The Extreme Light Infrastructure ERIC/ ELI Beamlines

Lorenzo Giuffrida

I am the Head of the Department of Ion Acceleration and Applications of High Energy Particles at the ELI Beamlines Facility.

The main topics of interest are related to the study of novel laser-plasma acceleration and all-optical beam transport schemes, and testing innovative target delivery and diagnostic solutions, using the L3-HAPLS high repetition-rate PW laser system.

I am also interested in applications of laser-driven ions using a dedicated ion transport and dosimetry system (ELIMED), in particular for radiobiological applications, in activities related on laser-driven nuclear reactions (proton Boron, D-D and so on) for generation of tertiary sources (neutrons, alpha-particles, gamma-rays, etc.). Other topics of interest are cultural heritage, material science, radiation damage of electronics under ultrahigh dose-rate particle irradiation.

The successful candidate will be based at the Department of Ion Acceleration and Application of High Energy Particles at the ELI Beamlines facility, The Extreme Light Infrastructure ERIC (Czech Rep.)

The Postdoctoral fellow will join the research team working at the ELIMAIA beamline that is focused on the development of an innovative laser-plasma accelerator using the high repetition-rate PW laser system available at ELI BL. The ELIMAIA team is working to find solutions to different challenges in the field of laser-driven ion acceleration using a dedicated ion transport and dosimetry system (ELIMED), in particular for radiobiological applications, in activities related on laser-driven nuclear reactions (proton Boron, D-D and so on) for generation of tertiary sources (neutrons, alpha-particles, gamma-rays, etc.), cultural heritage, material science, radiation damage of electronics under ultrahigh dose-rate particle irradiation. The key research infrastructure and equipment of this research group includes the ELIMAIA plasma-accelerator and ELIMED, the ion transport and dosimetry system, including their diagnostics for particles (ion, electron and gamma), laser and plasma.

The fellow may also liaise with international collaborators, (Queen’s University Belfast, Centre for Plasma Physics in UK and National Institute for Nuclear Physics in Italy) through international secondments or have the opportunity to carry out secondments in the non-academic sector, in cooperation with our industrial partners (DE.TEC.TOR. in Italy).

Given the focus of our research group, the expected outputs of the fellowship are high-level scientific publications / applied research outputs such as patent applications, market validations, new collaboration with industry, and development of new projects related to the topic of interest for the ELIMAIA team.

Jaroslav Nejdl

I am a group leader of a laser-driven X-ray sources team, a deputy of the Department of Radiation Physics and electron acceleration at the ELI-Beamlines in the Czech Republic. I am also a lecturer of plasma physics and X-ray photonics at Czech Technical University (CTU) in Prague. I received my Ph.D. degree in Physical engineering in 2012 at the Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering, CTU in Prague, Czech Republic. I was awarded the Fulbright scholarship and worked as a visiting scholar at Colorado State University, CO USA in 2011 and 2012. During my studies, I have also pursued a year-long internship at the Laboratory of applied optics (LOA), Ecole Polytechnique, France. Since 2013 I have built a group that has been responsible for the implementation of various laser-driven sources of X-rays at the ELI Beamlines facility. This exciting work is still ongoing. Some X-ray beamlines are yet to be commissioned and some are already operated for user experiments and provide unique tools to the international scientific community.

The successful candidate will be based at the Department of Radiation Physics and electron acceleration at the ELI Beamlines facility in Dolní Břežany.

The Postdoctoral fellow will join the X-ray sources group, that is focused on development and applications of laser-driven X-ray sources. and that is working to find solutions to different challenges in the field of X-ray photonics and laser plasma. The key research infrastructure and equipment of this research group include high-power femtosecond lasers systems, namely 100 mJ, 1 kHz OPCPA system, and 30 J, 10 Hz Ti:sapphire system, vacuum interaction chambers and various kinds of diagnostics.

The fellow may also liaise with international collaborators, e.g. LOA, ENSTA PARIS-TECH through international secondments or have the opportunity to carry out secondments in the non-academic sector, in cooperation with our industrial partners, e.g. Rigaku Innovative Technologies.

Given the main focus of our research group, the expected outputs of the fellowship are high-level scientific publications / applied research outputs such as patent applications, market validations, new collaboration with industry, or collaborative research projects.

Pavel Bakule

Since my early student years my interest has always been in pulsed solid state lasers and in engineering of novel and complex laser systems for physics experiments. I received my DPhil in Atomic and Laser Physics from the University of Oxford in 1998, and after that I worked for over 11 years on muonium spectroscopy and on low energy muon generation for which I was always developing new high energy pulse lasers as part of a RIKEN Japanese group at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) in the United Kingdom. Since 2011 I have been developing the world’s most intense  lasers and their related technologies at ELI Beamlines facility where I am the Deputy Head of the Department of Laser Systems and Head of Department of Technology Infrastructure and Instrumentation Services.

I want to continue working on a mix of research and engineering. There is still a lot of challenging work to be done on further development and upgrades of the ELI Beamlines.

As Postdoctoral fellow you would join the Department of laser systems of ELI ERIC at ELI Beamlines facility located in Dolní Břežany near Prague. The department has a staff of nearly 50 people and you would be part of an international team of experts developing the world’s most intense lasers. All of the lasers being developed at the facility are state-of-the-art, high repetition rate femtosecond lasers with peak pulse power ranging from 5 TW to 10 PW(!) and pulse repetition rate ranging from 1 kHz to 1 shot per minute. The with the exception of the 10 PW laser, all of the lasers are diode pumped (with the largest diode arrays having combined peak power of 2.4 MW) and use solid state amplifiers capable of operation at high average power. There are four main laser systems, with complementary output parameters and using different amplifier technology lasers. Two lower energy high average power systems are based on OPCPA, the 1PW system on Ti:sapphire and 10PW system on novel liquid cooled, large aperture Nd:glass amplifiers. The large scale high intensity parts of the lasers systems are operated in vacuum and and the lasers are required to operate with high reliability for user experiments. To be able to do this the  scientists are supported by a team of engineers being able design and manufacture large and complex optomechanics, vacuum systems and advanced control and safety systems. As we are trying to push the boundaries of the available technologies there are always multiple ongoing research and development projects on the whole range of laser physics topics. There are also ample opportunities to interact and collaborate with our experimental teams using other lasers for XUV generation, pulsed x-ray generation, plasma physics, laser wakefield acceleration of electrons etc.

ELI ERIC offers work in truly international environment with scientific and technical staff from over 30 countries using English as the main working language.