The high power laser facility at beamline ID24-ED at the ESRF

ABSTRACT

This paper describes technical details and new scientific opportunities offered by the new High Power Laser Facility at the ESRF, opened to users since 2022. This facility enables laser-induced dynamic compression experiments probed by ultra-fast X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy at beamline ID24-ED. This capability allows to reach and probe more extreme pressure and temperature states and higher strain rates with respect to static compression, addressing open questions in fundamental, planetary and material science.

KEYWORDS:

• Laser-induced dynamic compression
• single bunch X-ray absorption
• high-energy density physics
• dynamically compressed matter
• warm dense matter
• high-pressure science

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the ESRF for providing beamtime for the scientific projects IH-MA-271 (PI: S. Balugani), HC-4714 (PI: T. De Resseguier, ENSMA; A. Dwivedi, EuXFEL), IH-HC-3909 (PI: S. Balugani), MA-5754 (PI: S. Balugani), and HC-5319 (PI: C. Pépin and A. Sollier, CEA DAM DIF) whose data have been used for this article. We thank the metals/WDM team (IH-MA-271, IH-HC-3909): A. Ravasio, D. Eakins, H. Doyle, V. Recoules, J. Kas and P. Hesselbach and the siderite team (HC-4717): T. De Resseguier, M. Harmand, V. Cerantola, F. Guyot, D. Cabaret, H. Muller, I. Sniguirev, D. Comboni and L. Dubrovinsky for target provision, preparation and characterization, data analysis and discussion. NSR acknowledges the support of N. Delmas, S. Jamet and E. Thoyer from Amplitude Laser Group for their regular visits since the delivery of the laser to the ESRF in June 2021. We acknowledge the support of T. Gerfaud for the follow-up of the infrastructure works of the laser clean room. The HPLF team thanks the contribution from the PHELIX team at GSI (Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung mbH, Darmstadt, Germany) for the loaning of their probe laser used with the VISARs during HPLF runs 2022-II and 2023-I, especially D. Reemts, C. Brabetz and V. Bagnoud. We also acknowledge the support of LULI for fruitful discussions and for the loaning of their good old Quantaray laser from 2021 to 2022, especially S. Baton, A. Benuzzi, A. Ravasio and T. Vinci. JAH is grateful to A. Ravasio for her help in the assembly and alignment of the first version of shock diagnostics. The strong and long-lasting involvement of the user community is also warmly noticed: S. Bland (Imperial College London), H. Doyle (First Light Fusion), D. Eakins (University of Oxford), D. Kraus (University of Rostock and Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf), J. Read (First Light Fusion), F. Occelli (CEA DAM DIF), A. Sollier (CEA DAM DIF).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 https://github.com/NeutrinoToolkit/Neutrino