LPS Colloquium: B. Manuel Hegelich (UT Austin)
Miles to Meters – Can Laser-driven accelerators supplant large-scale facilities?
Recent years have seen significant advances in laser-driven accelerator systems in terms of reliability and reproducibility as well as in terms of bunch energy, charge and emittance. At UT Austin we have investigated and developed the underlying scientific principles. At TAU Systems, Inc., we aim to integrate those advances into a single system, allowing a transition from the laboratory to the market. We will present recent results on laser-driven particle acceleration and our current plans to utilize such laser systems to generate high-energy electron beams as drivers for table-top synchrotron-like x-ray sources, compact gamma-ray and neutron sources and even compact EUV/X free-electron laser systems. These systems can drive applications in semiconductor R&D and metrology, medical and material science applications as well as fundamental and applied nuclear physics, chemistry, biology and pharmacology. We will show recent advances in wakefield target technology, demonstrating for the first time > 10 GeV electrons from a laser wakefield accelerator and how this enables laser-driven XFELs, as well as recent progress on smaller, compact high repetition rate systems and a laser-based light source service center.
Bio:
B. M. Hegelich is the founder and CEO of TAU Systems Inc., a Deep Tech company based in Austin, Texas, that develops and commercializes laser-driver particle accelerators and EUV/x-ray light sources for semiconductor-, battery- and medical applications. He is a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, where he leads the research group for Relativistic Quantum Photonics, one of the pioneers of laser particle acceleration. His research includes advanced particle and x-ray sources, high-power lasers, nuclear fusion, and quantum effects in intense fields. Dr. Hegelich led research groups at Los Alamos National Laboratory, South Korea’s Center for Relativistic Laser Science, and was appointed Visiting Professor and Fellow at the Center for Advanced studies at the LMU München. Dr. Hegelich received his B.S. degrees from University of Siegen and Napier University Edinburgh, his M.S. degree from the University of Göttingen, and his Ph.D. from LMU München and the Max-Planck-Institute for Quantum Optics. His research groups hold the records for the highest electron and ion energies generated with a laser.