Related papers: Spectral modification of shock accelerated ions us…
We investigate the interaction of nonthermal ions (protons and nuclei) accelerated in an ultrarelativistic blastwave with the pre-existing magnetic field of the medium into which the blastwave propagates. While particle acceleration…
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…
CO2 laser-driven electron acceleration is demonstrated with particle-in-cell simulation in low-density plasma. An intense CO2 laser pulse with long wavelength excites wakefield. The bubble behind it has a broad space to sustain a large…
High frequency modulations appearing in the kinetic energy distribution of laser accelerated ions are proposed for retrieving the acceleration field dynamics at femtosecond time scale. Such an approach becomes possible if the laser-cycling…
A moderately intense $450$ fs laser pulse is used to create rotational wave packets in gas phase $\rm{I_2}$ molecules. The ensuing time-dependent alignment, measured by Coulomb explosion imaging with a delayed probe pulse, exhibits the…
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…
The direct laser acceleration (DLA) of electrons in underdense plasmas can provide 100s of nC of electrons accelerated to near-GeV energies using currently available lasers. Here we demonstrate the key role of electron transverse…
Intense laser acceleration of ions is inherently difficult due to the velocity mismatch between laser pulses moving at the speed of light and slowly moving massive ions. Instead of directly accelerating the ions, current approaches rely on…
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…
Achieving high repeatability and efficiency in laser-induced strong shock wave excitation remains a significant technical challenge, as evidenced by the extensive efforts undertaken at large-scale national laboratories to optimize the…
We consider the Directed Coulomb Explosion regime of ion acceleration from ultra-thin double layer (high Z/low Z) mass limited targets. In this regime the laser pulse evacuated the electrons from the irradiated spot and accelerates the…
We study the thermalization, injection, and acceleration of ions with different mass/charge ratios, $A/Z$, in non-relativistic collisionless shocks via hybrid (kinetic ions-fluid electrons) simulations. In general, ions thermalize to a…
The acceleration of ions in the interaction of circular polarized laser pulses with overdense plasmas is investigated. For circular polarization laser pulses, the quasi-equilibrium for electrons is established due to the light pressure and…
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…
Laser-plasma accelerators present a promising alternative to conventional accelerators. To fully exploit the extreme amplitudes of the plasma fields and produce high-quality beams, precise control over electron injection into the…
Using plasma mirror injection we demonstrate, both analytically and numerically, that a circularly polarized helical laser pulse can accelerate highly collimated dense bunches of electrons to several hundred MeV using currently available…
Fermi acceleration by collisionless shocks is believed to be the primary mechanism to produce high energy charged particles in the Universe,where charged particles gain energy successively from multiple reflections off the shock…
We propose a novel scheme for controlling the injection of a high-quality electron bunch into a channel-guided laser plasma accelerator. This all-optical technique, constricted waveguide injection, creates a highly tunable controlled…
We investigate the target normal sheath acceleration of protons in thin aluminum targets irradiated at relativistic intensity by two time-separated ultrashort (35 fs) laser pulses. For identical laser pulses and target thicknesses of 3 and…
Using three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, we further investigate the electron and ion acceleration from femtosecond laser-plasma peeler scheme which was proposed in our recent paper (Shen et al 2021 Phys. Rev. X 11 041002). In…