The ELI-ALPS attosecond facility is due to begin operations soon;
above, a concept illustration of the facility. |
A preview of the European Union's Extreme Light Initiative Attosecond (ELI-ALPS) facilities and a tour of leading laser and photonics research and industry facilities in Sveged and Budapest highlighted SPIE CEO Eugene Arthurs' visits in Hungary in July.
Gábor Szabó, Rector of the University of Szeged, a founder of the former SPIE Hungary Chapter, and a member of the team from Hungary that applied for ELI, hosted Arthurs in Szeged.
The ELI-ALPS site near Szeged is one of three ELI established sites. Others are in the Czech Republic and Romania, with a fourth yet to be selected.
The ELI-ALPS team expects to be moving into their new facility by the end of this year, and the Attosecond User Facility should be fully operational by 2018, Arthurs reported.
At the Wigner Research Centre for Physics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest, Arthurs was hosted by the center director general, Péter Lévai, and SPIE Senior Member Péter Dombi, who heads up the research unit for ultrafast high-intensity light-matter interactions. The center operates the Institute for Solid State Physics and Optics, and the Institute for Particle and Nuclear Physics.
Arthurs also visited with several representatives of companies engaged in manufacture of ultrafast lasers for biomedical microscopy, advanced microscopy for neurology, and photo-acoustic sensors for the oil and gas industry.
Eugene Arthurs and Gábor Szabó |
Eugene Arthurs at the ELI-ALPS facility |
A figure decorating the parliament building
demonstrates the long tradition of
optical science in Hungary. |
