Related papers: Laser reflection as a catalyst for direct laser ac…
We present an analytical theory that reveals the importance of the longitudinal laser electric field in the resonant acceleration of relativistic electrons by the tightly confined laser beam. It is shown that this field always counterworks…
Plasma-based acceleration of positrons attracts extensive interests due to the ultrahigh accelerating gradient and ultrashort duration, while generating wakefield positron beam by the inherent injection is still a great challenge. Here, we…
Irradiation of solid surfaces with intense ultrashort laser pulses represents a unique way of depositing energy into materials. It allows to realize states of extreme electronic excitation and/or very high temperature and pressure, and to…
The irradiation of few nm thick targets by a finite-contrast high-intensity short-pulse laser results in a strong pre-expansion of these targets at the arrival time of the main pulse. The targets decompress to near and lower than critical…
When a relativistic, femtosecond laser pulse enters a waveguide, the pulse energy is coupled into waveguide optical modes. The longitudinal laser field effectively accelerates electrons along the axis of the channel, while the asymmetric…
Using spectral interferometry technique, we measured subpicosecond time-resolved pre-plasma scale lengths and early expansion ($<$ 12 ps) of the plasma produced by a high intensity (2$\times$10$^{18}$ W/cm$^{2}$) pulse with ultra-high…
Plasmonic nanoparticles embedded into a solid matrix could play crucial role in laser-matter interactions. In this study, excess energy creation was observed during the single-shot irradiation of a polymer matrix containing plasmonic gold…
We present the results of an experiment on plasma generation via laser ablation at 10^12 W/cm^2 of power intensity and in a nanosecond domain. Prompt electrons emission and complex plasma plume fragmentation were simultaneously observed for…
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 $a_0$ $\leq$…
Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental plasma process associated with conversion of the embedded magnetic field energy into kinetic and thermal plasma energy, via bulk acceleration and Ohmic dissipation. In many high-energy astrophysical…
We developed an experimental platform for studying magnetic reconnection in an external magnetic field with simultaneous measurements of plasma imaging, flow velocity, and magnetic-field variation. Here, we investigate the stagnation and…
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…
Direct Laser Acceleration (DLA) of electrons during a high-energy, picosecond laser interaction with an underdense plasma has been demonstrated to be substantially enhanced by controlling the laser focusing geometry. Experiments using the…
An intense femtosecond-laser excitation of a solid induces highly nonthermal conditions. In materials like silicon, laser-induced bond-softening leads to a highly incoherent ionic motion and eventually nonthermal melting. But is this…
Intense femtosecond laser pulses interacting with solids can drive electrons to relativistic energies, enabling miniaturized particle accelerators and bright extreme-ultraviolet light sources. In-situ space-time control of these electrons…
Propagation of short and ultra-intense laser pulses in a semi-infinite space of overdense hydrogen plasma is analyzed via fully-relativistic, real geometry particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations including radiation friction. The relativistic…
The need for ever higher energies in lepton colliders gives rise to the investigation of new accelerator schemes for elementary particle physics experiments. One perceivable way to increase the collision energy would be to combine…
In laser-wakefield acceleration, an ultra-intense laser pulse is focused into an underdense plasma in order to accelerate electrons to relativistic velocities. In most cases, the pulses consist of multiple optical cycles and the interaction…
The dynamics of transient electric fields generated by the interaction of high intensity laser pulses with underdense plasmas has been studied experimentally with the proton projection imaging technique. The formation of a charged channel,…
We demonstrate laser-plasma acceleration of high charge electron beams to the ~10 MeV scale using ultrashort laser pulses with as little energy as 10 mJ. This result is made possible by an extremely dense and thin hydrogen gas jet. Total…