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DIRECTOR DE PROIECT:      Dr. Mihai DINCA
PROJECT MANAGER:          Dr. Mihai DINCA   
Email:                                  mihai.dinca@inflpr.ro; mpdinca@gmail.com  

PERIOD:                               September 2016 - February 2019 (30 months)
PROJECT LEADER:              ● INFLPR: National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Magurele 077125, Ilfov, ROMANIA
PARTNER:                              ● IFIN-HH: Horia Hulubei National Institute for Research and Development in Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Magurele 077125, Ilfov, ROMANIA

BUDGET:                             937,012.45 RON

INFLPR's Research Team:     DINCA Mihai, PhD

                                           DASCALU Traian, PhD

                                           PAVEL Nicolaie, PhD

                                           GRIGORE Oana Valeria

                                           CRACIUN Alexandru

                                           SERBANESCU Mihai, Eng.

                                           UNGUREANU Razvan

                                           COJOCARU Victor Gabriel

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One of the main challenges in the field of laser-driven sources of accelerated ions or electrons is the development of on-line tools for diagnosis and detection of the particle beams, tools that help in finding the right combination of laser and target parameters for an optimized particle acceleration process and also give quantitative information on the beam parameters. This is due to the complexity of the ultra-intense laser-mater interaction, a nonlinear process with competing physical phenomena and dependent on a large number of parameters, and on the other hand, the difficulty of finding detectors with high dynamic range (for beams with high currents and broad spectrum), fast response, resistant to the hostile environment near the source target and with selective sensitivity to the particle beam. Currently, experiments involving high power laser-plasma beam sources rely heavily on passive detectors (radio-chromic films (RCF), track detectors etc.). These are single use, consumable, off-line (read after experiment) and can only accommodate up to a dozen shots in a run. They must be accompanied by online diagnostics suitable to optimization processes and able to work at the high repetition rate of 1 shot/min of the ELI-NP lasers. Also of importance are non-intercepting diagnostics tools. Most diagnostic systems are intercepting the particle beam, thus they cannot be used to monitor the particle beam parameters in the actual experiment when these beams will be used to induce nuclear reactions, produce neutrons/gamma beams from secondary targets and irradiate solid state or biological materials.

The TERAELI collaborative project aims to develop single-shot far-infrared (THz) diagnostics instrumentation and use it in proof of concept studies. The instrumentation will be transferred to ELI-NP facility, offering three main desirable uses:
i. It will provide an on-line, non-intercepting, EMP-resistant monitoring system of the particle beam density as well as the electron bunch duration;
ii. It will be an on-line diagnostics of the laser-plasma acceleration process;
iii. It will be an effective in-situ noninvasive imaging tool of the impact of particle beam radiation on the biological or electronic circuit devices.

The main objectives of this project are:
A. Design, construction, and validation of a novel single-shot THz time-domain spectrometer attachable to the interaction chambers at ELI-NP facility;

B. Systematic experimental studies of THz emission in the high power laser-plasma interactions;

C. Design, construction and validation of a THz single-shot imaging system;

D. Imaging studies of the effect of radiation on materials.
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PROJECT’S DEVELOPMENT
Stage 1. September 2016 - December 2016:     Design, construction and validation of a prototypical single-shot detection system.
Stage 2. January 2017 - December 2017:         Preliminary tests and systematic studies of terahertz emission from high-power laser-mater interactions.
Stage 3. January 2018 - December 2018:         THz imaging and emission studies in laser-plasma acceleration processes.
Stage 4. January 2019 - February 2019:           Building of the validated design for use at ELI-NP
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RESULTS
Stage 1. September 2016 - December 2016
- The CAD model of the echelon mirrors was realized and the validation of the system construction feasibility with the Japanese manufacturer was done.
- The ray tracing simulation for Laser beams and detection were accomplished.

● The scientific report on 2016 is available here: | 2016 | 

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Laboratory of Solid-State Quantum Electronics