Prague Asterix Laser System Project ID: LM2015083 Provider: Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic Period: Jan 01, 2016 - Dec 31, 2019 Principal Investigator: Jan Dostál Co-investigators D. KlĂ­r, P. Prchal, E. KrouskĂ˝, V. HornĂ˝, J. Kovář, M. Krupka, T. Medřík, M. Kozlová, E. Horvath, J. Cikhardt, J. Mareš, M. Kálal, J. Skála, R. Dudžák, Z. VanÄŤura, M. KrĹŻs, N. Medvedev, K. Ĺ�ezáč, J. Nejdl, J. Golasowski, J. HĹ™ebĂ­ÄŤek, M. Pfeifer, L. Vedral, J. Ullschmied, J. ProkĹŻpek, D. Ješátko, P. Zakopal, M. Ĺ indelka, D. Hozák, J. Horvath, J. HĂĽbner, D. Mašlárová, M. ÄŚerveĹ�ák, P. Gajdoš, R. Baše, M. Merfait, T. Burian, Ĺ. JelĂ­nek, S. Singh, O. Renner Aims of the project: The purpose of the project is to ensure material and human operational resources for the international laser research infrastructure PALS in the period 2016-2019. The PALS infrastructure is the only one in the Czech Republic operating a kJ-class high-power laser facility named Prague Asterix Laser System. This unique iodine photodissociation laser facility has been serving European research community since 2000, belonging currently to the four largest civilian lasers in EU. The PALS as a founding member of the Laserlab-Europe consortium offers open access to European users, serving simultaneously as a training site in the field of laser and laser-plasma physics for both Czech and foreign students and young scientists. Its extensive international collaboration has resulted in substantial increase in domestic scientific capacities in the above fields and thus also in the quality of scientific outputs and prestige of the Czech laser research as a whole. One of the most important results of activities of the PALS infrastructure is the current Czech Republic's involvement in the challenging European laser projects ELI and Laserlab-Europe. The main objectives of the new project include: (1) Create conditions for further increasing the quality of training of young laser scientists. (2) Meet the demand to the experimental beam time of both the domestic and foreign users participating at the coordinated European research, benchmark experiments and development works for major European laser projects. (3) Provide Czech industrial subjects, potential suppliers of equipment of laser laboratories, with necessary experimental base and know-how. (4) Prepare substantial innovation of the PALS infrastructure to ensure its efficient cooperation with ELI and Laserlab-Europe projects in the period 2016-2019. (5) Achieve new scientific results in high-prestige fields of laser physics, high-power photonics, high energy density physics, and high-energy chemistry.