Related papers: Towards manipulating relativistic laser pulses wit…
Recent results on laser wakefield acceleration in tailored plasma channels have underlined the importance of controlling the density profile of the gas target. In particular it was reported that appropriate density tailoring can result in…
Owing to the rapid progress in laser technology, very high-contrast femtosecond laser pulses of relativistic intensities become available. These pulses allow for interaction with micro-structured solid-density plasma without destroying the…
When a relativistic laser pulse with high photon density interacts with a specially tailored thin foil target, a strong torque is exerted on the resulting spiral-shaped foil plasma, or light fan. Because of its structure, the latter can…
The emission of multi-MeV ($\gamma$-ray) photons from the interaction of a high-powered laser pulse with a dense plasma target is studied using particle-in-cell simulations. A new set of diagnostic techniques is presented and applied to…
We introduce the first approach to volumetrically generate relativistically thermal plasma at gas-jet--accessible density. Using fully kinetic simulations and theory, we demonstrate that two stages of direct laser acceleration driven by two…
The Schwinger limit could be approached by focusing to its diffraction limit the light reflected by a plasma mirror irradiated by a multi-petawatt laser. We explore numerically the interaction between such intense light and matter. We find…
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…
Direct laser acceleration has proven to be an efficient source of high-charge electron bunches and high brilliance X-rays. However, an analytical description of the acceleration in the interaction with varying plasma density targets is…
Since its birth, the laser has been extraordinarily effective in the study and applications of laser-matter interaction at the atomic and molecular level and in the nonlinear optics of the bound electron. In its early life, the laser was…
The future applications of the short-duration, multi-MeV ion beams produced in the interaction of high-intensity laser pulses with solid targets will require improvements in the conversion efficiency, peak ion energy, beam monochromaticity,…
The paper reports the results of two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations of proton beam acceleration at the interactions of a 130 fs laser pulse of intensity from the range of 10^21-10^23 W/cm^2, predicted for the Extreme Light…
Interaction of a high intensity short laser pulse with near-critical plasmas allows to achieve extremely high coupling efficiency and transfer laser energy to energetic ions. One dimensional Particle-In-Cell (PIC) simulations are considered…
We report an experimental-computational study of the optical properties of plasma mirrors (PMs) at the incident laser frequency when irradiated directly at relativistic intensity (1e18 < I_0 < 1e19 W/cm^2) by near-normally incident (4…
Modern particle accelerators and their applications increasingly rely on precisely coordinated interactions of intense charged particle and laser beams. Femtosecond-scale synchronization alongside micrometre-scale spatial precision are…
The interaction of laser pulses with thin grating targets, having a periodic groove at the irradiated surface, has been experimentally investigated. Ultrahigh contrast ($\sim 10^{12}$) pulses allowed to demonstrate an enhanced laser-target…
Ultra-intense laser-matter interactions are often difficult to predict from first principles because of the complexity of plasma processes and the many degrees of freedom relating to the laser and target parameters. An important approach to…
With increasing laser peak power, the generation and manipulation of high-power laser pulses becomes a growing challenge for conventional solid-state optics due to their limited damage threshold. As a result, plasma-based optical components…
Ion acceleration using a laser pulse irradiating a thin disk target is examined using three-dimensional and two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. A laser pulse of $620$ TW, with an intensity of $5\times 10^{21}$ W/cm$^{2}$ and a…
The direct interaction of nuclei with super-intense laser fields is studied. We show that present and upcoming high-frequency laser facilities, especially together with a moderate acceleration of the target nuclei, do allow for resonant…
Twisted Laguerre-Gaussian lasers, with orbital angular momentum and characterised by doughnut shaped intensity profiles, provide a transformative set of tools and research directions in a growing range of fields and applications, from…