Engineering Projects & Partnerships
Berkeley Lab Laser Accellerator (BELLA)
Overview
BELLA: With a custom-made laser nicknamed T-REX, having a peak power of 40 trillion watts, the LOASIS team accelerated a high-quality beam of electrons to an energy of a billion electron volts in just 3.3 centimeters — a little over an inch. (Photo Roy Kaltschmidt)
[Berkeley Lab News Center] When completed in about four years, the Berkeley Lab Laser Accelerator, or BELLA, will demonstrate the promise of a novel and compact method of accelerating high-energy particles, by making use of a series of synchronized laser systems. The results will be of interest not only to high-energy particle physicists but also to chemists, biologists, doctors, and national security officials.
With a total budget of about $28 million, BELLA is expected to generate approximately 50 jobs. That includes both on-site workers, such as laser technicians, engineers and construction teams to upgrade the building that will house the laser, and off-site workers at the companies that will supply the supporting systems. About $7 million will go towards construction and safety; the rest will go towards procuring the laser and everything needed to assemble and run it, such as optical, diagnostic, and other technical systems. The entire system will be housed in an existing building at Berkeley Lab, which will be reconfigured and upgraded to include a clean room, new laser lab space and additional shielding.
