Related papers: Laser absorption via QED cascades in counter propa…
Recently much attention has being attracted to the problem of limitations on the attainable intensity of high power lasers [A.M. Fedotov {\it et al.} Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{105}, 080402 (2010)]. The laser energy can be absorbed by…
Absorption covers the physical processes which convert intense photon flux into energetic particles when a high-power laser illuminates optically-thick matter. It underpins important petawatt-scale applications today, e.g., medical-quality…
Electrons at the surface of a plasma that is irradiated by a laser with intensity in excess of $10^{23}~\mathrm{W}\mathrm{cm}^{-2}$ are accelerated so strongly that they emit bursts of synchrotron radiation. Although the combination of high…
We present an analytical and numerical study of multiple-laser QED cascades induced with linearly polarised laser pulses. We analyse different polarisation orientations and propose a configuration that maximises the cascade multiplicity and…
The growth rates of seeded QED cascades in counter propagating lasers are calculated with first principles 2D/3D QED-PIC simulations. The dependence of the growth rate on laser polarization and intensity are compared with analytical models…
QED cascades are complex avalanche processes of hard photon emission and electron-positron pair creation driven by ultra-strong electromagnetic fields. They play a fundamental role in astrophysical environments such as a pulsars'…
The cascaded production and dynamics of electron-positron plasma in ultimately focused laser fields of extreme intensity are studied by 3D particle-in-cell simulations with the account for the relevant processes of quantum electrodynamics…
Understanding the interplay of strong-field QED and collective plasma effects is important for explaining extreme astrophysical environments like magnetars. It has been shown that QED pair plasmas is possible to be produced and observed by…
We investigate a single-laser scheme for reaching the strong-field QED regime based on direct laser acceleration (DLA) of electrons followed by their head-on collision with the same laser pulse reflected from an overdense foil. In this…
Converting light into matter has been a longstanding goal in physics, particularly the creation of electron-positron pairs through quantum electrodynamic (QED) processes. While current approaches using multiple colliding laser pulses can…
In simulations of a 10PW laser striking a solid we demonstrate the possibility of producing a pure electron-positron plasma by the same processes as those thought to operate in high-energy astrophysical environments. A maximum positron…
When an electromagnetic wave is obliquely incident on an inhomogeneous high density plasma, it will be absorbed resonantly as long as it is polarized in the plane of incidence and has an electric field component along the plasma electron…
In simulations of a 12.5PW laser (focused intensity I = 4x10^23W/cm^2) striking a solid aluminium target 10% of the laser energy is converted to gamma-rays. A dense electron-positron plasma is generated with a maximum density of 10^26/m^3;…
It is demonstrated by three-dimensional quantum electrodynamics --- particle-in-cell (QED-PIC) simulations that vacuum breakdown wave in the form of QED cascade front can propagate in an extremely intense plane electromagnetic wave. The…
We demonstrate that the nontrivial dispersion of a plasma driven by a high-intensity laser pulse qualitatively affects fundamental nonperturbative QED processes triggered by the laser pulse even in the case that no electrons remain in the…
It is generally believed that relativistically underdense plasma is transparent for intense laser radiation. However, particle-in-cell simulations reveal abnormal laser field absorption above the intensity threshold about~$3 \times…
The recoil associated with photon emission is key to the dynamics of ultrarelativistic electrons in strong electromagnetic fields, as are found in high-intensity laser-matter interactions and astrophysical environments such as neutron star…
A theoretical and numerical investigation of non-ponderomotive absorption at laser intensities relevant to quantum electrodynamics is presented. It is predicted that there is a regime change in the dependence of fast electron energy on…
New laser facilities will reach intensities of $10^{23} \textrm{W cm}^{-2}$. This advance enables novel experimental setups in the study of laser-plasma interaction. In these setups with extreme fields quantum electrodynamic (QED) effects…
In a previous Letter [Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 123401 (2006)] we have shown by means of three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations and a simple rigid-sphere model that nonlinear resonance absorption is the dominant collisionless absorption…