The first arm of the ELI NP laser system operating for the first time at a power level of 3 PetaWatt

With this phase now complete, Thales succeeded to install all components of the 10-PetaWatt laser system and validate the engineering work in progress since 2013 to provide the customer with the most powerful laser in Europe. Once commissioned in 2019, the HPLS laser will be the most powerful laser system in the world.

Thales joined the Extreme Light Infrastructure for Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP) programme in 2013 to develop the High Power Laser System (HPLS), the most powerful laser system in its field  worldwide. Under this first contract, Thales is providing the National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering (IFIN-HH) in Romania with a laser system delivering 2x10 PetaWatt (20 million billion Watt) of power — more than any other laser system to date. This laser will support research in nuclear physics and help advance human understanding of the physics of matter.