Related papers: Effect of electron heating on self-induced transpa…
A new phenomenon of enhancing the relativistic transparency of overdense plasmas by the influence of hot-electron refluxing has been found via particle-in-cell simulations. When a p-polarized laser pulse, with intensity below the…
We study kinetic effects responsible for the transition to relativistic self-induced transparency in the interaction of a circularly-polarized laser-pulse with an overdense plasma and their relation to hole-boring and ion acceleration. It…
Propagation of short and ultra-intense laser pulses in a semi-infinite space of overdense hydrogen plasma is analyzed via fully-relativistic, real geometry particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations including radiation friction. The relativistic…
3D particle-in-cell simulations demonstrate that the enhanced transparency of a relativistically hot plasma is sensitive to how the energy is partitioned between different degrees of freedom. For an anisotropic electron distribution,…
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…
Two scenarios for the penetration of relativistically intense laser radiation into an overdense plasma, accessible by self-induced transparency, are presented. For supercritical densities less than 1.5 times the critical one, penetration of…
A novel explanation of the relativistic self-induced transparency effect during superintense laser interaction with an overdense plasma is proposed. We studied it analytically and verified with direct modeling by both PIC and kinetic…
Relativistic self-focusing and channeling of intense laser pulses have been studied in underdense plasma using 2D PIC simulations, for different laser powers and plasma densities. Analytical solutions for the stationary evacuated channels…
Hot electron temperatures and electron energy spectra in the course of interaction between intense laser pulse and overdense plasmas are reexamined from a viewpoint of the difference in laser wavelength. The hot electron temperature…
A spherically symmetric fluid code that includes the relativistic effects of hot electrons has been newly developed. In the present simulations, I attempt to implode a target shell of laser fusion using a nanosecond pulse; then, an…
The dynamics of electric field generation and radial acceleration of ions by a laser pulse of relativistic intensity propagating in an underdense plasma has been investigated using an one-dimensional electrostatic, ponderomotive model…
We present ultrafast pump-probe reflectivity and Doppler spectrometry of a silicon target at relativistic laser intensity. We observe an unexpected rise in reflectivity to a peak approximately $\sim$9 ps after the main pulse interaction…
We examine a regime in which a linearly-polarized laser pulse with relativistic intensity irradiates a sub-critical plasma for much longer than the characteristic electron response time. A steady-state channel is formed in the plasma in…
One of the paradigm-shifting phenomena triggered in laser-plasma interactions at relativistic intensities is the so-called relativistic transparency. As the electrons become heated by the laser to relativistic energies, the plasma becomes…
Producing high-brightness and high-charge (>100 pC) electron bunches at blowout regime requires ultrashort laser pulses with high fluence. The effects of laser pulse heating of the copper photocathode are analyzed in this paper. The…
In laser-solid interactions, electrons may be generated and subsequently accelerated to energies of the order-of-magnitude of the ponderomotive limit, with the underlying process dominated by direct laser acceleration. Breaking this limit,…
Experiments were performed to study electron acceleration by intense sub-picosecond laser pulses propagating in sub-mm long plasmas of near critical electron density (NCD). Low density foam layers of 300-500 um thickness were used as…
With the emergence in the next few years of a new breed of high power laser facilities, it is becoming increasingly important to understand how interacting with intense laser pulses affects the bulk properties of a relativistic electron…
Superponderomotive-energy electrons are observed experimentally from the interaction of an intense laser pulse with a relativistically transparent target. For a relativistically transparent target, kinetic modeling shows that the generation…
Three-dimensional (3D) particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations are used to investigate the interaction of ultrahigh intensity lasers ($> 10^{20}$ W/cm$^{-2}$) with matter at overcritical densities. Intense laser pulses are shown to penetrate up…