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)

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