FORT COLLINS — Partnerships with the federal government and private companies are hoped to propel research at Colorado State University into a world-leading role in finding clean-industry solutions
A groundbreaking in October for the $150 million, 71,000-square-foot Advanced Technology Lasers for Applications and Science (ATLAS) facility was held in October, aiming to enhance CSU’s work at its existing Laboratory for Advanced Lasers and Extreme Photonics as well as its new Inertial Fusion Science and Technology hub, known as RISE.
Power generation through fusion energy aims to recreate the process that powers the sun by fusing atomic nuclei together. If successful, CSU researchers say, laser-driven fusion energy promises to safely generate unlimited, sustainable carbon-free energy.
ATLAS is a collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy and the German fusion-energy company Marvel Fusion, and the existing and new facilities will be known collectively as the Advanced Laser for Extreme Photonics (ALEPH) Center.
DOE also is kicking in $16 million in funding over the next four years for the RISE hub, which CSU spokesman Josh Rhoten described as “more of a connection between facilities.”
Through its technology-transfer arm, CSU Strata, the university sees the collaborations as part of its commitment to sustainability and the development of clean energy. The collaboration at ATLAS is designed to give researchers and industry partners access to three multi-petawatt ultra-short-pulse lasers, some of the most powerful laser systems in the world. The world’s most powerful laser systems provide peak powers of a petawatt, which is roughly 1 quadrillion watts. The cluster of lasers at ATLAS will be able to be configured to fire simultaneously at a single fusion target, delivering nearly seven petawatts of power — more than 5,000 times the electrical generation capacity of the United States — into a focal spot roughly the width of a human hair for approximately 100 quadrillionths of a second.
The ATLAS center aims to secure $30 million annually in research revenues through a mix of research and development grants and industry partnerships, as well as acting as a blueprint for ways that academia, private industry and the federal government can work together to solve some of humanity’s greatest challenges.
Developers of the center have some ambitious goals.
- They want CSU to become a leader in research into fusion energy. The sun produces energy through fusion reactions, and laser-driven fusion energy, which was successfully demonstrated for the first time in a December 2022 experiment at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, promises to safely generate unlimited carbon-free energy, which researchers see as the ultimate solution to global warming.
- They want to use high-energy particle-beam generation through intense, short laser flashes to provide detailed X-ray imaging of the inside of dense and/or rapidly moving objects that could not otherwise be examined — such as getting images of airplane engine turbines while they’re in full motion, or spacecraft components before and after they’re deployed into space.
- They want to use extreme ultraviolet light for lithography, the etching and printing of the most advanced computer microchips.
- They want to use high-energy ion beams to deposit energy in a very localized region for treating tumors.
- They want to use their high-powered lasers for national security and industrial applications, such as developing mobile laser mounts to get images of underground tunnels and penetrate mountainsides for mining.
At the October groundbreaking for the ATLAS facility, CSU president Amy Parsons said the university “is a fitting home for this facility. We have been a leader in laser research for decades, and our faculty are advancing critical technologies. This new facility will house one of the most powerful lasers in the world and establishes CSU as a nexus for laser fusion research.”
Also attending the groundbreaking were Geraldine Richmond, the Energy Department’s undersecretary for science and innovation, U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colorado, and Marvel Fusion CEO Moritz von der Linden.
When finished, the facility, to be located near existing buildings that are focused on laser research, will feature an upgraded version of an existing ultrahigh-power laser developed at CSU in combination with two new lasers provided by Marvel Fusion.
Undersecretary Richmond noted DOE’s existing laser-research partnership with CSU through the Fusion Energy Sciences program. Besides the $16 million for RISE, the school also received $12.5 million through its LaserNetUS program, a ten-node network of facilities operating ultra-powerful lasers across North America.
The DOE funding also lets outside researchers access research facilities for free, whether they are working on fusion or any other topic.
McCarthy Building Cos. Inc. is the general contractor for the ATLAS facility. Tetrad Corp. is managing the construction, and SWBR is the architect.
The building will feature more than 7,500 cubic yards of concrete, including five-foot-thick shielding walls around the target bay.
CSU credits its reputation for laser research to professors Jorge Rocca and Carmen Menoni in the school’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Rocha also has a position in the physics department, and Menoni also works in the chemistry department. Cassandra Moseley, CSU’s vice president for research, and Allen Robinson, deen of the College of Engineering, hailed the duo’s work at the groundbreaking.
Robinson said the new facility will meet the need to prepare the next generation of scientists, technicians and suppliers in the fusion energy industry by giving undergraduate and graduate students at CSU a chance for hands-on experience with the newest technology.
The RISE hub will focus on advancing inertial fusion energy, which could eventually dramatically reduce the carbon footprint of how energy is supplied globally, and will be jointly operated by CSU and the Energy Department’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford University in California. They’re working in partnership with experts from the University of Illinois, Cornell University, Texas A&M University, the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Naval Research Laboratory, and three companies: Marvel Fusion, Xcimer Energy and General Atomics.
“We envision the hub to become a center of excellence for IFE science and technology and a magnet to attract talent and develop workforce to support DOE’s mission in IFE,” Menoni, who directs the new hub, said in a prepared statement. “We are thrilled to partner with a world-class team of experts who are committed to making IFE a commercial reality.”
