Related papers: Optical design for increased interaction length in…
Rapid development of ultrafast ultraintense laser technologies continues to create opportunities for studying strong-field physics under extreme conditions. However, accurate determination of the spatial and temporal characteristics of a…
The generation of energetic electron bunches by the interaction of a short, ultra-intense ($I>10^{19} \textrm{W/cm}^2$) laser pulse with "grating" targets has been investigated in a regime of ultra-high pulse-to-prepulse contrast…
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…
Ultra-intense laser-matter interaction experiments (>10$^{18}$ W/cm$^{2}$) with dense targets are highly sensitive to the effect of laser "noise" (in the form of pre-pulses) preceding the main ultra-intense pulse. These system-dependent…
In recent years, the concept of high-gradient, symmetric focusing using active plasma lenses has regained notable attention owing to its potential benefits in terms of compactness and beam dynamics when juxtaposed with traditional focusing…
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…
When propagating inside dielectrics, an ultrafast Bessel beam creates a high aspect-ratio cylinder of plasma with nanometric diameter that extends over several tens of micrometers to centimeters. We analyze the interaction between the…
Achieving high-quality electron beams from laser wakefield accelerators critically relies on density tailoring to control electron dynamics during injection, acceleration, and extraction. We report on the experimental observation of…
We show that for collisions of electrons with a high-intensity laser, discrete photon emissions introduce a transverse beam spread which is distinct from that due to classical (or beam shape) effects. Via numerical simulations, we show that…
A novel technique for divided-pulse amplification is presented in a proof-of-principle experiment. A pulse burst, cut out of the pulse train of a mode-locked oscillator, is amplified and temporally combined into a single pulse. High…
Plasma-based optics have emerged as a powerful platform for manipulating and amplifying ultra-intense laser pulses. However, the inherently nonlinear and dynamic nature of plasma leads to significant spatial, spectral, and temporal…
The interaction of a high-intensity ultrashort laser pulse with a few microns-thick hydrocarbon target is known to accelerate protons/ions to multi-MeV, on the rear side of the target, via the mechanism of target normal sheath acceleration.…
The accelerating gradients in conventional linear accelerators are currently limited to 100 MV per meter. Plasma-based accelerators have the ability to sustain accelerating gradients which are several orders of magnitude greater than that…
We propose a novel measurement technique capable of determining the temporal duration of an intense laser pulse directly in its focus at full intensity. We show that the electromagnetic radiation pattern emitted by an electron bunch with a…
We review recent PIC simulation results which show that double-sided irradiation of a thin over-dense plasma slab with ultra-intense laser pulses from both sides can lead to sustained comoving Poynting flux acceleration of electrons to…
An extended thermal particle boundary condition is devised to more efficiently and accurately model laser-plasma interactions in overdense plasmas. Particle-in-cell simulations of such interactions require many particles per cell, and a…
We report experimental evidence that multi-MeV protons accelerated in relativistic laser-plasma interactions are modulated by strong filamentary electromagnetic fields. Modulations are observed when a preplasma is developed on the rear side…
Three dimensional Particle in Cell simulations of Laser Wakefield Acceleration require a considerable amount of resources but are necessary to have realistic predictions and to design future experiments. The planned experiments for the…
Laser-based electron acceleration is attracting strong interest from the conventional accelerator community due to its outstanding characteristics in terms of high initial energy, low emittance and high beam current. Unfortunately, such…
Expanding laser plasmas, produced by high energy laser radiation, possess both high thermal and magnetic field energy density. Characterization of such plasma is challenging but needed for understanding of its physical behaviour. Among all…