Related papers: Enhanced laser-driven proton acceleration with gas…
We demonstrate, for the first time, that laser-accelerated protons can induce shock waves in materials. The ultra-short pulse width of laser-driven protons enables them to deposit energy instantaneously, leading to an intense thermodynamic…
Energetic positrons have been observed in the interstellar medium, and high-energy positrons with relativistic energies up to approximately 1 TeV have been detected in Galactic cosmic rays. We conducted a study on the acceleration of…
The radiative acceleration of particles and the electrostatic potential fields that arise in low density plasmas hit by radiation produced by a transient, compact source are investigated. We calculate the dynamical evolution and asymptotic…
In the design of laser plasma electron injectors for multi-stage laser driven wakefield accelerators, the control of plasma density is a key element to stabilize the acceleration process. A cell with variable parameters is used to confine…
We report on reproducible shock acceleration from irradiation of a $\lambda = 10$ $\mu$m CO$_2$ laser on optically shaped H$_2$ and He gas targets. A low energy laser prepulse ($I\lesssim10^{14}\, {\rm Wcm^{-2}}$) was used to drive a blast…
We have investigated the role that the transverse electric field of the laser plays in the acceleration of electrons in a laser wakefield accelerator (LWFA) operating in the quasi-blowout regime through particle-in-cell code simulations. In…
Ion acceleration driven by superintense laser pulses is attracting an impressive and steadily increasing effort. Motivations can be found in the potential for a number of foreseen applications and in the perspective to investigate novel…
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 laser-driven azimuthal plasma magnetic field is known to facilitate electron energy gain from the irradiating laser pulse. The enhancement is due to changes in the orientation between the laser electric field and electron velocity caused…
We demonstrate a high-energy, high-charge, electron source produced by the irradiation of a novel gaseous target by an ultra-intense femtosecond laser pulse. By exploiting a nonsymmetrical nozzle, we increased the total charge of the…
Laser pulses of extreme intensities ($I>10^{22}~ \mathrm{W/cm^2}$) are about to become available in the laboratory. The prepulse of such a laser can induce a plasma expansion that generates a low-density channel in near-critical gas jets.…
The generation of energetic electron bunches by the interaction of a short, ultra-intense ($I>10^{19} \textrm{W/cm}^2$) laser pulse with "grating" targets has been investigated in a regime of ultra-high pulse-to-prepulse contrast…
A new electron acceleration mechanism is identified that develops when a relativistically intense laser irradiates the wedge of an over-dense plasma. This induces a diffracted electromagnetic wave with a significant longitudinal electric…
Relativistic electrons colliding with intense counterpropagating laser pulses are expected to lose energy through radiation reaction. However, we reveal a counterintuitive regime where reflected leptons (including incident electrons,…
Particle acceleration in relativistic shocks of electron-positron plasmas with proton admixture is investigated through two-dimensional (2D) particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations. The upstream plasma, with a bulk Lorentz factor of $10$ and a…
We propose a simple laser-driven electron acceleration scheme based on tightly focused radially polarized laser pulses for the production of femtosecond electron bunches with energies in the few-hundreds-of-keV range. In this method, the…
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…
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…
Ultrahigh-intensity lasers (10$^{18}$-10$^{22}$W/cm$^{2}$) have opened up new perspectives in many fields of research and application [1-5]. By irradiating a thin foil, an ultrahigh accelerating field (10$^{12}$ V/m) can be formed and…
Compact laser-plasma acceleration of fast ions has made great strides since its discovery over two decades ago, resulting in the current generation of high-energy ($\geq 100\,\rm MeV$) ultracold beams over ultrashort ($\leq 1\,\rm ps$)…