With this cooperation, Thales is offering the Russian Institute of Applied Physics (IAP) in Nizhny Novgorod its extensive experience in engineering intense laser systems for an ambitious programme with the objective of overcoming the current limit in particle acceleration. Renowned for its high scientific level in intense laser technology, the IAP holds a key position in the XCELS programme (www.xcels.iapras.ru) which aims to achieve very high energy levels in order to explore new areas of fundamental science and particle acceleration for medical application (such as medical imagery) or industrial use, such as the control of critical materials.
With 30 years of experience in laser design, Thales now develops and markets Petawatt-class intense laser systems. In 2012, Thales developed and constructed the BELLA laser, the first turn-key intense laser, offering a power of 1 Petawatt to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (California). Thales is currently completing the installation of another turn-key Petawatt laser in Romania and was recently awarded a contract by the European research programme ELI-NP (Extreme Light Infrastructure for Nuclear Physics), established to produce two intense lasers of 10 Petawatts each, which will be installed in Romania.
