Related papers: Controlling the interaction of tightly focused 10-…
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…
A paradigm shift in the physics of laser-plasma interactions is approaching with the commissioning of multi-petawatt laser facilities world-wide. Radiation reaction processes will result in the onset of electron-positron pair cascades and,…
We measured, using Petawatt-level pulses, the average ion energy and neutron yield in high-intensity laser interactions with molecular clusters as a function of laser intensity. The interaction volume over which fusion occurred (1-10 mm^3)…
The dynamics of an electron bunch irradiated by two focused colliding super-intense laser pulses and the resulting gamma and electron-positron production are studied. Due to attractors of electron dynamics in a standing wave created by…
In strong electromagnetic fields, unique plasma phenomena and applications emerge, whose description requires recently developed theories and simulations [Y. Shi, Ph.D. thesis, Princeton University (2018)]. In the classical regime, to…
Sources of high-energy photons have important applications in almost all areas of research. However, the photon flux and intensity of existing sources is strongly limited for photon energies above a few hundred keV. Here we show that a…
We propose an all-optical, single-laser-pulse scheme for generating dense, relativistic, strongly-magnetized electron-positron pair plasma. The scheme involves the interaction of an extremely intense ($I \gtrsim \SI{e24}{\watt/\cm^2}$)…
In this paper we study photon emission in the interaction of the laser beam with an under-dense target and the attached reflecting plasma mirror. Photons are emitted due to the inverse Compton scattering when accelerated electrons interact…
Biased electrodes are common components of plasma sources and diagnostics. The plasma-electrode interaction is mediated by an intervening sheath structure that influences properties of the electrons and ions contacting the electrode…
Experiments were performed to study electron acceleration by intense sub-picosecond laser pulses propagating in sub-mm long plasmas of near critical electron density (NCD). Low density foam layers of 300-500 um thickness were used as…
Dense micron-sized electron plasmas, such as those generated upon irradiation of nanostructured metallic surfaces by intense femtosecond laser pulses, constitute a rich playground to study light-matter interactions, many-body phenomena, and…
Direct Laser Acceleration (DLA) of electrons during a high-energy, picosecond laser interaction with an underdense plasma has been demonstrated to be substantially enhanced by controlling the laser focusing geometry. Experiments using the…
A strongly mismatched regime of self-guided nonlinear laser-plasma acceleration in the bubble regime is modeled for optimization of Laser to Particle energy efficiency with application to recently proposed laser positron accelerator. The…
When laser intensity exceeds 10^22W/cm^2, photons with energy above MeV can be generated from high-order harmonics process in the laser-plasma interaction. We find that under such laser intensity, QED effect plays a dominating role in the…
Two dimensional particle-in-cell simulations characterizing the interaction of ultraintense short pulse lasers in the range 10^{18} \leq I \leq 10^{20} W/cm^{2} with converging target geometries are presented. Seeking to examine intensity…
In high-intensity (> 10^21W/cm^2) laser-matter interactions gamma-ray photon emission by the electrons can strongly affect the electron's dynamics and copious numbers of electron-positron pairs can be produced by the emitted photons. We…
When a relativistic, femtosecond laser pulse enters a waveguide, the pulse energy is coupled into waveguide optical modes. The longitudinal laser field effectively accelerates electrons along the axis of the channel, while the asymmetric…
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…
Electrons at the surface of a plasma that is irradiated by a laser with intensity in excess of $10^{23}~\mathrm{W}\mathrm{cm}^{-2}$ are accelerated so strongly that they emit bursts of synchrotron radiation. Although the combination of high…
The ability of an intense laser pulse to propagate in a classically over-critical plasma through the phenomenon of relativistic transparency is shown to facilitate the generation of strong plasma magnetic fields. Particle-in-cell…