Related papers: Direct laser acceleration in varying plasma densit…
We present experimental results of vacuum laser acceleration (VLA) of electrons using radially polarized laser pulses interacting with a plasma mirror. Tightly focused radially polarized laser pulses have been proposed for electron…
We investigate the dynamics of a relativistic electron in a strongly nonlinear plasma wave in terms of classical mechanics by taking into account the action of the radiative reaction force. The two limiting cases are considered. In the…
Density dowmramp injection has been demonstrated to be an elegant and efficient approach for generating high quality electron beams in laser wakefield accelerators. Yet, the charge of the produced beam is tens of pC per Joule of laser…
In a laser wakefield accelerator (LWFA), an intense laser pulse excites a plasma wave that traps and accelerates electrons to relativistic energies. When the pulse overlaps the accelerated electrons, it can enhance the energy gain through…
Laser-driven ions have compelling properties and their potential use for medical applications has attracted a huge global interest. One of the major challenges of these applications is generating beams of the required energies. To date,…
We briefly report on the recently proposed [G. Fiore, R. Fedele, U. de Angelis, Phys. Plasmas 21 (2014), 113105], [G. Fiore, S. De Nicola, arXiv:1509.04656] electron acceleration mechanism named "slingshot effect": under suitable conditions…
The energy of the ions accelerated by an intense electromagnetic wave in the radiation pressure dominated regime can be greatly enhanced due to a transverse expansion of a thin target. The expansion decreases the number of accelerated ions…
The radiation pressure acceleration regime of laser ion acceleration requires high intensity laser pulses to function efficiently. Moreover the foil should be opaque for incident radiation during the interaction to ensure maximum momentum…
The ion acceleration driven by a laser pulse at intensity $I = 10^{20} - 10^{22} $W/cm$^2\times(\mu$m$/\lambda)^2$ from a double layer target is investigated with multi-parametric Particle-in-Cell (PIC) simulations. For targets with a wide…
Relativistic transparency enables volumetric laser interaction with overdense plasmas and direct laser acceleration of electrons to relativistic velocities. The dense electron current generates a magnetic filament with field strength of the…
Linear acceleration in free space is a topic that has been studied for over 20 years, and its ability to eventually produce high-quality, high energy multi-particle bunches has remained a subject of great interest. Arguments can certainly…
We investigated plasma heating enhancement using a high-intensity, high-contrast laser and a cone-attached target. Fast electron spectra and X-ray emission were measured with an electron spectrometer and a Bragg crystal spectrometer. The…
Betatron radiation is produced in Laser Plasma Accelerators when the electrons are accelerated and simultaneously wiggle across the propagation axis. The mechanisms of electron acceleration and X-ray radiation production follow different…
The physics of energy transfer between the laser and the plasma in laser wakefield accelerators is studied. We find that wake excitation by arbitrary laser shapes can be parameterized using the total pulse energy and pulse depletion length.…
Laser-plasma acceleration is an emerging technique for accelerating electrons to high energies over very short distances. The accelerated electron bunches have femtosecond duration, making them particularly relevant for applications such as…
A plasma velocity shear layer and/or a tangential flow discontinuity provide conditions allowing for energetic particle acceleration. We review such acceleration processes acting both in non-relativistic and in relativistic flows. In…
Accelerator-based light sources such as storage rings and free-electron lasers use relativistic electron beams to produce intense radiation over a wide spectral range for fundamental research in physics, chemistry, materials science,…
Direct laser acceleration of electrons in near-critical-density (NCD) carbon nanotube foams (CNFs) has its advantages in the high-efficiency generation of relativistic electrons and broadband X-rays. Here, we report the first simultaneous…
Recent progress in laser-driven plasma acceleration now enables the acceleration of electrons to several gigaelectronvolts. Taking advantage of these novel accelerators, ultra-short, compact and spatially coherent X-ray sources called…
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…