Extreme Light Infrastructure

The Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI ) is a located in the preparatory phase of European laser research project, will be studied with the processes with high time resolution. The intense laser are to be used worldwide. At the project about 40 research institutes and universities are involved in 13 EU countries.

The project includes four components. In Dolni Břežany, about 15 km south of Prague in the Czech Republic will be the first column, the ELI- Beamlines built that will provide ultra-short pulses of high energy particles and radiation for experiments. For the second column, ELI- NP, is an intense source are built for gamma radiation in Magurele south-west of Bucharest in Romania for nuclear physics experiments with a particle accelerator and a high power laser. In Szeged in Hungary, the electron dynamics in atoms, molecules, plasmas and solids will be studied by using attosecond pulses. The location for the fourth column with a yet to be developed 200 -PW laser is not fixed yet. The sites were deliberately selected in Eastern Europe.

History

The preparation phase (ELI PP) lasted from November 2007 to December 2010. On 10 December 2010 the leadership officially the transfer consortium ( Delivery Consortium) was passed. The financing of the ELI- Beamlines was granted on 20 April 2011 by the European Commission, followed on September 18, 2012 ELI- NP ( Nuclear Physics ). In April 2013 ELI- DC was founded as an international non-profit organization under Belgian law.