Related papers: Fusion in a nanoshell: Harnessing plasmonic fields…
Nanophotonic devices take advantage of geometry-dependent optical properties to confine and enhance the interaction of light with matter on small scales. By carefully patterning nanoscale geometries, coupling of responses across distinct…
We propose to produce neutron-rich nuclei in the range of the astrophysical r-process around the waiting point N=126 by fissioning a dense laser-accelerated thorium ion bunch in a thorium target (covered by a CH2 layer), where the light…
Plasmonic nanoparticles (NPs) hold tremendous promise for catalyzing light-driven chemical reactions. The conventionally assumed detrimental absorption loss from plasmon damping can now be harvested to drive chemical transformations of the…
Hard x-ray emission (20 - 200 keV) from plasmas produced by intense laser pulses on nanoparticle coated targets is compared with that from optically polished targets. The yield enhancement offered by nanoparticles is studied under different…
Engineering strong p-wave interactions between fermions is one of the challenges in modern quantum physics. Such interactions are responsible for a plethora of fascinating quantum phenomena such as topological quantum liquids and exotic…
Fusion reactions in the crust of an accreting neutron star are an important source of heat, and the depth at which these reactions occur is important for determining the temperature profile of the star. Fusion reactions depend strongly on…
We present a laser-based neutron source that produces $1.8 \times 10^5$ neutrons/s with a conversion rate of $7.8 \times 10^5$ neutrons/J. Laser pulses of 12 fs and 23 mJ were focused onto a 430-nm-thick heavy water liquid sheet at a 10 Hz…
Light-driven plasmonic enhancement of chemical reactions on metal catalysts is a promising strategy to achieve highly selective and efficient chemical transformations. The study of plasmonic catalyst materials has traditionally focused on…
A zeptosecond multi--MeV laser pulse may either excite a "plasma" of strongly interacting nucleons or a collective mode. We derive the conditions on laser energy and photon number such that either of these scenarios is realized. We use the…
Propagation of ultrarelativistically intense laser pulse in a self-trapping mode in a near critical density plasma makes it possible to produce electron bunches of extreme parameters appropriate for different state of art applications.…
Generation of collimated, quasi-monoenergetic electron beams (peak energy ~17-22MeV, divergence ~10mrad, energy spread ~20%) by interaction of Ti:sapphire laser pulse of 200fs duration, focussed to an intensity of ~ 2.1x10^18 W/cm^2,with an…
An experimental program is currently underway at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) to compress deuterium and tritium (DT) fuel to densities and temperatures sufficient to achieve fusion and energy gain. The primary approach being…
We report on the experimental studies of laser driven ion acceleration from double-layer target where a near-critical density target with a few-micron thickness is coated in front of a nanometer thin diamond-like carbon foil. A significant…
Controlled fusion with advanced fuels requires average electron and ion energies above 100 keV (equivalent to 1.1 billion K) in a dense plasma. We have met this requirement and demonstrated electron and ion energies over 100 keV in a…
Laser interaction with uniform and nanostructured near-critical plasmas has been investigated by means of 2D particle-in-cell simulations. The effect of a nanostructure (modeled as a collection of solid-density nanospheres) on energy…
Ionization injection is attractive as a controllable injection scheme for generating high quality electron beams using plasma-based wakefield acceleration. Due to the phase dependent tunneling ionization rate and the trapping dynamics…
We show that when a solid plasma foil with a density gradient on the front surface is irradiated by an intense laser pulse at a grazing angle, around 80 degrees, a relativistic electron vortex is excited in the near-critical-density layer…
Proton acceleration by using a 620-TW, 18-J laser pulse of peak intensity of $5\times 10^{21}$ W/cm$^{2}$ irradiating a disk target is examined using three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. It is shown that protons are accelerated…
We investigate bulk ion heating in solid buried layer targets irradiated by ultra-short laser pulses of relativistic intensities using particle-in-cell simulations. Our study focuses on a CD2-Al-CD2 sandwich target geometry. We find…
The ultrashort time-integrated diagnosis of ions plays a vital role in high energy density physics research. However, it is extremely challenging to measure in experiment. Here, we demonstrate a reliable approach for investigating the…