£4M EU Project on Laser R&D will be coordinated by the Cockcroft Institute / University of Liverpool

The advancement of science and engineering in the past decades is inherently linked to the development of lasers. Ever higher laser beam powers, brightness and shorter pulse lengths have helped establish them as an invaluable tool for both a wide range of industry and medical applications, such as for example material treatment, precision measurements, laser cutting, display technologies, and  laser surgery, and for fundamental research, where many of the most advanced experiments in astrophysics, atomic, molecular and optical physics, as well as in plasma research would be impossible without the latest laser technology.
Moreover, lasers have become increasingly important for the successful operation and continuous optimization of particle accelerators: Laser-based particle sources are well suited for delivering the highest quality ion and electron beams, laser acceleration has demonstrated unprecedented accelerating gradients and might be an alternative for conventional particle accelerators in the future, and without laser-based beam diagnostics it would not be possible to unravel the characteristics of many complex particle beams.
LA³NET will bring together research centers, universities, and industry partners to jointly train 17 early stage researchers. The consortium will also organize a number of international training events, such as schools, topical workshops and conferences.
The project started on 1.10.2011 and has a duration of 4 years. In addition to the UK partners U Liverpool, STFC and U Dundee, CERN (Switzerland), CLPU (Spain), Danfysik (Denmark), FOTON (Czech Republic), HZDR (Germany), GANIL (France), IFIN-HH (Romania) and KIT (Germany) are all so-called ‘beneficiary partners’. A similar number of associated partners from around the world complement the network and will help providing ideal training opportunities for the next generation of researchers in this field.
The network was initiated and is coordinated by Carsten P. Welsch, leader of the QUASAR Group at Liverpool University, carrying out his research at the Cockcroft Institute.
More Information
Carsten P. Welsch
Department of Physics
University of Liverpool
carsten.welsch@cockcroft.ac.uk
http://www.liv.ac.uk/la3net
http://www.liv.ac.uk/quasar/