S. Weber

Electron dynamics and γ and e-e+ production by colliding laser pulses

The dynamics of an electron bunch irradiated by two focused colliding super-intense laser pulses and the resulting γ and e(-)e(+) production are studied. Due to attractors of electron dynamics in a standing wave created by colliding pulses the photon emission and pair production, in general, are more efficient with linearly polarized pulses than with circularly polarized ones. The dependence of the key parameters on the laser intensity and wavelength allows us to identify the conditions for the cascade development and γe(-)e(+) plasma creation.

Fast magnetic-field annihilation in the relativistic collisionless regime driven by two ultrashort high-intensity laser pulses.

The magnetic quadrupole structure formation during the interaction of two ultrashort high power laser pulses with a collisionless plasma is demonstrated with 2.5-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. The subsequent expansion of the quadrupole is accompanied by magnetic-field annihilation in the ultrarelativistic regime, when the magnetic field cannot be sustained by the plasma current. This results in a dominant contribution of the displacement current exciting a strong large scale electric field. This field leads to the conversion of magnetic energy into kinetic energy of accelerated electrons inside the thin current sheet.

ELI-beamlines: extreme light infrastructure science and technology with ultra-intense lasers

We present the current status of ELI-Beamlines that will be the Czech pillar of the ELI (Extreme Light Infrastructure) project. The facility will make available high-brightness multi-TW ultrashort laser pulses at kHz repetition rate, 10 Hz repetition rate laser pulses at the petawatt level together with kilojoule nanosecond laser pulses that will be used for generation of 10 PW. These beamlines will be combined to generate X-ray secondary sources, to accelerate electrons, protons and ions and to study dense plasma and high-field frontier physics. These programs will be introduced together with the engineering program necessary for building a users’ facility.

Fast magnetic field annihilation driven by two laser pulses in underdense plasma

Fast magnetic annihilation is investigated by using 2.5-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations of two parallel ultra-short petawatt laser pulses co-propagating in underdense plasma. The magnetic field generated by the laser pulses annihilates in a current sheet formed between the pulses. Magnetic field energy is converted to an inductive longitudinal electric field, which efficiently accelerates the electrons of the current sheet. This new regime of collisionless relativistic magnetic field annihilation with a timescale of tens of femtoseconds can be extended to near-critical and overdense plasma with the ultra-high intensity femtosecond laser pulses.

Explosion of relativistic electron vortices in laser plasmas

The interaction of high intensity laser radiation with underdense plasma may lead to the formation of electron vortices. Though being quasistationary on an electron timescales, these structures tend to expand on a proton timescale due to Coloumb repulsion of ions. Using a simple analytical model of a stationary vortex as initial condition, 2D PIC simulations are performed. A number of effects are observed such as vortex boundary field intensification, multistream instabilities at the vortex boundary, and bending of the vortex boundary with the subsequent transformation into smaller electron vortices.

Laser ion acceleration from mass-limited targets with preplasma

The interaction of high intensity laser radiation with mass-limited target exhibits significant enhancement of the ion acceleration when the target is surrounded by an underdense plasma corona, as seen in numerical simulations. The self-generated quasistatic magnetic field squeezes the corona causing the intensification of a subsequent Coulomb explosion of the target. The electric field intensification at the target edges and plasma resonance effects result in the generation of characteristic density holes and further contributes to the ion acceleration.The interaction of high intensity laser radiation with mass-limited target exhibits significant enhancement of the ion acceleration when the target is surrounded by an underdense plasma corona, as seen in numerical simulations. The self-generated quasistatic magnetic field squeezes the corona causing the intensification of a subsequent Coulomb explosion of the target. The electric field intensification at the target edges and plasma resonance effects result in the generation of characteristic density holes and further contributes to the ion acceleration.

Increased efficiency of ion acceleration by using femtosecond laser pulses at higher harmonic frequency

The influence of laser frequency on laser-driven ion acceleration is investigated by means of two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. When ultrashort intense laser pulse at higher harmonic frequency irradiates a thin solid foil, the target may become re lativistically transparent for significantly lower laser pulse intensity compared with irradiation at fundamental laser frequency. The relativistically induced transparency results in an enhanced heating of hot electrons as well as increased maximum energies of accelerated ions and their numbers. Our simulation results have shown the increase in maximum proton energy and increase in the number of high-energy protons by a factor of 2 after the interaction of an ultrashort laser pulse of maximum intensity 7u2009×u20091021u2009W/cm2 with a fully ionized plastic foil of realistic density and of optimal thickness between 100u2009nm and 200u2009nm when switching from the fundamental frequency to the third harmonics.

Dynamic stabilization of filamentation instability

The paper presents a study on dynamic stabilization of filamentation instability driven by an electron beam introduced into a plasma. The results presented in the paper demonstrate that the filamentation instability is successfully stabilized by the dynamic stabilization mechanism, in which the electron beam axis oscillates. The dynamic stabilization mechanism for plasma instability was proposed in the paper [Kawata, Phys. Plasmas 19, 024503 (2012)]. In general, instabilities emerge from the perturbations of the physical quantity. Normally the perturbation phase is unknown so that the instability growth rate is discussed. However, if the perturbation phase is known, the instability growth can be controlled by a superimposition of perturbations imposed actively: if the perturbation is introduced by, for example, a driving beam axis oscillation or so, the perturbation phase can be controlled and the instability growth is mitigated by the superimposition of the growing perturbations.

Particle dynamics and pair production in tightly focused standing wave

With the advent of 10 PW laser facilities, new regimes of laser-matter interaction are opening since effects of quantum electrodynamics, such as electron-positron pair production and cascade development, start to be important. The dynamics of light charged particles, such as electrons and positrons, is affected by the radiation reaction force. This effect can strongly influence the interaction of intense laser pulses with matter since it lowers the energy of emitting particles and transforms their energy to the gamma radiation. Consequently, electron-positron pairs can be generated via Breit-Wheeler process. To study this new regime of interaction, numerical simulations are required. With their help it is possible to predict and study quantum effects which may occur in future experiments at modern laser facilities. In this work we present results of electron interaction with an intense standing wave formed by two colliding laser pulses. Due to the necessity to achieve ultra intense laser field, the laser beam has to be focused to a ~μm-diameter spot. Since the paraxial approximation is not valid for tight focusing, the appropriate model describing the tightly focused laser beam has to be employed. In tightly focused laser beam the longitudinal component of the electromagnetic field becomes significant and together with the ponderomotive force they affect the dynamics of interacting electrons and also newly generated Breit-Wheeler electron-positron pairs. Using the Particle-In-Cell code we study electron dynamics, gamma radiation and pair production in such a configuration for linear polarization and different types of targets.

Evolution of relativistic electron vortices in laser plasmas

Electron vortices appear in the wake of a finite length laser pulse propogating in the underdense plasma. Usually they form two chains of vortices with opposite signs of the magnetic fields locked inside an electron cavity. Using 2D PIC simulations, we discuss the effects of evolution of single and binary electron vortices. Single electron vortices, though being in a quasistationary state on electron timescales, evolve on ion timescales, leading to anisotropic multishell ion motion. Binary electron vortices may be subject to complex motions, which can be described by the point-vortex solutions of Hasegawa-Mima equation. When the finite radius effects come into play, we observe effects as magnetic field annihilation with the subsequent fast electron bunch generation and secondary vortex formation.