled possibilities. Its pulse peak power and briefness will go beyond the current state-of-the-art by several orders of magnitude. Because of its unique properties, this multidisciplinary facility will provide magnificent new opportunities to study the fundamental processes unfolded during light-matter interaction.

ELI will create a platform where Extreme Light applications for the benefit of society will be dynamically promoted. In its mission ELI will practice a vigorous technology transfer to European SMEs and large firms.
High on ELI agenda will be the training of aspiring scientists and engineers in the numerous disciplines associated with the Extreme Light.

The ELI laser will operate an exawatt-class laser delivering extremely bright pulses at high repetition rate (at least 1 shot per minute), 100 times more powerful than the state-of-the-art, thanks to pulse duration as short as attoseconds (10-18s). More