Research infrastructure project HIBEF-Polska Laser research center Helmholtz International Beamline for Extreme Fields - Polska associated with the experimental beamline HIBEF at the X-ray free electron laser European XFEL Military University of Technology Institute of Optoelectronics Biuro Architektoniczne DEDECO Sp. z o. o. Warsaw 2013
Research infrastructure project HIBEF-Polska Introduction Project proposal was submitted to the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Polish Government by Military University of Technology in Warsaw on behalf of the HIBEF-Polska national consortium for the call for projects to be included in the Polish Roadmap for Research Infrastructures. The consortium will be created by research institutions and enterprises that are interested in participation and exploitation of the HIBEF research infrastructure to be built at the European x-ray free electron laser European XFEL in Hamburg and the HIBEF-Polska associated research infrastructure to be located in Poland. Preparation work to establish the HIBEF-Polska consortium are coordinated by Military University of Technology in Warsaw, participating in the international consortium that prepare the project of the HIBEF infrastructure in Hamburg. The consortium consist of about 80 research groups representing 60 scientific institutions from 15 countries and is coordinated by the Helmholtz-Zentrum-Dresden-Rosendorf in Germany. The national consortium will be set up by Polish universities, research institutes and industrial enterprises, which representatives expressed their interest to the project. Formally the consortium will be established when the project is accepted to the second phase of the evaluation procedure for the Polish Roadmap for Research Infrastructures.. 1. The proposed ownership (national or international) and operational structure The proposed HIBEF-Polska infrastructure will form an international scientific centre associated with the HIBEF infrastructure to be built in Hamburg in 2013-2018. It will be a single-sited research infrastructure located in Poland and composed with two pulsed high-power laser system dedicated to laser-matter interaction studies. The concept of the research infrastructure of this type in Poland has appeared during the work of the international consortium that is preparing the project of the infrastructure in Hamburg. Military University of Technology in Warsaw has been proposed as a site of the new infrastructure. The proposal was accepted by the authorities of MUT which declared support in preparation and realization of the project, including delivery of land for the infrastructure. Because there are no experiences with the international research infrastructures of this type in Poland it is not possible nowadays to determine the form of the ownership of the proposed infrastructure and its operation structure. Probably in the future the new infrastructure will have a form of the international scientific limited liability company included to the European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) together with the Helmholtz Beamline infrastructure in Hamburg and the large European infrastructure ELI, that is composed of the ELI Beamline infrastructure in Czech Republic, ELI Atto in Hungary and ELI NP in Romania.
2. The research objectives and the research programme Because the proposed new infrastructure in Poland will be closely associated with the HIBEF infrastructure in Hamburg, the scientific objectives and the research program of the Polish infrastructure will be similar. Interaction of laser radiation with matter at extremely high energy densities and intensities of radiation will be the main research area for the HIBEF-Polska infrastructure in Poland. The experiments preceding the experiments in Hamburg as well as the complementary studies will be carried out at the infrastructure in Poland. The need for the research infrastructure of this type, associated with the HIBEF infrastructure at the European XFEL facility in Hamburg, has been pointed out during the annual scientific meeting of the XFEL users. Because of very high costs of the XFEL beam time experiments at the HIBEF infrastructure have to be very carefully prepared and the preliminary studies should be performed at the similar infrastructure. The needs for such procedure was pointed out during the scientific meeting of the European XFEL facility users. Besides of the research connected with the scientific program of the HIBEF infrastructure in Hamburg, also investigations connected with the scientific program of the ELI infrastructure are planned. Especially it concerns the research at the ELI Beamline facility in Prague, where investigations on generation of secondary short wavelength electromagnetic radiation and charged particles are planned, and the ELI NP infrastructure in Bucharest, where studies on the use of high intensity lasers in Nuclear Physics will be carried. 3. The uniqueness of the proposed HIBEF-Polska infrastructure and its potential contribution to the advancement of scientific research The HIBEF-Polska infrastructure will be unique in Europe and one of a few in the world. It will be composed from two high pulsed power and energy lasers systems: the femtosecond laser producing pulses with power up to 1 PW (10 15 W) and the nanosecond lasers producing pulses with energy up to 1 kj. The infrastructure will be equipped with the experimental vacuum chambers and diagnostic arrangements to study laser-matter interaction processes. Unlike the ELI infrastructure and the infrastructure in Hamburg the femtosecond laser system will generate longer pulses with time duration in the 100-200 fs range. It is connected with the needs of investigations on generation of secondary x-ray radiation and electron beams. The uniqueness of the HIBEF-Polska infrastructure relies on the combination of two laser systems that make possible to study at the same time interactions of laser radiation with matter at high energies and ultra-high intensities. It will create unique possibilities for the investigations of matter at extreme densities, temperatures and pressures. The high-intensity femtosecond laser system will be used for generation of intense and ultra-short x-ray pulses to be used in the experiments on high density energy interactions with the nanosecond laser. These studies will be complementary to the research at the infrastructure in Hamburg and at the ELI infrastructure. The only similar infrastructure in the world nowadays is the Texas Petawatt Laser at University in Austin, USA.
