31 Mar 2022
Virtual Access (VA) is a novel service offered in NEP. It comprises innovative online simulation services, databases, machine learning services, data and metadata services, which will be seamlessly integrated into the NEP infrastructure and provided as cloud services to authenticated users. The access will be provided by the facilities hosting the services. Each Access Provider will operate its own infrastructure, made of one or more installations. All involved Access Providers will offer identified User Access to the VA services under their own schemes based on institutional policies. Part of the online data services that will be made available as VA are currently (or will be) developed in the Joint Activity (JA) 6 on FAIR data approach. According to the NEP proposal, seven services are planned, even though scouting activities to enlarge the offer are foreseen. The services are at different stages of development, and will be gradually completed and integrated into the offer. This deliverable presents the first prototype of a VA service: the MetaRepo, a metadata repository to register and validate Metadata Schemas and Metadata Documents. The document is structured as follows: Section 1 describes the MetaRepo service, and Section 2 shows the functionalities of its Graphical User Interface (GUI). Being the purpose of this Section only demonstrative, for the sake of simplicity the functionalities of the MetaRepo GUI are shown on basic examples instead of being applied to a real NEP use case. This choice has been made to prevent the confusion which might arise due to the complexity of the Metadata Schemas. A real usage example is presented in Milestone 10. Section 3 shows how the Authorization and Authentication has been implemented for the MetaRepo. Section 4 explains how the monitoring of user accesses and actions is performed.29 Mar 2022
The multidisciplinary research context requires an effective and reliable integration of different research infrastructures and academic facilities. NFFA-EUROPE is an interoperable multi-technique, multi-competence, multi-site distributed research infrastructure, offering a wide ensemble of tools for nanoscience and nanotechnology devoted to research and innovation, covering many TRLs, and therefore involving different competences. The Open Access to such a complex distributed research infrastructure is managed by a support service structure, the Technical Liaison Network (TLNet): a centralized technical authority, involving all nodes, in charge to assess the technical request/offer, and to establish the feasibility and the best work-flow for the peer-review prioritised research. The full TLNet service, i.e. a widespread network of experts, rules of engagement and well defined technical evaluation procedures, and an efficient communication system, have been implemented with the objective to be us much as possible user-friendly for both (new) providers and (new) users, by making wide use of smart front-ends, interfacing with a huge database managed with a complex back-end, for creating a common platform to share data and exchange information among providers offering different competences, and between users and providers. The TLNet has been implemented as a distributed network consisting of a Central coordinating TLNet node (at the Coordinator headquarters) and Local TLNet nodes at the providers, as established in June 2021. The network has been initially operative with a temporary IC platform hosted on the GARR network, ready for the 1st Call for proposals. Then, from the 2nd Call (technical evaluation in February 2022), a final set of online monitoring tools, directly implemented in the Single Entry Point, have been used, allowing the TLNet to reach a full perceptiveness on the access.28 Feb 2022
During the first year of NEP project the beam line towards the generation of intense circularly polarized XUV radiation was under development and implementation. The two techniques for the generation of intense circular polarized XUV radiation were installed to the MW beamline based on the Attosecond Science and Technology (AST) Laboratory of IESL-FORTH. By applying the two-color counter rotating electric fields setup under loose focusing conditions we were able to generate highly elliptical extreme ultraviolet radiation in Ar gas as generating medium. The energy of the XUV radiation emitted per laser pulse is found to be of the order of ~100 nJ with the spectrum spanning from 17 to 26 eV (See Figure 3(b)). Preliminary results in Xe and Ne gas as generating medium are also available. Briefly, it was found in Xe that under optimal conditions the energy content of highly elliptical XUV radiation was of the order of the order of ~200 nJ with a spectrum spanning from 17 to 22 eV. On the other hand in the case of Ne as generating medium the energy content was in the order of pJ in the spectral region 17-29 eV. The current performance of high-harmonic generation sources offers a temporal resolution of a few tens of femtoseconds and an energy resolution of approximately one hundred meV. However, some of the most intriguing open problems in materials science arise from phenomena taking place at faster time-scales, in the few-femtosecond range. This includes physical processes, such as the collapse and recovery of metallic or magnetic states, electron hopping, screening phenomena, or charge transfer mechanisms. During the first year of the project, in order to access such temporal scales by means of time and angular-resolved photo-electron spectroscopy (tr-ARPES), we started to implement an optical setup, which allowed us to generate laser pulses in the sub-10 femtosecond range. The few-cycle pulses have been generated by focusing the driving laser of the CITIUS light source at Nova Gorica university into a capillary wave-guide, placed in an environment filled with noble gas. This induced a proper amount of self-phase modulation, i.e., a controlled increase of the pulse bandwidth. The latter has been then recompressed by means of “chirped” mirrors, designed to introduce a proper amount of dispersion, down to a few femtoseconds.
