Related papers: Laser-plasma interactions for fast ignition
Highly polarized, multi-kiloampere-current electron bunches from compact laser-plasma accelerators are desired for numerous applications. Current proposals to produce these beams suffer from intrinsic limitations to the reproducibility,…
The interaction of intense, ultra-short laser pulses with nanostructures offers promising avenues for spatiotemporal light control. While enhanced optical transmission through subwavelength apertures has been extensively studied in the…
Positron creation and acceleration is one of the major challenges for constructing future lepton colliders. On the one hand, conventional technology can provide a solution, but at a prohibitive cost and scale. On the other hand,…
This research demonstrates high-repetition-rate laser-accelerated ion beams via dual, intersecting, counterpropagating laser-driven blast waves to precisely shape underdense gas into long-lived near-critical density targets. The collision…
Laser accelerated protons can be a complimentary source for treatment of oncological diseases to the existing hadron therapy facilities. We demonstrate how the protons, accelerated from near-critical density plasmas by laser pulses having…
Using quantum electrodynamics particle-in-cell simulations, we optimize the gamma flare ($\gamma$-flare) generation scheme from interaction of high power petawatt-class laser pulse with tailored cryogenic hydrogen target having extended…
We demonstrate ultrashort (6 ps), multi-Megagauss (27 MG) magnetic pulses generated upon interaction of an intense laser pulse (10^{16} Wcm^-2, 100 fs) with a solid target. The temporal evolution of these giant fields generated near the…
Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) show enhancement in its signal, when the laser-induced plasma is confined/decelerated under the effect of an external steady magnetic field or in a small cavity. An enhancement in LIBS signal has…
The filamentary structures and associated electromagnetic fields of a relativistic electron beam have been studied by three dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations in the context of Fast Ignition fusion. The simulations explicitly…
Effects of ionization injection in low and high Z gas mixtures for the laser wake field acceleration of electrons are analyzed with the use of balance equations and particle-in-cell simulations via test probe particle trajectories in…
Laser-plasma acceleration produces ultrashort, high-brightness ion beams reaching tens of MeV, yet their large divergence and broad energy spread require dedicated capture elements for beam transport. Using laser-accelerated protons from…
Propagation distances of intense laser pulses and high-charge electron beams through the plasma are, respectively, limited by diffraction and self-deceleration. This imposes severe constraints on the performance of the two major advanced…
Bremsstrahlung x-rays generated in laser-solid interactions can be used as light sources for high-energy-density science. We present electron and x-ray spectra from particle-in-cell and Monte Carlo simulations, varying laser pulse intensity…
We propose an all-optical, single-laser-pulse scheme for generating dense, relativistic, strongly-magnetized electron-positron pair plasma. The scheme involves the interaction of an extremely intense ($I \gtrsim \SI{e24}{\watt/\cm^2}$)…
We review recent PIC simulation results which show that double-sided irradiaton of a thin overdense plasma slab by ultra-intense laser pulses from both sides can lead to sustained comoving acceleration of surface electrons to energies much…
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 simultaneously enhance the yield and quality of laser-driven…
We present the first three-dimensional fully kinetic electromagnetic relativistic particle-in-cell simulations of the collision of two interpenetrating plasma shells. The highly accurate plasma-kinetic "particle-in-cell" (with the total of…
Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental plasma process associated with conversion of the embedded magnetic field energy into kinetic and thermal plasma energy, via bulk acceleration and Ohmic dissipation. In many high-energy astrophysical…
The formation of an electron-hole plasma during the interaction of intense femtosecond laser pulses with transparent solids lies at the heart of femtosecond laser processing. Advanced micro- and nanomachining applications require improved…
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…