High peak power lasers at INRS and applications of laser-wakefield-based x-ray sources to global food security

We upgraded over the past two years the INRS high peak power laser facility from 200TW (5J, 25fs) to 700TW (12J, 17fs, 2.5Hz). The experimental programs have been restarted at the beginning of 2017 in the continuity of our previous scientific directions, i.e. high intensity laser-matter interaction and ultrafast X-ray sources. In this talk we will present and discuss the first experiments realized with our new laser facility, with a particular emphasis on the generation of ultrafast bright hard X-rays.