laser-plasma-accelerator
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TAU Systems
TAU Systems is a deep-tech company commercializing the first compact, laser-driven particle accelerators and specialized X-ray free-electron lasers. By replacing miles of conventional accelerator with millimeters of laser-driven plasma, TAU shrinks billion-dollar, kilometer-long machines down to a room-sized footprint - and rents beam time to industry and academia. Spun out of the University of Texas at Austin in 2021 by physicist Bjorn Manuel Hegelich, the company builds application centers (TAU Labs) so semiconductor, battery, medical, and space-electronics researchers can access accelerator-grade light and particle beams without waiting years for a slot at a national facility.
Jerome Paye
Jerome Paye is the CEO of TAU Systems, an Austin-based deep-tech company shrinking mile-long particle accelerators down to the size of a shipping container. A physicist by training and a program-management operator by trade, he spent two decades launching Ford Mustangs, steering Renault's early electric-vehicle work, and running opposed-piston engine programs at Achates Power before joining a startup that wants to accelerate electrons to 10 GeV over 10 centimeters of plasma - and, along the way, replace the EUV light source at the heart of modern chipmaking.