BELLA PW Laser Facility Upgrades Enabling High Field Physics Research

Recent upgrades at the BELLA PW laser system enable frontier capabilities in High Energy Physics (HEP) and High Energy Density Science (HEDS). Furthermore, strong field quantum electrodynamics (SFQED) effects are expected to increasingly manifest themselves in laser-charged particle interactions with PW – 10 PW laser systems. Such regimes could become accessed in well prepared experiments at the BELLA PW with its recently added beamlines. The new second beamline allows to combine two independently tunable laser pulses at variable energy ratios, with a combined peak pulse power of 1 PW, for staged laser-particle acceleration and various laser or particle pulse collision scenarios. The new high-intensity iP2 beamline provides a focal spot of ~3 μm diameter, resulting in on-target peak intensities of > 5×10²¹ W/cm², an intensity regime where advanced ion acceleration could already be accompanied by detectable SFQED effects, such as gamma ray flashes. The high laser pulse repetition rate capability (up to 1 Hz) allows for the collection of large data sets, enabling adequate statistical analysis of the results. The iP2 beamline is accessible to users through LaserNetUS. We will discuss the new BELLA PW facility capabilities and present initial examples of proposed SFQED studies.