Related papers: Tailoring laser-generated plasmas for efficient nu…
Due to screening effects, nuclear reactions in astrophysical plasmas may behave differently than in the laboratory. The possibility to determine the magnitude of these screening effects in colliding laser-generated plasmas is investigated…
A new general expression is derived for nuclear electron capture rates within dense plasmas. Its qualitative nature leads us to question some widely accepted assumptions about how to calculate the effects of the plasma on the rates. A…
We report on experimental measurements of energy transfer efficiencies in a GeV-class laser wakefield accelerator. Both the transfer of energy from the laser to the plasma wakefield, and from the plasma to the accelerated electron beam were…
To maximize the charge of a high-energy electron beam accelerated by an ultra-intense laser pulse propagating in a subcritical plasma, the pulse length should be longer than both the plasma wavelength and the laser pulse width, which is…
Efficient production of nuclear isomers is critical for pioneering applications, like nuclear clocks, nuclear batteries, clean nuclear energy, and nuclear {\gamma}-ray lasers. However, due to small production cross sections and quick…
We show that monoenergetic ion beams can be accelerated by moderate Mach number collisionless, electrostatic shocks propagating in a long scale-length exponentially decaying plasma profile. Strong plasma heating and density steepening…
Relativistic electrons, accelerated by the laser ponderomotive force, can be focused onto a high-Z convertor to generate high-brightness beams of gamma-rays, which in turn can be used to induce photonuclear reactions. In this work, the…
We demonstrate that electrons can be efficiently accelerated to high energy in spatially non-uniform, intense laser fields. Laser non-uniformities occur when a perfect plane wave reflects off a randomly perturbed surface. By solving for…
Electron acceleration has been optimized based on 3D PIC simulations of a short laser pulse interacting with low-density plasma targets to find the pulse propagation regime that maximizes the charge of high-energy electron bunches. This…
High-energy-density electron-positron pair plasma production and its dynamics in a thin foil illuminated by two counter-propagating laser pulses are investigated through multi-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. We compare the…
Experiments on one- and two-photon laser excitation of 232Th+ ions in a radiofrequency ion trap are reported. As the first excitation step, the strongest resonance line at 402 nm from the 6d^2 7s J=3/2 ground state to the 6d7s7p J=5/2 state…
Pulses of extreme ultraviolet (XUV) light, with wavelengths between 10 and 100$\,$nm, can be used to image and excite ultra-fast phenomena such as the motion of atomic electrons. Here we show that the illumination of plasma with…
We demonstrate in this research the quasi-monoenergetic electron and proton acceleration through three dimensional particle-in-cell simulations of short petawatt circular polarized laser pulse interactions with near critical density…
The interaction of high-temperature plasma with matter has several potential applications. In this study, we generated laser-induced plasma through single and successive laser energy deposition. The lifetime of the plasma is of paramount…
Generation of highly-polarized high-energy brilliant $\gamma$-rays via laser-plasma interaction has been investigated in the quantum radiation-reaction regime. We employ a quantum-electrodynamics particle-in-cell code to describe…
We investigate by particle-in-cell simulations in two and three dimensions the laser-plasma interaction and the proton acceleration in multilayer targets where a low density "near-critical" layer of a few micron thickness is added on the…
The propagation of ultra intense laser pulses through matter is connected with the generation of strong moving magnetic fields in the propagation channel as well as the formation of a thin ion filament along the axis of the channel. Upon…
In an electron wakefield accelerator, an intense laser pulse or charged particle beam excites plasma waves. Under proper conditions, electrons from the background plasma are trapped in the plasma wave and accelerated to ultra-relativistic…
We investigate theoretically a nuclear excitation mechanism involving absorption of non-resonant photons leveraged by the coupling to the atomic shell. The nuclear non-resonant photoexcitation is assisted by electron recombination which…
Particle acceleration using ultraintense, ultrashort laser pulses is one of the most attractive topics in relativistic laser-plasma research. We report proton/ion acceleration in the intensity range of 5x1019 W/cm2 to 3.3x1020 W/cm2 by…