Leopard Project Objectives
- The LEOPARD project will establish a Centre of Competences in radiation hardness testing, able to exploit existing laser infrastructures at the Centre for Advanced Laser Technologies (CETAL - 1 PW) and the upcoming ELI-NP (2 X 10 PW), in the near future, as well as the complementary research infrastructure and professional expertise of several research groups.
- The Centre of Competences will enable proficiency in radiation hardness testing and its applications – based on both laser-plasma acceleration and conventional setups. Moreover, LEOPARD will make possible the development of adapted new calibration and detection systems.
- The project will strongly benefit from available competences, as expressed in particular by the recent patent application submitted by the core team, Method of testing components and complex systems in the pulsed and synchronized fluxes of laser accelerated particles, RO Patent Application No. A/00643 / 28.08.2013.
- LEOPARD will address radiation hardness testing for both hardware components and software. Hardware testing is related to the behaviour of components and systems subject to intense radiation fluxes, and implies fundamental research in interaction of radiation with matter, plasma physics, or nuclear physics, as well as applied research – for example to optimize and calibrate the particle fluxes at the target. Software testing on the other hand refers to the programs that control the hardware at various levels, whose built-in redundancy can compensate the hardware faults.
- The high-power laser equipment in Magurele will thus become relevant for space applications and make a significant contribution towards enhancing the reliability of critical space infrastructure.
