Related papers: Electron confinement by laser-driven azimuthal mag…
Recent studies have demonstrated the possibility of accelerating electrons to MeV energies in ambient air using tightly focused laser configurations. In this article, we explore possible strategies to control and optimize the resulting…
The use of an external transverse magnetic field to trigger and to control electron self-injection in laser- and particle-beam driven wakefield accelerators is examined analytically and through full-scale particle-in-cell simulations. A…
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…
Laser-plasma accelerators offer a compact means of producing high-energy electron beams, but their performance is fundamentally limited by dephasing between the accelerated electrons and the plasma wave. To overcome this limitation, we…
The energy gain in laser wakefield accelerators is limited by dephasing between the driving laser pulse and the highly relativistic electrons in its wake. Since this phase depends on both the driver and the cavity length, the effects of…
An external static magnetic field with its strength B~10T may result in the laser wake wave-breaking upon changing the electron motion in the vicinity of maximal density ramp of a wave period. This, as shown by numerical simulations, can…
Kinetic simulations of 3D collisionless magnetic reconnection with a guide field show a dramatic enhancement of energetic electron production when compared with 2D systems. In the 2D systems, electrons are trapped in magnetic islands that…
We undertake an investigation of particle acceleration in the context of non-linear electrodynamics. We deduce the maximum energy that an electron can gain in a non-linear density wave in a magnetised plasma, and we show that an electron…
Electron acceleration has been optimized based on 3D PIC simulations of a short laser pulse interacting with low-density plasma targets to find the pulse propagation regime that maximizes the charge of high-energy electron bunches. This…
Numerical simulations of laser-plasma interactions demonstrate the generation of axially polarized electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) that radiate away energy with a characteristic frequency determined by the plasma frequency, in the THz range…
Structured light pulses hold significant promise for their ability to overcome dephasing in laser-wakefield accelerators, that should facilitate applications in high-energy physics and XFEL. Numerical studies have shown that sculpting a…
Relativistic electron beams produced by intense lasers over short distances have important applications in high energy density physics and medical technologies. Vacuum laser acceleration with plasma mirrors injectors has garnered…
We report on an experimental study of proton acceleration by intense laser irradiation of micrometric bar targets, whose dimensions are transversely immersed in the laser focal volume and are longitudinally smaller than half its wavelength.…
The results of numerical and theoretical studies of the gain of direct-drive inertial confinement fusion (ICF) target, which includes a kinetic description of energy transfer by laser-accelerated fast electrons, are presented. The range of…
Electron plasmas confined by an external magnetic field exhibit variations in a two-dimensional plane orthogonal to the confining magnetic field. A nonlinear fluid simulation code to investigate the properties of 2-D electron plasma wave…
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…
In the frame of laser-driven wakefield acceleration, the main characteristics oflaser propagation and plasma wave excitation are described, with an emphasis onthe role of propagation distance for electron acceleration. To…
Laser wakefield theories rely on the laser envelope function, which is radially symmetric, and predict zero transverse momentum for the electrons along the propagation axis. Exact description of laser wakefields, beyond the envelope…
An effective theory of laser--plasma based particle acceleration is presented. Here we treated the plasma as a continuous medium with an index of refraction $n_{m}$ in which a single electron propagates. Because of the simplicity of this…
We show that for collisions of electrons with a high-intensity laser, discrete photon emissions introduce a transverse beam spread which is distinct from that due to classical (or beam shape) effects. Via numerical simulations, we show that…