LASPLA Strategy

The activity of Task 6.2 Lasers for Plasma Acceleration (LASPLA) was dedicated to the study of recent developments in the field of laser technology relevant for the development of laser drivers for plasma accelerators. This is a very active field of research with several companies and research institutes and groups delivering new results at a fast pace. This scenario emerged clearly during the IFAST Workshop on Laser Drivers for Plasma Accelerators held on 20-23 of April 2022 at the Ecole Polytechnique (Palaiseau, France) and more recently at the LASPLA Laser Technology Workshop held on 19-22 of September 2023 in the framework of the 6th EAAC 2023 at Elba, Italy. In these workshops organized by LASPLA, several leading groups presented updates of their recent work with major progress towards solutions of the main technological bottlenecks identified so far for high average power ultrashort pulse lasers. Based on these developments, effort is ongoing for the technical development of even more efficient and scalable novel laser architectures including efficient high repetition rate laser drivers tackling, among the others, 100 Hz Ti:Sa architectures, pump lasers, amplifier modules, and optical compressor technologies as well as novel approaches to efficient kHz technology including post-compression of industrial, kHz ps pulses at 1µm and amplification of 2µm pulses with Thulium-doped gain media. These activities will strengthen the knowledge base of laser technology setting strategic pathways for future laser-drivers for plasma acceleration.