Related papers: Enhanced proton acceleration in an applied longitu…
The process of radiation pressure acceleration (RPA) of ions is investigated with the aim of suppressing the Rayleigh-Taylor like transverse instabilities in laser-foil interaction. This is achieved by imposing surface and density…
A regime of multi-cascade proton acceleration in the interaction of $10^{21}-10^{22}$ W/cm$^2$ laser pulse with a structured target is proposed. The regime is based on the electron charge displacement under the action of laser ponderomotive…
The interaction of relativistically intense lasers with opaque targets represents a highly non-linear, multi-dimensional parameter space. This limits the utility of sequential 1D scanning of experimental parameters for the optimisation of…
The possibility of studying non-thermal electron energization in laser-driven plasma experiments of magnetic reconnection is studied using two- and three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. It is demonstrated that non-thermal…
We report a novel scheme to generate laser-induced, ultrafast, intense (Tesla scale), spatially isolated, magnetic fields. Three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations show that a femtosecond azimuthally-polarized infrared vector beam,…
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…
When a circularly polarized laser pulse interacts with a foil target, there are three stages: pre-hole-boring, hole-boring and the light sail acceleration. We study the electron and ion dynamics in the first stage and find the minimum foil…
We report on new findings in a laser driven enhanced electron beam generation in the multi MeV energy range at moderate relativistic laser intensities and their applications. In our experiment, an intense sub-picosecond laser pulse…
Magnetic fields generated from a laser-foil interaction are measured with high fidelity using a proton radiography scheme with in situ x-ray fiducials. In contrast to prior findings under similar experimental conditions, this technique…
Permanent magnet electron optics offer many advantages over electromagnets, and are being increasingly used in high-energy (GeV) electron accelerator designs. Here, we identify the advantages of permanent magnet electron optics for…
We study proton acceleration from a foil target with a transversely varying density using multi-dimensional Particle-in-Cell (PIC) simulations. In order to reduce electron heating and deformation of the target, circularly polarized Gaussian…
A systematic investigation of spin injection behavior in Au/FM (FM = Fe and Ni) multilayers is performed using the superdiffusive spin transport theory. By exciting the nonmagnetic layer, the laser-induced hot electrons may transfer spin…
The generation of polarized particle beams still relies on conventional particle accelerators, which are typically very large in scale and budget. Concepts based on laser-driven wake-field acceleration have strongly been promoted during the…
Absorption of angular momentum from a high intensity laser pulse can lead to the generation of strong axial magnetic fields in plasma. The effect, known as the inverse Faraday effect can generate kilo-Tesla strength, multi-picosecond, axial…
We demonstrate, for the first time, that laser-accelerated protons can induce shock waves in materials. The ultra-short pulse width of laser-driven protons enables them to deposit energy instantaneously, leading to an intense thermodynamic…
Laser-plasma accelerators can produce high quality electron beams, up to giga-electronvolts in energy, from a centimeter scale device. The properties of the electron beams and the accelerator stability are largely determined by the…
Relativistic electrons colliding with intense counterpropagating laser pulses are expected to lose energy through radiation reaction. However, we reveal a counterintuitive regime where reflected leptons (including incident electrons,…
Strong optical forces with minimal spontaneous emission are desired for molecular deceleration and atom interferometry applications. We report experimental benchmarking of such a stimulated optical force driven by ultrafast laser pulses. We…
Leveraging thermal losses as a useful consequence of surface plasmons in metal nanostructures has gained traction in recent years. This thermalization of hot electrons also induces a resistance change to an applied bias current, which we…
A free electron can temporarily gain a very significant amount of energy if it is overrun by an intense electromagnetic wave. In principle, this process would permit large enhancements in the center-of-mass energy of electron-electron,…