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Direct laser acceleration of electrons is considered in a strongly magnetized plasmoid with the magnetic field strength allowing for reaching the auto-resonance. The plasmoid may be optically created by irradiation of specially designed…
The generation of ultra-strong attosecond pulses through laser-plasma interactions offers the opportunity to surpass the intensity of any known laboratory radiation source, giving rise to new experimental possibilities, such as quantum…
Relativistic electron-positron plasmas are ubiquitous in extreme astrophysical environments such as black holes and neutron star magnetospheres, where accretion-powered jets and pulsar winds are expected to be enriched with such pair…
A linear electron-positron collider operating at TeV scale energies will provide high precision measurements and allow, for example, precision studies of the Higgs boson as well as searches for physics beyond the standard model. A future…
Three-dimensional (3D) particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations are used to investigate the interaction of ultrahigh intensity lasers ($> 10^{20}$ W/cm$^{-2}$) with matter at overcritical densities. Intense laser pulses are shown to penetrate up…
Positron creation and acceleration is one of the major challenges for constructing future lepton colliders. On the one hand, conventional technology can provide a solution, but at a prohibitive cost and scale. On the other hand,…
Multi-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations are used to study the generation of electrostatic shocks in plasma and the reflection of background ions to produce high-quality and high-energy ion beams. Electrostatic shocks are driven by…
We demonstrate laser-plasma acceleration of high charge electron beams to the ~10 MeV scale using ultrashort laser pulses with as little energy as 10 mJ. This result is made possible by an extremely dense and thin hydrogen gas jet. Total…
We experimentally demonstrate a notably enhanced acceleration of protons to high energy by relatively modest ultrashort laser pulses and structured dynamical plasma targets. Realized by special deposition of snow targets on sapphire…
The physics governing electron acceleration by a relativistically intense laser are not confined to the critical density surface, they also pervade the sub-critical plasma in front of the target. Here, particles can gain many times the…
In this review we consider three important applications of lasers in high energy physics: gamma gamma, gamma electron colliders, laser cooling, positron production. These topics are actual now due to plans of construction linear e+e-, e-e-,…
We investigate the nonlinear interaction between a relativistically strong laser beam and a plasma in the quantum regime. The collective behavior of the electrons is modeled by a Klein-Gordon equation, which is nonlinearly coupled with the…
Modern ultra-intense laser facilities can generate electromagnetic fields strong enough to accelerate particles to near-light speeds over micron-scale distances and also approach the QED critical field, resulting in highly nonlinear and…
In the electron-driven fast-ignition approach to inertial confinement fusion, petawatt laser pulses are required to generate MeV electrons that deposit several tens of kilojoules in the compressed core of an imploded DT shell. We review…
We propose a scheme to explore regimes of strong-field Quantum Electrodynamics (SF-QED) otherwise unattainable with the currently available laser technology. The scheme relies on relativistic plasma mirrors curved by radiation pressure to…
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…
Using fully three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, we show that readily available femtosecond laser systems can stably generate proton beams with hundred MeV energy and low spread at $\sim1\%$ level by parallel irradiation of a…
We review studies of superintense laser interaction with solid targets where the generation of propagating surface plasmons (or surface waves) plays a key role. These studies include the onset of plasma instabilities at the irradiated…
When a finite contrast petawatt laser pulse irradiates a micron-thick foil, a prepulse (including amplified spontaneous emission) creates a preplasma, where an ultrashort relativistically strong portion of the laser pulse (the main pulse)…
The onset and development of electron-positron cascade in a standing wave formed by multiple colliding laser pulses requires tight focusing in order to achieve the maximum laser intensity. There, steep spatio-temporal gradients in the laser…