Related papers: Non-linear Synthesis of Complex Laser Waveforms at…
The dream of physico-chemists to control molecular reactions with light beyond electronic excitations pushes the development of laser pulse shaping capabilities in the mid-infrared (MIR) spectral range. Here, we present a compact optical…
The collision of ultra-relativistic electron beams with intense short laser pulses makes possible to study QED in the high-intensity regime. Present day high-intensity lasers mostly operate with short pulse durations of several tens of…
Ultrafast lasers ($< 500$ fs) have enabled laser-matter interactions at intensities exceeding $10^{18} \rm{Wcm}^{-2}$ with only millijoules of laser energy. However, as pulse durations become shorter, larger spectral bandwidths are…
High-harmonic generation is one of the most extreme nonlinear-optical processes observed to date. By focusing an intense laser pulse into a gas, the light-atom interaction that occurs during the process of ionising the atoms results in the…
Non-linear Compton scattering of ultra-relativistic electrons traversing high-intensity laser pulses generates also hard photons. These photon high-energy tails are considered for parameters in reach at the forthcoming experiments LUXE and…
Several laser techniques have been suggested and demonstrated recently for preparing polarizable molecules in rapidly spinning states with a disc-like angular distribution. We consider motion of these spinning discs in inhomogeneous fields,…
The remarkable temporal properties of ultra-short pulsed lasers in combination with novel beam shaping concepts enable the development of completely new material processing strategies. We demonstrate the benefit of employing focus…
Transparent materials do not absorb light but have profound influence on the phase evolution of transmitted radiation. One consequence is chromatic dispersion, i.e., light of different frequencies travels at different velocities, causing…
Narrowband x- and gamma-ray sources based on the inverse Compton scattering of laser pulses suffer from a limitation of the allowed laser intensity due to the onset of nonlinear effects that increase their bandwidth. It has been suggested…
We present a new theoretical approach for collisional absorption of laser energy in dense plasmas which accommodates arbitrary frequencies and high intensities of the laser field. We establish a connection between laser absorption by…
Longitudinal phase space manipulation is a critical and necessary component for advanced acceleration concepts, radiation sources and improving performances of X-ray free electron lasers. Here we present a simple and versatile method to…
Compton scattered x-rays can be generated using a configuration consisting of a single, ultra-intense laser pulse, and a shaped gas target. The gas target incorporates a hydrodynamically formed density spike, which nonlinearly scatters the…
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…
A high repetition rate electron source was generated by tightly focusing kHz, few-mJ laser pulses into an underdense plasma. This high intensity laser-plasma interaction led to stable electron beams over several hours but with strikingly…
The concept of superbandwidth refers to the fact that a band-limited signal can exhibit, locally, an increase of its bandwidth, i.e., an effective bandwidth greater than that predicted by its Fourier transform. In this work, we study the…
High-power structured light has a wide range of applications, from material processing and high-capacity optical communications to programmable electron beams, plasmas, and nuclear states. On-demand generation of structured light and…
The interaction of a multi-Petawatt, pancake-shaped laser pulse with an unmagnetized plasma is studied analytically and numerically in the regime of fully relativistic electron jitter velocities and in the context of the laser wakefield…
We report the study and demonstration of a new laser pulse shaping system capable of generating linearly polarized picosecond laser pulses with variable temporal profiles including symmetric intensity distributions such as parabolic,…
External driving of passive, nonlinear optical resonators has emerged over the past decade as a novel route for the generation of ultrashort optical pulses and corresponding broadband frequency combs. Whilst the pulse formation dynamics in…
Direct laser acceleration (DLA) offers a compact source of high-charge, energetic electrons for generating secondary radiation or neutrons. While DLA in high-density plasma optimizes the energy transfer from a laser pulse to electrons, it…