Related papers: On the upper limit of laser intensity attainable i…
Direct laser acceleration has proven to be an efficient source of high-charge electron bunches and high brilliance X-rays. However, an analytical description of the acceleration in the interaction with varying plasma density targets is…
Ultra-intense laser pulses can create sufficiently strong fields to probe quantum electrodynamics effects in a novel regime. By colliding a 60 GeV electron bunch with a laser pulse focussed to the maximum achievable intensity of $10^{23}$…
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 argue that long-range photon-photon attraction induced by the dipole interaction of two electron-positron loops can lead to "vacuum self-focussing" of very intense laser beams. The focussing angle theta(F) is found to increase with the…
We report on the depletion and power amplification of the driving laser pulse in a strongly-driven laser wakefield accelerator. Simultaneous measurement of the transmitted pulse energy and temporal shape indicate an increase in peak power…
Optical systems capable of generating fields with sub-wavelength spatial features have become standard in science and engineering research and industry. Pertinent examples include atom- and ion-based quantum computers and optical…
We present the first experimental observation of above-threshold ionization (ATI) electrons produced by ionization of the neon K-shell in a laser field where intensity exceeds 10$^{20}$ W/cm$^{2}$. An array of plastic scintillating…
Simulations of ionization induced injection in a laser driven plasma wakefield show that high-quality electron injectors in the 50-200 MeV range can be achieved in a gas cell with a tailored density profile. Using the PIC code Warp with…
The problem of the quantum-limited or intrinsic linewidth of a good-cavity laser is revisited. Starting from the Scully-Lamb master equation, we present a fully analytical treatment to determine the correlation function and the spectrum of…
An ultra-short (about 30 fs) petawatt laser pulse focused with a wide focal spot (about 100 microns) in a rarefied plasma (electron density of order 10^{17} per cm^3) excites a nonlinear plasma wakefield which can accelerate injected…
Upcoming high-intensity laser systems will be able to probe the quantum-induced nonlinear regime of electrodynamics. So far unobserved QED phenomena such as the discovery of a nonlinear response of the quantum vacuum to macroscopic…
Novel emergent phenomena are expected to occur under conditions exceeding the QED critical electric field, where the vacuum becomes unstable to electron-positron pair production. The required intensity to reach this regime,…
The extreme electric fields created in high-intensity laser-plasma interactions could generate energetic ions far more compactly than traditional accelerators. Despite this promise, laser-plasma accelerators have remained stagnant at…
Electron capture processes are important in the search for new physics. In this context, a high capture rate is desired. We investigate the possibility of enhancing the electron capture rate by irradiating laser beam to ''atom''. The…
We report the experimental results of the commissioning phase in the 10 PW laser beamline of Shanghai Superintense Ultrafast Laser Facility (SULF). The peak power reaches 2.4 PW on target without the last amplifying during the experiment.…
The optimal parameters for nuclear excitation by electron capture in plasma environments generated by the interaction of ultra-strong optical lasers with solid matter are investigated theoretically. As a case study we consider a 4.85 keV…
The process of nuclear excitation by electron capture in plasma environments generated by the interaction of ultra-strong optical lasers with solid-state samples is investigated theoretically. With the help of a plasma model we perform a…
Relativistic electrons generated by the interaction of petawatt-class short laser pulses with solid targets can be used to generate bright X-rays via bremsstrahlung. The efficiency of laser energy transfer into these electrons depends on…
Laser-electron beam collisions that aim to generate electron-positron pairs require laser intensities $I \gtrsim 10^{21} ~\textrm{W/cm}^2$, which can be obtained by focusing a 1-PW optical laser to a spot smaller than 10 $~\mu$m. Spatial…
We examine the experimental requirements for realizing a high-gain Quantum free-electron laser (Quantum FEL). Beyond fundamental constraints on electron beam and undulator, we discuss optimized interaction geometries, include coherence…