Related papers: Proton Acceleration in a Laser-induced Relativisti…
The interaction of ultra-intense lasers with solid foils can be used to accelerate ions to high energies well exceeding 60 MeV. The non-linear relativistic motion of electrons in the intense laser radiation leads to their acceleration and…
When a relativistic laser pulse with high photon density interacts with a specially tailored thin foil target, a strong torque is exerted on the resulting spiral-shaped foil plasma, or light fan. Because of its structure, the latter can…
Short-pulse intense lasers have the potential to model extreme astrophysical environments in laboratories. Although there are diagnostics for energetic electrons and ions resulting from laser-plasma interactions, the diagnostics to measure…
In laser-plasma experiments, we observed that ion acceleration from the Coulomb explosion of the plasma channel bored by the laser, is prevented when multiple plasma instabilities such as filamentation and hosing, and nonlinear coherent…
Experimental results, supported by precise modelling, demonstrate optimisation of a plasma-based injector with intermediate laser pulse energy ($<1$ J), corresponding to a normalised vector potential $a_0 = 2.15$, using ionisation injection…
Recently much attention has being attracted to the problem of limitations on the attainable intensity of high power lasers [A.M. Fedotov {\it et al.} Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{105}, 080402 (2010)]. The laser energy can be absorbed by…
The relativistic quantum dynamics of an electron in an intense single-mode quantized electromagnetic field is investigated with special emphasis on the spin degree of freedom. In addition to fast spin oscillations at the laser frequency, a…
Laser-plasma acceleration is an emerging technique for accelerating electrons to high energies over very short distances. The accelerated electron bunches have femtosecond duration, making them particularly relevant for applications such as…
We experimentally demonstrate a notably enhanced acceleration of protons to high energy by relatively modest ultrashort laser pulses and structured dynamical plasma targets. Realized by special deposition of snow targets on sapphire…
The production of energetic (multi-GeV) heavy ion beams by acceleration of ultra-thin foils through the application of radiation pressure to a self-generated, imperfect plasma mirror (photon absorption probability {\eta} finite) is studied.…
A planar laser pulse propagating in vacuum can exhibit an extremely large ponderomotive force. This force, however, cannot impart net energy to an electron: As the pulse overtakes the electron, the initial impulse from its rising edge is…
A plasma velocity shear layer and/or a tangential flow discontinuity provide conditions allowing for energetic particle acceleration. We review such acceleration processes acting both in non-relativistic and in relativistic flows. In…
The dynamics of electron injection in the direct laser acceleration (DLA) regime was investigated by means of three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations and theoretical analysis. It is shown that when an ultra-intense laser pulse…
A novel scheme for the creation of a convergent, or focussing, fast-electron beam generated from ultra-high-intensity laser-solid interactions is described. Self-consistent particle-in-cell simulations are used to demonstrate the efficacy…
Dense positrons are shown to be effectively generated from laser-solid interactions in the strong-field quantum electrodynamics (QED) regime. Whether these positrons are polarized has not yet been reported, limiting their potential…
Plasma processes close to SNR shocks result in the amplification of magnetic fields and in the acceleration of electrons, injecting them into the diffusive acceleration mechanism. The acceleration of electrons and the B field amplification…
We experimentally demonstrate enhanced absorption of near relativistic optical vortex beams in $\mathrm{D_2O}$ plasmas to generate a record fast-neutron yield of $1.45 \times 10^6$ n/s/sr. Beams with a topological charge of 5 were shown to…
We consider a situation in when the interaction of relativistically intense EM waves with an isotropic electron positron plasma takes place, i.e.,we consider short pulse lasers with intensity up to 1021 W/cm2, in which the photon density is…
The interaction of ultra-intense laser pulses with an underdense plasma is used in laser-plasma acceleration to create compact sources of ultrashort pulses of relativistic electrons and X-rays. The accelerating structure is a plasma wave,…
The expansion of a charge-neutral cloud of electrons and positrons with the temperature 1 MeV into an unmagnetized ambient plasma is examined with a 2D particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation. The pair outflow drives solitary waves in the ambient…