4. The research potential of the HIBEF-Polska consortium The project proposal for the HIBEF-Polska infrastructure is submitted on behalf of the national consortium composed of a few universities, research institutes and enterprises whose representatives expressed their interest in the project and a wish to join the consortium. Up to now preliminary discussions and consultations have been carried out at the legal consortium agreement has been prepared. The number of scientists and engineers who are involved in research connected with the scientific and technical program of the proposed infrastructure was estimated at about 200-250. The preparation works to establish the national consortium are coordinated by a team from Military University of Technology in Warsaw. These works are coordinated with the activities of the HIBEF international consortium in which Military University of Technology is involved. The institution participating in the project is the Institute of Optoelectronic (IOE) that is academic independent research institute at MUT. IOE is recognized as the leading research center on lasers in Poland. There are about 180 employers, including 90 academic staff. The annual research budget of the institute is about 40 mln PLN. The IOE laboratories are well equipped with the unique in Poland scientific apparatuses as about 80 mln PLN was spent during last 5 years. There about 60-70 projects realized at IOE, including the research and development as well as the implementation projects. The staff of IOE has an experience with realization of international collaboration projects. 5. The concept for execution of the research programme and proposed access rules The proposed HIBEF-Polska infrastructure will form an international scientific centre closely connected with the HIBEF infrastructure at the European XFEL facility in Hamburg. The research projects will be realized in respect to the access rules at DESY in Hamburg. The project proposals will be submitted and evaluated with the use of the DOOR application system. These rules are applied in the case of the research project realized at large infrastructures and user facilities and are common for the research at nuclear and synchrotron facilities. Similar rules have been introduced in the case of the laser infrastructures that are realizing the Laserlab Europe project. The uniqueness of the proposed project should cause large interest of many research groups and scientists around the world. Participation of the Polish groups and scientists in research at the new facility will depend on the scientific contents and value of the submitted projects. However, hitherto existing experience of the Polish teams and scientists participating in the research projects with the use of free electron lasers (FLASH in Hamburg, SLAC in Stanford, SACLA in Harima) or using laser infrastructures available under the Laserlab Europe project show their high activity and abilities. The project will be used in the educational activities of the universities participating in the project for promotion of the research in lasers and applications among students and doctoral candidates. It will be one of the most important goals for the national consortium.
