The Extreme Light in Intensity, Time, and Space (X-lites) network promotes collaboration around the
world to make use of new extreme light facilities. The network is bringing together facility users and facility operators to support high-impact science and engineering using extreme light.
X-lites was founded in 2022 with three goals:
- Promote collaboration across the global community of laser facility users and operators
- Broaden engagement across diverse scientific fields and with next generation research leaders
- As a community, identify and address knowledge and technological gaps that require a collaborative approach to bridge
X-lites will be hosting online and in person events to achieve these goals. X-lites is rapidly expanding to reach and engage new researchers to shape the future of extreme light science. Sign up to receive our newsletter to be informed and participate in X-lites.
X-lites is supported by NSF Award 2201502
Background
The invention of the laser in the late 1950s enabled a wide range of scientific and technological advances, from communications to surgery to facial recognition to analysis of Martian soil. Laser science and technologies continue to advance, and a new generation of lasers are accessing frontiers of laser-matter interactions at the highest intensities, the fastest times, and the shortest distances yet obtained. These developments enable research in a wide range of science and engineering fields including chemical dynamics, semiconductor electronics, quantum computing, laboratory astrophysics, relativistic and strong field physics, medical imaging, and biomolecular movies.
Governments around the world have recognized the opportunities and challenges at these frontiers of laser and light science. The European Union has invested in three Extreme Light Infrastructure facilities. The US National Science Foundation has invested in three mid-scale extreme light facilities: CXFEL at Arizona State University, NeXUS at Ohio State, and ZEUS at the University of Michigan. These recent investments build on decades of groundbreaking science and technology around the globe.
The X-lites program builds on these technological advances and facility investments to organize and support scientists around the world as they research and apply this extreme light.
X-lites will create a new global network that will unite the work of scientists across disciplines and geographic borders to support the next generation of scientific advances, researcher training, capability development, and laser technology. X-lites will accelerate discovery and invention through its support of team building, knowledge sharing, and education.
Check out our Shareable Flyers for the X-lites Network!