Since their invention, lasers have been extremely effective to improve our understanding of the molecular and atomic structure of matter and the associated dynamical events. However, laser pulse energy was not enough to probe deeper – into nucleons and their components the quarks or to dissociate the vacuum. A new type of large-scale laser infrastructure specifically designed to produce the highest peak power and focused intensity was established by the European Community: the Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI). ELI was designed to be the first exawatt class laser facility, equivalent to 1000 times the National Ignition Facility (NIF) power. Producing kJ of power over 10 fs, ELI will afford wide benefits to society ranging from improvement of oncology treatment, medical and biomedical imaging, fast electronics and our understanding of aging nuclear reactor materials to development of new methods of nuclear waste processing.

The facility will be based on four sites. Three of them are implemented in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania.

ELI-ALPS based in Szeged (Hungary), one of the three pillars of the Extreme Light Infrastructure, will further deepen knowledge in fundamental physics by providing high repetition rate intense light pulses on the attosecond timescale. Current technological limitations will be overcome by use of novel concepts. The main technological backbone of ELI-ALPS will be optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification (OPCPA) of few-cycle to sub-cycle laser pulses.