LASA develops advanced technologies for superconductivity, cryogenics and the production of high intensity static and radio frequency electromagnetic fields. The first European superconducting cyclotron was built here, and the third in the world, in operation since 1994 at the INFN Southern National Laboratories.
The primary mission of LASA today consists in the development of superconducting systems for the acceleration of particles, with radiofrequency (RF) cavities, and for guiding the beams, with magnets.
LASA’s activity covers a wide spectrum of sectors and among the ongoing activities, the study of radio frequency superconducting cavities (SRF) for accelerators is certainly one of the most promising. Furthermore, still in the field of X radiation production for multidisciplinary applications, the research group on RF cavities is a world reference for the production of photocathodes for very high brightness electron beam sources, which supplies the main world infrastructures active in this field. In these areas collaborations are underway on the XFEL and ESS projects.