Gemini Target Area

Astra Gemini target area

In the Gemini target area the beams are focused with parabolic mirrors, and with a focal spot as small as two microns, intensities up to 10²² Wcm^-2 can be achieved on target. This makes Gemini the most intense user facility in the world.

The temperatures, pressures and magnetic fields at the focus reach levels that otherwise exist only inside stars, making Gemini a unique facility for scientists to conduct experiments that cannot be attempted anywhere else. Laser-plasma interactions under these conditions can produce energetic beams of electrons and protons as well as bright, coherent sources of X-rays and can also address fundamental questions in astrophysics and plasma physics. The first experiment performed in the Gemini target area early in 2008 demonstrated the acceleration of electrons in a gas jet to energies comparable with those from large conventional accelerators. There are also possibilities for doing quantum electrodynamics experiment.