NSF OPAL Midscale Research Infrastructure (RI-1) Design and Prototyping Project*

The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a mid-scale infrastructure (RI-1) design and prototyping project in 2023 to the University of Rochester for NSF OPAL, a new, world-leading, high- power laser user facility that would include two 25-petawatt lasers, experimental systems, and diagnostics to address four areas of compelling, frontier science identified by the Multi-Petawatt Physics Prioritization (MP3) workshop [ 1 ]. Major project goals include: (1) design of the overall NSF OPAL facility; (2) design and prototyping of high-energy, actively cooled laser amplifiers with shot-cycle times of a few minutes; (3) design and prototyping of production and characterization systems for large optics (diffraction gratings and nonlinear optical crystals); and (4) design and prototyping of experimental systems and diagnostic approaches (liquid-crystal plasma mirrors and targets, and focal-spot intensity

measurements). The talk will provide an overview of the project, its current status, and its future prospects.