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The ability of laser cooling for relativistic ion beams is investigated. For this purpose, the excitation of relativistic ions with a continuous wave and a pulsed laser is analyzed, utilizing the optical Bloch equations. The laser cooling…
Ion acceleration in laser-produced dense plasmas is a key topic of many recent investigations thanks to its potential applications. Indeed, at forthcoming laser intensities ($I \gtrsim 10^{23} \text{W}\,\text{cm}^{-2}$) interaction of laser…
Relativistic electrons generated by the interaction of petawatt-class short laser pulses with solid targets can be used to generate bright X-rays via bremsstrahlung. The efficiency of laser energy transfer into these electrons depends on…
A new electron acceleration mechanism is identified that develops when a relativistically intense laser irradiates the wedge of an over-dense plasma. This induces a diffracted electromagnetic wave with a significant longitudinal electric…
We propose a new concept of an electron source for ultrafast electron diffraction with sub-10~fs temporal resolution. Electrons are generated in a laser-plasma accelerator, able to deliver femtosecond electron bunches at 5 MeV energy with…
In laser-solid interactions, electrons may be generated and subsequently accelerated to energies of the order-of-magnitude of the ponderomotive limit, with the underlying process dominated by direct laser acceleration. Breaking this limit,…
Space-time structured laser pulses feature an intensity peak that can travel at an arbitrary velocity while maintaining a near-constant profile. These pulses can propagate in uniform media, where their frequencies are correlated with…
We consider the acceleration of electrons in vacuum by means of the circularly-polirized electromagnetic wave, propagating along a magnetic field. We show that the electron energy growth, when using ultra-short and ultra-intense laser…
We report on the experimental studies of laser driven ion acceleration from double-layer target where a near-critical density target with a few-micron thickness is coated in front of a nanometer thin diamond-like carbon foil. A significant…
We study the initial properties and positron annihilation within a small electron-positron plasma drop formed by intense laser pulse. Such QED cascade initiated plasma is, in general, far below the chemical (particle yield) equilibrium. We…
The radiation pressure of next generation ultra-high intensity ($>10^{23}$ W/cm$^{2}$) lasers could efficiently accelerate ions to GeV energies. However, nonlinear quantum-electrodynamic effects play an important role in the interaction of…
We study the onset of electron heating in intense laser-solid interactions and its impact on the spectral quality of radiation pressure accelerated ions in both hole boring and light sail regimes. Two- and three-dimensional particle-in-cell…
Interaction of ultera-short laser pulses with a dense cold plasma is investigated. Due to high density, of plasma, quantum effects such that Bohm potential and quantum pressure should be considered. The results reveal that electron density…
After centuries, the long-standing problem of the nature of ball lightning may be closer to a solution. The relativistic-microwave theory of ball lightning recently proposed by Wu accounts for many of the leading characteristics of ball…
We demonstrate, for the first time, that laser-accelerated protons can induce shock waves in materials. The ultra-short pulse width of laser-driven protons enables them to deposit energy instantaneously, leading to an intense thermodynamic…
The dynamics of electrons in counter-propagating, circularly polarized laser beams are shown to exhibit attractors whose ability to trap particles depends on the ratio of the beam intensities and a single parameter describing radiation…
Using a kilojoule class laser, we demonstrate for the first time that high-contrast picosecond pulses are advantageous for ion acceleration. We show that a laser pulse with optimum duration and a large focal spot accelerates electrons…
We describe a realistic model for a focused high-intensity laser pulse in three dimensions. Relativistic dynamics of an electron submitted to such pulse is described by equations of motion with ponderomotive potential depending on a single…
Dielectric structures driven by laser-generated terahertz (THz) pulses may hold the key to overcoming the technological limitations of conventional particle accelerators and with recent experimental demonstrations of acceleration,…
Relativistic electrons are easily generated by self-injection when an intense laser drives a wakefield in a plasma, giving rise to wide electron energy distributions. Several mechanisms involving additional laser beams or different gas…