M. C. Levy

Petawatt laser absorption bounded

The interaction of petawatt (1015 W) lasers with solid matter forms the basis for advanced scientific applications such as table-top particle accelerators, ultrafast imaging systems and laser fusion. Key metrics for these applications relate to absorption, yet conditions in this regime are so nonlinear that it is often impossible to know the fraction of absorbed light f, and even the range of f is unknown. Here using a relativistic Rankine-Hugoniot-like analysis, we show for the first time that f exhibits a theoretical maximum and minimum. These bounds constrain nonlinear absorption mechanisms across the petawatt regime, forbidding high absorption values at low laser power and low absorption values at high laser power. For applications needing to circumvent the absorption bounds, these results will accelerate a shift from solid targets, towards structured and multilayer targets, and lead the development of new materials.

Collisionless shock experiments with lasers and observation of Weibel instabilities

Astrophysical collisionless shocks are common in the universe, occurring in supernova remnants, gamma ray bursts, and protostellar jets. They appear in colliding plasma flows when the mean free path for ion-ion collisions is much larger than the system size. It is believed that such shocks could be mediated via the electromagnetic Weibel instability in astrophysical environments without pre-existing magnetic fields. Here, we present laboratory experiments using high-power lasers and investigate the dynamics of high-Mach-number collisionless shock formation in two interpenetrating plasma streams. Our recent proton-probe experiments on Omega show the characteristic filamentary structures of the Weibel instability that are electromagnetic in nature with an inferred magnetization level as high as ∼1% [C. M. Huntington et al., “Observation of magnetic field generation via the weibel instability in interpenetrating plasma flows,” Nat. Phys. 11, 173–176 (2015)]. These results imply that electromagnetic instabilities are significant in the interaction of astrophysical conditions.

Magnetic field advection in two interpenetrating plasma streams

Laser-generated colliding plasma streams can serve as a test-bed for the study of various astrophysical phenomena and the general physics of self-organization. For streams of a sufficiently high kinetic energy, collisions between the ions of one stream with the ions of the other stream are negligible, and the streams can penetrate through each other. On the other hand, the intra-stream collisions for high-Mach-number flows can still be very frequent, so that each stream can be described hydrodynamically. This paper presents an analytical study of the effects that these interpenetrating streams have on large-scale magnetic fields either introduced by external coils or generated in the plasma near the laser targets. Specifically, a problem of the frozen-in constraint is assessed and paradoxical features of the field advection in this system are revealed. A possibility of using this system for studies of magnetic reconnection is mentioned.

Conservation laws and conversion efficiency in ultraintense laser-overdense plasma interactions

Particle coupling to the oscillatory and steady-state nonlinear force of an ultraintense laser is studied through analytic modeling and particle-in-cell simulations. The complex interplay between these absorption mechanisms—corresponding, respectively, to “hot” electrons and “hole punching” ions—is central to the viability of many ultraintense laser applications. Yet, analytic work to date has focused only on limiting cases of this key problem. In this paper, we develop a fully relativistic model in 1-D treating both modes of ponderomotive light absorption on equitable theoretical footing for the first time. Using this framework, analytic expressions for the conversion efficiencies into hole punching ions and into hot electrons are derived. Solutions for the relativistically correct hole punching velocity and the hot electron Lorentz factor are also calculated. Excellent agreement between analytic predictions and particle-in-cell simulations is demonstrated, and astrophysical analogies are highlighted.

Focusing of intense subpicosecond laser pulses in wedge targets

Two dimensional particle-in-cell simulations characterizing the interaction of ultraintense short pulse lasers in the range 1018 ≤ I ≤ 1020 W/cm2 with converging target geometries are presented. Seeking to examine intensity amplification in high-power laser systems, where focal spots are typically non-diffraction limited, we describe key dynamical features as the injected laser intensity and convergence angle of the target are systematically varied. We find that laser pulses are focused down to a wavelength with the peak intensity amplified by an order of magnitude beyond its vacuum value and develop a simple model for how the peak location moves back towards the injection plane over time. This performance is sustained over hundreds of femtoseconds and scales to laser intensities beyond 1020 W/cm2 at 1 μm wavelength.

Dense plasma heating by crossing relativistic electron beams

Here we investigate, using relativistic fluid theory and Vlasov-Maxwell simulations, the local heating of a dense plasma by two crossing electron beams. Heating occurs as an instability of the electron beams drives Langmuir waves, which couple nonlinearly into damped ion-acoustic waves. Simulations show a factor 2.8 increase in electron kinetic energy with a coupling efficiency of 18%. Our results support applications to the production of warm dense matter and as a driver for inertial fusion plasmas.

Machine learning applied to proton radiography of high-energy-density plasmas

Proton radiography is a technique extensively used to resolve magnetic field structures in high-energy-density plasmas, revealing a whole variety of interesting phenomena such as magnetic reconnection and collisionless shocks found in astrophysical systems. Existing methods of analyzing proton radiographs give mostly qualitative results or specific quantitative parameters, such as magnetic field strength, and recent work showed that the line-integrated transverse magnetic field can be reconstructed in specific regimes where many simplifying assumptions were needed. Using artificial neural networks, we demonstrate for the first time 3D reconstruction of magnetic fields in the nonlinear regime, an improvement over existing methods, which reconstruct only in 2D and in the linear regime. A proof of concept is presented here, with mean reconstruction errors of less than 5% even after introducing noise. We demonstrate that over the long term, this approach is more computationally efficient compared to other techniques. We also highlight the need for proton tomography because (i) certain field structures cannot be reconstructed from a single radiograph and (ii) errors can be further reduced when reconstruction is performed on radiographs generated by proton beams fired in different directions.

A laboratory model of post-Newtonian gravity with high power lasers and 4th generation light sources

Using the post-Newtonian formalism of gravity, we attempt to calculate the x-ray Thomson scattering cross section of electrons that are accelerated in the field of a high intensity optical laser. We show that our results are consistent with previous calculations, suggesting that the combination of high power laser and 4th generation light sources may become a powerful platform to test models exploring high order corrections to the Newtonian gravity.