Related papers: Achieving extreme light intensities using relativi…
Reaching light intensities above $10^{25}$ W/cm$^{2}$ and up to the Schwinger limit ($10^{29}$ W/cm$^{2}$) would enable testing decades-old fundamental predictions of Quantum Electrodynamics. A promising yet challenging approach to achieve…
In this letter, we report Doppler harmonic generation with a relativistic plasma mirror at unprecedented intensities $>10^{21} ~\textrm{W/cm}^2$ using a PetaWatt-class laser. We show that beyond a few $10^{21} ~\textrm{W/cm}^2$ a precise…
We report an experimental-computational study of the optical properties of plasma mirrors (PMs) at the incident laser frequency when irradiated directly at relativistic intensity (1e18 < I_0 < 1e19 W/cm^2) by near-normally incident (4…
Efficient coupling of intense laser pulses to solid-density matter is critical to many applications including ion acceleration for cancer therapy. At relativistic intensities, the focus has been mainly on investigating various laser beams…
The relativistic flying parabolic mirror can provide a higher laser intensity than the intensity a current laser system can reach via the optical-focusing scheme. A weakly-relativistic laser intensity (1.8$\times$10$^{17}$ W/cm$^2$, $\eta$…
Singularities in multi-stream flows of relativistic plasmas can efficiently produce coherent high-frequency radiation, as exemplified in the concepts of Relativistic Flying Mirror [S. V. Bulanov, et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 085001 (2003)]…
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…
A method to generate ultrahigh intense electromagnetic fields is suggested, based on the laser pulse compression, carrier frequency upshift and focusing by a counter-propagating breaking plasma wave, relativistic flying parabolic mirror.…
Exceptional pulse contrast can be critical for ultraintense laser experiments, particularly when using solid density targets, and their use is becoming widespread. However, current plasma mirror technology is becoming inadequate for the new…
The advent of Petawatt-class laser systems allows generating electro-magnetic fields of unprecedented strength in a controlled environment, driving increasingly more efforts to probe yet unobserved processes through their interaction with…
Relativistic flying mirrors in plasmas are realized as thin dense electron (or electron-ion) layers accelerated by high-intensity electromagnetic waves to velocities close to the speed of light in vacuum. The reflection of an…
Three-dimensional (3D) particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations are used to investigate the interaction of ultrahigh intensity lasers ($> 10^{20}$ W/cm$^{-2}$) with matter at overcritical densities. Intense laser pulses are shown to penetrate up…
An ideal plasma lens can provide the focusing power of a small f-number, solid-state focusing optic at a fraction of the diameter. An ideal plasma lens, however, relies on a steady-state, linear laser pulse-plasma interaction. Ultrashort…
A substantial increase in local laser intensity is observed in the near field behind a plasma shutter.This increase is caused by the interference of the diffracted light at the relativistic plasma aperture and it is studied both…
We propose a scheme to explore regimes of strong-field Quantum Electrodynamics (SF-QED) otherwise unattainable with the currently available laser technology. The scheme relies on relativistic plasma mirrors curved by radiation pressure to…
In this work, an innovative scheme is proposed that exploits the response of magnetized plasmas to realize a refractive index exceeding unity for right circularly polarized (RCP) waves. Using two- and three-dimensional Particle-in-Cell…
The Schwinger limit could be approached by focusing to its diffraction limit the light reflected by a plasma mirror irradiated by a multi-petawatt laser. We explore numerically the interaction between such intense light and matter. We find…
We present experimental results of vacuum laser acceleration (VLA) of electrons using radially polarized laser pulses interacting with a plasma mirror. Tightly focused radially polarized laser pulses have been proposed for electron…
We demonstrate analytically and numerically that focusing of high harmonics produced by the reflection of a few femtosecond laser pulse from a concave plasma surface opens a new way towards unprecedentally high intensities. The key features…
Reflection at relativistically moving plasma mirrors is a well-known approach for frequency conversion as an alternative to nonlinear techniques. A key issue with plasma mirrors is the need for a high carrier concentration, of order 10^21…