Related papers: Optimized laser ion acceleration at the relativist…
A new regime is described for Radiation Pressure Acceleration of a thin foil by an intense laser beam of above 10^20 W/cm^2. Highly monoenergetic proton beams extending to GeV energies can be produced with very high efficiency using…
We report on new findings in a laser driven enhanced electron beam generation in the multi MeV energy range at moderate relativistic laser intensities and their applications. In our experiment, an intense sub-picosecond laser pulse…
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…
A regime of multi-cascade proton acceleration in the interaction of $10^{21}-10^{22}$ W/cm$^2$ laser pulse with a structured target is proposed. The regime is based on the electron charge displacement under the action of laser ponderomotive…
Ultra-intense lasers produce and manipulate plasmas, allowing to locally generate extremely high static and electromagnetic fields. This Letter presents a concept of an ultra-intense optical tweezer, where two counter-propagating circularly…
Using plasma mirror injection we demonstrate, both analytically and numerically, that a circularly polarized helical laser pulse can accelerate highly collimated dense bunches of electrons to several hundred MeV using currently available…
Advances in ultra-intense laser technology are enabling, for the first time, relativistic intensities at mid-infrared (mid-IR) wavelengths. Anticipating further experimental research in this domain, we present high-resolution two…
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 acceleration of ions from ultra-thin foils has been investigated using 250 TW, sub-ps laser pulses, focused on target at intensities up to $3\times10^{20} \Wcm2$. The ion spectra show the appearance of narrow band features for proton…
We explore a regime of laser-driven plasma acceleration of electrons where the radial envelope of the laser-pulse incident at the plasma entrance is strongly mismatched to the nonlinear plasma electron response excited by it. This regime…
Progress in optical techniques has made precision control of the phase profile in optical pulses common and accessible in scientific laboratories. Carefully shaping the field profile of a laser pulse can be used to master the dynamics of…
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,…
The efficient generation of intense X-rays and $\gamma$-radiation is studied. The scheme is based on the relativistic mirror concept, {\it i.e.}, a flying thin plasma slab interacts with a counterpropagating laser pulse, reflecting part of…
The dynamics of relativistic electrons interacting with a laser pulse in a plasma wave has been investigated theoretically and numerically based on the classical Landau-Lifshitz equation. There exists a convergent trajectory of electrons…
To clarify the relationship between phase-stable acceleration (PSA) and unlimited relativistic acceleration (URA) (Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 135003 (2010)), an analytical relativistic model is proposed in the interactions of the ultra-intense…
We propose a scheme to overcome the great challenge of polarization loss in spin-polarized ion acceleration. When a petawatt laser pulse penetrates through a compound plasma target consisting of a double layer slab and prepolarized hydrogen…
Proton acceleration by high-intensity laser pulses from ultra-thin foils for hadron therapy is discussed. With the improvement of the laser intensity contrast ratio to 10-11 achieved on Hercules laser at the University of Michigan, it…
Here we present results from an experiment performed at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research. A mono-energetic beam of chromium ions with initial energies of $\sim 450$ MeV was fired through a magnetized interaction region formed…
Theoretical concepts ofn cosmic ray particle acceleration at relativistic plasma flows -- shocks and shear layers -- are reviewed. We begin with a discussion of mildly relativistic shock waves. The role of oblique field configurations and…
This paper overviews experimental and numerical results on acceleration of narrow energy spread ion beams by an electrostatic collisionless shockwave driven by 1 um (Omega EP) and 10 um (UCLA Neptune Laboratory) lasers in near critical…