6. The cost estimates of the construction and expected sources of funding, anticipated construction period, proposed localisation, the yearly cost estimates of future operations The costs of the proposed HIBEF-Polska infrastructure has been estimated with use of the budget of the HIBEF infrastructure to be realized in Hamburg. It was assumed that the investment costs for the laser systems will be similar. The costs of the buildings and the personnel costs were modified in respect to the economical status in Poland. Additionally to the laboratory building the administration building with offices and a seminar hall is planned at the infrastructure in Poland. The office building has to be separated in space from the laboratory building. Military University of Technology in Warsaw has been proposed as a site of the infrastructure. Preliminary localization at the MUT campus is shown in Fig. 1. MUT Main building HIBEF-Polska IOE Main building Fig. 1. Preliminary localization of the HIBEF-Polska infrastructure at the campus of Military University of Technology The total costs of the infrastructure was estimated at 150 mln PLN. They include the costs of the laboratory building at 20 mln PLN and the office building at 15 mln PLN. The costs of the office building have been estimated assuming its surface of 3000 m 2 and the unit cost of 5000 PLN/m 2. The costs of the laser system were estimated at 40 mln PLN for the femtosecond laser and 30 mln PLN for the nanosecond laser. The maintenance and operation costs were estimated at 5 mln PLN. The costs of the experimental setups and equipment are 20 mln PLN. The personnel costs were estimated at 10 mln PLN, assuming involvement 20 people per year in average during 5 years of the project realization. The contingency costs have been assumed at 10 mln PLN. The expected source of funding are the European Structural Funds. The realization period: 2013-2018. The operation costs for the infrastructure in the future were estimated at about 2-3 mln PLN per year.
The functional scheme of the HIBEF-Polska infrastructure is presented in Fig. 2. Figure 3 shows its preliminary visualization. Fig. 2 The functional scheme of the HIBEF-Polska infrastructure. Fig. 3 Preliminary visualization of the HIBEF-Polska infrastructure. Biuro Architektoniczne DEDECO Sp. z o. o.
7. Vision for future consolidation/collaboration with other national or pan-european The HIBEF-Polska infrastructure will be closely connected, apart from the associated HIBEF infrastructure in Hamburg, with a few large infrastructures from the ESFRI roadmap, that are under construction now. It concerns mostly the ELI infrastructure. Unlike to the ELI infrastructures, that are dedicated mainly for research on interaction of laser radiation with matter at ultra-high intensities, the new infrastructure in Poland will be focused on laser interactions at high energy densities. Formal consolidation of the HIBEF infrastructures with the ELI infrastructures is possible and will be considered. Collaboration with another large infrastructure from the ESFRI roadmap, that is the HiPER infrastructure, is also planned. The MUT team submitting this proposal collaborates with the consortia realizing these projects. The new laser centre in Poland will be also collaborating with the European laser infrastructures involved in the Laserlab Europe project under the 7 th Frame Program in which the MUT is also participating. Additionally, collaboration with the research infrastructures from the Polish Roadmap, like SOLARIS and POLFEL, is planned as well. It is expected that a new infrastructure will play very important role in preparation of a scientific and technical staff for these infrastructures in Poland.. 8. Summary The proposed HIBEF- Polska infrastructure will be very exceptional undertaking in Poland. In result of the project the world class scientific center for research on interaction of laser radiation with matter will be established. The new infrastructure will be built in close co-operation with the the Helmholtz-Zentrum-Dresden-Rosendorf in Germany, coordinator of the international consortium that prepare the HIBEF infrastructure in Hamburg. It creates an unique opportunity to acquire the newest laser technologies, not available in Poland, and provide them for the national and international scientific communities. Such assistance and co-operation was declared by Prof. R. Sauerbrey, director of HZDR and Prof. T. Cowan, leader of the project, during their visit in Poland in February this year. The MUT team submitting this project has been participating for many years in a few European projects on the topics related to the scientific program of the proposed infrastructure. It was involved in the preparatory phase project on preparation of the ELI infrastructure. At the moment, the team is a partner in the Laserlab Europe project under the 7. Framework Program, that is the network of the European laser infrastructures. Moreover, the MUT team organized the 32 nd European Conference on laser Interaction with Matter (ECLIM 2012) in Warsaw last year, which is one of the most important international scientific conference in the field of the research planned at the HIBEF infrastructures. More information on the conference and the scientific programs for the new infrastructure and the technical issues are available at the project web page (http://www.ztl.wat.edu.pl/zoplzm/hibef).