Related papers: Multidimensional effects on proton acceleration us…
The localized deposition of the energy of a laser pulse, as it ablates a solid target, introduces high thermal pressure gradients in the plasma. The thermal expansion of this laser-heated plasma into the ambient medium (ionized residual…
Particle acceleration in collisionless astrophysical shocks, i.e., diffusive shock acceleration (DSA), is the most likely mechanism for producing cosmic rays, at least below 10^{15} eV. Despite the success of this theory, several key…
Direct laser acceleration (DLA) of electrons in a plasma of near critical electron density (NCD) and associated synchrotron-like radiation are discussed for moderate relativistic laser intensity (the normalized laser amplitude $a_0$ $\leq$…
Direct studies of intense laser-solid interactions is still of great challenges, because of the many coupled physical mechanisms, such as direct laser heating, ionization dynamics, collision among charged particles, and electrostatic or…
Plasma outflows from gamma-ray bursts (GRB), pulsar winds, relativistic jets, and ultra-intense laser targets radiate high energy photons. However, radiation damping is ignored in conventional PIC simulations. In this letter, we study the…
Kinetic theory is used to check the applicability of parton cascade in 1 dimensional expansion. Using the information provided by 3 dimensional parton cascade, we model the transverse expansion by an effective area. With this model, kinetic…
This paper explores the time-domain equations of noble metals, in which Drude model is adopted to describe the dielectric constant, to implement three-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations for the surface plasmon excitation with…
Ultrahigh peak power femtosecond laser pulses create extreme states of matter that are currently being probed with great interest. Plasma optics have been proposed for shaping and amplifying high-power pulses, but they are subject to huge…
Using laser accelerated protons or ions for various applications - for example in particle therapie or short-pulse radiographic diagnostics - requires an effective method of focusing and energy selection. We derive an analytical scaling for…
We present large scale 3D particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations to examine particle energization in magnetic reconnection of relativistic electron-positron (pair) plasmas. The initial configuration is set up as a relativistic Harris…
Plasma turbulence is ubiquitous in space and astrophysical plasmas, playing an important role in plasma energization, but the physical mechanisms leading to dissipation of the turbulent energy remain to be definitively identified. Kinetic…
We report on the experimental studies of laser driven ion acceleration from double-layer target where a near-critical density target with a few-micron thickness is coated in front of a nanometer thin diamond-like carbon foil. A significant…
Next-generation high-power lasers that can be focused to intensities exceeding 10^23 W/cm^2 are enabling new physics and applications. The physics of how these lasers interact with matter is highly nonlinear, relativistic, and can involve…
Three-dimensional (3D) etching of materials by plasmas is an ultimate challenge in microstructuring applications. A method is proposed to reach a controllable 3D structure by using masks in front of the surface in a plasma etch reactor in…
Magnetic reconnection in relativistic plasmas -- where the magnetization $\sigma\gg1$ -- is regarded as an efficient particle accelerator, capable of explaining the most dramatic astrophysical flares. We employ two-dimensional (2D)…
Collisionless, turbulent plasmas surround the Earth, from the magnetosphere to the intergalactic medium, and the fluctuations within them affect nearly every field in the space sciences, from space weather forecasts to theories of galaxy…
This research demonstrates high-repetition-rate laser-accelerated ion beams via dual, intersecting, counterpropagating laser-driven blast waves to precisely shape underdense gas into long-lived near-critical density targets. The collision…
Based on a plausible requirement for the ground state density, we introduce a novel one-dimensional (1D) atomic model potential for the 1D simulation of the quantum dynamics of a single active electron atom driven by a strong, linearly…
Achieving high-quality electron beams from laser-plasma accelerators critically relies on density tailoring to control electron dynamics during injection, acceleration, and extraction. We report on the experimental observation of electron…
We use particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations and simple analytic models to investigate the laser-plasma interaction known as ponderomotive steepening. When normally incident laser light reflects at the critical surface of a plasma, the…