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In laser-solid interactions, electrons may be generated and subsequently accelerated to energies of the order-of-magnitude of the ponderomotive limit, with the underlying process dominated by direct laser acceleration. Breaking this limit,…
The laser-driven acceleration of high quality proton beams from a double-layer target, comprised of a high-Z ion layer and a thin disk of hydrogen, is investigated with three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations in the case of oblique…
Exploring quantum electrodynamics in the most extreme conditions, where electron-positron pairs can emerge in the presence of a strong background field, is now becoming possible in Compton collisions between ultraintense lasers and…
We study numerically the mechanisms of proton acceleration in gas-foil targets driven by an ultraintense femtosecond laser pulse. The target consists of a near-critical-density hydrogen gas layer of a few tens of microns attached to a solid…
The influence of laser frequency on laser-driven ion acceleration is investigated by means of two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. When ultrashort intense laser pulse at higher harmonic frequency irradiates a thin solid foil, the…
During the past decade, the interaction of high-intensity lasers with solid targets has attracted much interest, regarding its potential in accelerating charged particles. In spite of tremendous progress in laser-plasma based acceleration,…
A hollow cylindrical micron-scale structure is proposed to enhance and manipulate the laser plasma interaction. It is shown through 3-D particle-in-cell simulations that the incident laser pulse intensity is enhanced within the tube. A…
The production of polarized proton beams with multi-GeV energies in ultra-intense laser interaction with targets is studied with three-dimensional Particle-In-Cell simulations. A near-critical density plasma target with pre-polarized proton…
The acceleration of ions in the interaction of high intensity laser pulses with overdense plasmas is investigated with particle-in-cell simulations. For circular polarization of the laser pulses, high-density ion bunches moving into the…
Laser-driven ion acceleration is an attractive technique for compact high-energy ion sources. Currently, among various physical and technical issues to be solved, the boost of ion energy and the reduction of energy spread represent the key…
The radiation pressure of next generation ultra-high intensity ($>10^{23}$ W/cm$^{2}$) lasers could efficiently accelerate ions to GeV energies. However, nonlinear quantum-electrodynamic effects play an important role in the interaction of…
In this paper we study photon emission in the interaction of the laser beam with an under-dense target and the attached reflecting plasma mirror. Photons are emitted due to the inverse Compton scattering when accelerated electrons interact…
We theoretically investigate high energy, collimated proton beam with three dimensional particle in cell simulations of ultrashort petawatt laser interaction with cryogenic hydrogen target of various shapes. Here we show that under…
A target composition scheme to optimize the combined proton acceleration regime is presented and verified by two-dimensional particle-in-cell (2D PIC) simulations by using an ultra-intense circularly-polarized (CP) laser pulse irradiating…
We review recent PIC simulation results which show that double-sided irradiation of a thin over- dense plasma slab by ultra-intense laser pulses from both sides can lead to sustained comoving acceleration of surface electrons to energies…
A new type of proton acceleration stemming from large-scale gradients, low-density targets, irradiated by an intense near-infrared laser is observed. The produced protons are characterized by high-energies (with a broad spectrum), are…
When a relativistically intense p-polarized laser pulse is grazingly incident onto a planar solid-state target, a slightly superluminal field structure is formed near the target surface due to the incident and reflected waves superposition.…
Laser plasma interaction with micro-engineered targets at relativistic intensities has been greatly promoted by recent progress in the high contrast lasers and the manufacture of advanced micro- and nano-structures. This opens new…
Ultra-intense laser-matter interactions are often difficult to predict from first principles because of the complexity of plasma processes and the many degrees of freedom relating to the laser and target parameters. An important approach to…
Proton acceleration by high-intensity laser pulses from ultra-thin foils for hadron therapy is discussed. With the improvement of the laser intensity contrast ratio to 10-11 achieved on Hercules laser at the University of Michigan, it…