This news release is available in French.
INRS's Advanced Laser Light Source (ALLS), the only facility of it's kind in Canada, has obtained $1.5 million of funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI). This will allow it to continue its mission as an international center of excellence in ultrafast science. The research facility, which boasts a wide variety of lasers with specific properties, provides ultrafast light sources for exploring fundamental questions in physics and chemistry through the study of matter at the atomic and electronic level.
"This new funding from CFI recognizes the scientific excellence and innovation potential of ALLS," said the laboratory's director, Professor François Légaré of Centre Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications. "By optimizing its operation, ALLS will continue to excel, generating scientific discoveries as well as technological breakthroughs in communications, data storage, ultrafast systems, and high resolution imaging of materials and biological samples."
The funding was made available through a special competition of the CFI Major Science Initiatives Fund aimed at supporting and developing Canada's most promising national research facilities.
Facts and figures
- In operation since 2005 at Centre Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications, Varennes
- The country's largest array of light sources at a single facility, ranging from Terahertz to hard X-rays with ultrashort pulses, for use in complex dynamic experiments
- World leader in powerful infrared laser sources
- Development of a new laser concept: frequency domain optical parametric amplification (FOPA)
- More than 125 scientific publications, many of them in prestigious journals
- A total of 125 students and 55 postdoctoral fellows trained
- Used in 2013 by 53 teams from 11 countries, including Australia, China, Japan, Romania, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates
- Spin-off few-cycle Inc., the first Canadian company to develop intense femtosecond laser sources
- Services tailored to specific needs of users
- Various projects conducted as university-business collaborations
- A highly experienced and versatile scientific and technical team at INRS Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications Research Centre
- 10 research professors with complementary expertise: advanced laser technology, Terahertz and X-ray science, intense laser science, laser applications for material sciences
- Optimization, maintenance, and repair of laser systems by specialized engineers and technicians
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About INRS
INRS is a graduate-level research and training university and ranks first in Canada for research intensity (average grant funding per faculty member). INRS brings together some 150 professors and close to 700 students and postdoctoral fellows at its four centres in Montreal, Quebec City, Laval, and Varennes. Its applied and fundamental research is essential to the advancement of science in Quebec and internationally even as it plays a key role in the development of concrete solutions to the problems faced by our society.