Related papers: Radiative acceleration and transient, radiation-in…
Radiative recombination of a relativistic electron with a highly charged ion in the presence of an intense laser field is considered. Various relativistic effects, caused by the high energy of the incoming electron and its strong coupling…
Magnetic reconnection is invoked as one of the primary mechanisms to produce energetic particles. We employ large-scale three-dimensional (3D) particle-in-cell simulations of reconnection in magnetically-dominated ($\sigma=10$) pair plasmas…
While laser-plasma accelerators have demonstrated a strong potential in the acceleration of electrons up to giga-electronvolt energies, few experimental tools for studying the acceleration physics have been developed. In this paper, we…
Laser plasma interaction with micro-engineered targets at relativistic intensities has been greatly promoted by recent progress in the high contrast lasers and the manufacture of advanced micro- and nano-structures. This opens new…
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…
The production of energetic (multi-GeV) heavy ion beams by acceleration of ultra-thin foils through the application of radiation pressure to a self-generated, imperfect plasma mirror (photon absorption probability {\eta} finite) is studied.…
The radiation pressure of next generation ultra-high intensity ($>10^{23}$ W/cm$^{2}$) lasers could efficiently accelerate ions to GeV energies. However, nonlinear quantum-electrodynamic effects play an important role in the interaction of…
Dispersive Alfven waves (DAWs) offer, an alternative to magnetic reconnection, opportunity to accelerate solar flare particles. We study the effect of DAW polarisation, L-, R-, circular and elliptical, in different regimes inertial and…
We present Particle-in-Cell simulation results of relativistic shear boundary layers between electron-ion and electron-positron plasmas and discuss their potential applications to astrophysics. Specifically, we find in the case of a fast…
Particle acceleration by means of non-linear plasma wave interactions is of great topical interest. Accordingly, in this paper we focus on the electron surfing process. Self-consistent kinetic simulations, using both relativistic Vlasov and…
Plasma-based acceleration schemes have attracted sustained interest as a pathway toward compact particle accelerators, owing to the large electric fields supported by plasmas. Although recent studies have demonstrated the excitation of…
Contact and projection electron radiography of static targets was demonstrated using a laser plasma accelerator driven by a kilojoule, picosecond class laser as a source of relativistic electrons with an average energy of 20 MeV. Objects…
The dynamics of transient electric fields generated by the interaction of high intensity laser pulses with underdense plasmas has been studied experimentally with the proton projection imaging technique. The formation of a charged channel,…
A short overview of the theory of acceleration of thin foils driven by the radiation pressure of superintense lasers is presented. A simple criterion for radiation pressure dominance at intensities around $5 \times 10^{20} \mbox{W cm}^{-2}$…
When propagating inside dielectrics, an ultrafast Bessel beam creates a high aspect-ratio cylinder of plasma with nanometric diameter that extends over several tens of micrometers to centimeters. We analyze the interaction between the…
The goal of this paper is twofold: to explore the response of classical charges to electromagnetic force at the level of unity in natural units and to establish a criterion that determines physical parameters for which the related…
Creation of electrons and positrons from light alone is a basic prediction of quantum electrodynamics, but yet to be observed. Here we show that it is possible to create ${>}10^8$ positrons by dual laser irradiation of a structured plasma…
We present an analytical theory that reveals the importance of the longitudinal laser electric field in the resonant acceleration of relativistic electrons by the tightly confined laser beam. It is shown that this field always counterworks…
The extreme electric fields created in high-intensity laser-plasma interactions could generate energetic ions far more compactly than traditional accelerators. Despite this promise, laser-plasma accelerators have remained stagnant at…
We study numerically the mechanisms of proton acceleration in gas-foil targets driven by an ultraintense femtosecond laser pulse. The target consists of a near-critical-density hydrogen gas layer of a few tens of microns attached to a solid…