Related papers: Ion acceleration by superintense laser-plasma inte…
We present an efficient method to produce laser-triggered proton pulses well below 500 ps pulse width at keV energies. We use femtosecond photoelectron pulses emitted from a cathode to enable ultrafast electron-stimulated desorption of…
Laser-driven ion accelerators have the advantages of compact size, high density, and short bunch duration over conventional accelerators. Nevertheless, it is still challenging to generate ion beams with quasi-monoenergetic peak and low…
Laser-driven proton acceleration provides a powerful route for generating ultrashort, high-charge proton beams. Many applications, including secondary neutron sources and inertial fusion, benefit from tight proton beam focusing. Concave…
Extreme laser pulses driving non-equilibrium processes in high density plasmas permit an increase of the fusion of hydrogen with the boron isotope 11 by nine orders of magnitude of the energy gains above the classical values. This is the…
Ultrahigh-intensity lasers (10$^{18}$-10$^{22}$W/cm$^{2}$) have opened up new perspectives in many fields of research and application [1-5]. By irradiating a thin foil, an ultrahigh accelerating field (10$^{12}$ V/m) can be formed and…
Intense laser-plasma interactions are an essential tool for the laboratory study of ion acceleration at a collisionless shock. With two-dimensional particle-in-cell calculations of a multicomponent plasma we observe two electrostatic…
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…
The interaction of relativistically intense lasers with opaque targets represents a highly non-linear, multi-dimensional parameter space. This limits the utility of sequential 1D scanning of experimental parameters for the optimisation of…
Theoretical study of heavy ion acceleration from ultrathin (<200 nm) gold foils irradiated by a short pulse laser is presented. Using two dimensional particle-in-cell simulations the time history of the laser bullet is examined in order to…
We demonstrate in this research the quasi-monoenergetic electron and proton acceleration through three dimensional particle-in-cell simulations of short petawatt circular polarized laser pulse interactions with near critical density…
We examine the impact of the ion dynamics on laser-driven electron acceleration in an initially empty channel irradiated by an ultra-high intensity laser pulse with $I > 10^{22}$ W/cm$^2$. The negative charge of the accelerated electrons…
Advances in ultra-intense laser technology are enabling, for the first time, relativistic intensities at mid-infrared (mid-IR) wavelengths. Anticipating further experimental research in this domain, we present high-resolution two…
The effects of plasma ion motion in self-modulated plasma based accelerators is examined. An analytical model describing ion motion in the narrow beam limit is developed, and confirmed through multi-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations.…
The generation of energetic electron bunches by the interaction of a short, ultra-intense ($I>10^{19} \textrm{W/cm}^2$) laser pulse with "grating" targets has been investigated in a regime of ultra-high pulse-to-prepulse contrast…
The interaction of an intense laser pulse with a solid target produces energetic proton and ion beams through the Target Normal Sheath Acceleration (TNSA) mechanism. Such beams are under active investigation for applications in proton beam…
Laser-plasma accelerators represent a promising technology for future compact accelerating systems, enabling the acceleration of tens of pC to above $1\,$GeV over just a few centimeters. Nonetheless, these devices currently lack the…
Heating and ionization are among the most fundamental processes in relativistic laser--solid interactions; however, their spatiotemporal evolution remains challenging to capture experimentally. Here we present detailed diagnosis of…
We report the experimental generation of highly energetic carbon ions up to 48 MeV per nucleon by shooting double-layer targets composed of well-controlled slightly underdense plasma (SUP) and ultrathin foils with ultra-intense femtosecond…
Exploring quantum electrodynamics in the most extreme conditions, where electron-positron pairs can emerge in the presence of a strong background field, is now becoming possible in Compton collisions between ultraintense lasers and…
We present a computationally efficient model that describes the interaction of intense, ultrashort infrared laser pulses with transparent materials in the strong ionization regime. The model is augmented with a detailed self-consistent…