TRR 18:  Relativistic Laser Plasma Dynamics

• Subject Area: Physics
• Term: from 2004 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5486099

• Final Report Year: 2016

Final Report Abstract

The pace of the new developments in the area of relativistic laser plasma physics has been breath-taking with the technological breakthroughs during the last 30 years (chirped pulse amplification). Laser pulses with powers up to several petawatts and pulse durations of femtoseconds can now be produced routinely. These ultrashort, super-intense laser pulses generate energy densities higher than inside the sun and field strengths of magnitudes known only in astrophysics so far. The combination of ultra-short pulse duration and the enormous peak power achieved have opened up unique opportunities for the study of fundamental physics processes and for the development of major applications in completely new regimes. The topic of the CRC includes the generation and application of attosecond pulses and the investigation of exotic matter in the relativistic regime. In particular, novel photon and particle sources were developed and physical processes in the relativistic regime were investigated. In addition, spectacular applications are within reach. Examples include the acceleration of electrons to GeV energies within a few millimeters of plasma, acceleration of ions such that cancer therapy with lasers appears to be feasible and the generation of X-ray pulses so intense that strong-field QED effects become visible.

Publications

• A laser-plasma accelerator producing monoenergenic electron beams, Nature 431, 541 (2004)
  Faure, J.; Glinec, Y.; Pukhov, A.; Kiselev, S.; Gordienko, S.; Lefebvre, E.; Rousseau, J.-P.; Burgy, F. & Malka, V.
  
• Dynamics of electric fields driving laser acceleration of multi-MeV protons, Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 195001 (2005)
  Romagnani, L.; Fuchs, J.; Borghesi, M.; Antici, P.; Audebert, P.; Ceccherini, F.; Cowan, T.; Grismayer, T.; Kar, S.; Macchi, A.; Mora, P.; Pretzler, G.; Schiavi, A.; Toncian, T. & Willi, O.
  
• Laser-driven proton scaling laws and new paths towards energy increase, Nature Phys. 2, 48 (2006)
  Fuchs, J.; Antici, P.; d’Humières, E.; Lefebvre, E.; Borghesi, M.; Brambrink, E.; Cecchetti, C. A.; Kaluza, M.; Malka, V.; Manclossi, M.; Meyroneinc, S.; Mora, P.; Schreiber, J.; Toncian, T.; Pépin, H. & Audebert, P.
  
• Study of electron beam propagation through pre-ionized dense foam plasmas, Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 195001 (2005)
  Jung, R.; Osterholz, J.; Löwenbrück, K.; Kiselev, S.; Pretzler, G.; Pukhov, A.; Willi, O.; Kar, S.; Borghesi, M.; Nazarov, W.; Karsch, S.; Clarke, R. & Neely, D.
  
• Generation of Quasimonoenergetic Electron Bunches with 80-fs Laser Pulses, Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 105004 (2006)
  Hidding, B.; Amthor, K.-U.; Liesfeld, B.; Schwoerer, H.; Karsch, S.; Geissler, M.; Veisz, L.; Schmid, K.; Gallacher, J. G.; Jamison, S. P.; Jaroszynski, D.; Pretzler, G. & Sauerbrey, R.
  
• Laser-plasma acceleration of quasi-monoenergetic protons from microstructured targets, Nature 439, 445-448 (2006)
  Schwoerer, H.; Pfotenhauer, S.; Jäckel, O.; Amthor, K.-U.; Liesfeld, B.; Ziegler, W.; Sauerbrey, R.; Ledingham, K. W. D. & Esirkepov, T.
  
• Quasimonoenergetic Deuteron Bursts Produced by Ultraintense Laser Pulses, Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 145006 (2006)
  Ter-Avetisyan, S.; Schnürer, M.; Nickles, P. V.; Kalashnikov, M.; Risse, E.; Sokollik, T.; Sandner, W.; Andreev, A. & Tikhonchuk, V.
  
• Thomson-Backscattered X-Rays From Laser-Accelerated Electrons, Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 014802 (2006)
  Schwoerer, H.; Liesfeld, B.; Schlenvoigt, H.-P.; Amthor, K.-U. & Sauerbrey, R.
  
• Ultrafast laser driven micro-lens to focus MeV proton, Science 312, 410 (2006)
  Toncian, Toma; Borghesi, Marco; Fuchs, Julien; d'Humières, Emmanuel; Antici, Patrizio; Audebert, Patrick; Brambrink, Erik; Cecchetti, Carlo Alberto; Pipahl, Ariane; Romagnani, Lorenzo & Willi, Oswald
  
• A compact sychrotron radiation source driven by a laser plasma wakefield accelerator, Nature Phys. 4, 130 (2008)
  Schlenvoigt, H.-P.; Haupt, K.; Debus, A.; Budde, F.; Jäckel, O.; Pfotenhauer, S.; Schwoerer, H.; Rohwer, E.; Gallacher, J. G.; Brunetti, E.; Shanks, R. P.; Wiggins, S. M. & Jaroszynski, D. A.
  
• Generation of intense continuum extreme-ultraviolet radiation by many-cycle laser fields, Nature Phys. 3, 846 (2007)
  Tzallas, P.; Skantzakis, E.; Kalpouzos, C.; Benis, E. P.; Tsakiris, G. D. & Charalambidis, D.
  
• Attosecond phase locking of harmonics emitted from laser-produced plasmas, Nature Phys. 5, 124 (2009)
  Nomura, Y.; Hörlein, R.; Tzallas, P.; Dromey, B.; Rykovanov, S.; Major, Zs.; Osterhoff, J.; Karsch, S.; Veisz, L.; Zepf, M.; Charalambidis, D.; Krausz, F. & Tsakiris, G. D.
  
• Directional laser-driven ion acceleration from microspheres, Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 135003 (2009)
  Sokollik, T.; Schnürer, M.; Steinke, S.; Nickles, P. V.; Sandner, W.; Amin, M.; Toncian, T.; Willi, O. & Andreev, A. A.
  
• Few-Cycle Laser-Driven Electron Acceleration, Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 124801 (2009)
  Schmid, K.; Veisz, L.; Tavella, F.; Benavides, S.; Tautz, R.; Herrmann, D.; Buck, A.; Hidding, B.; Marcinkevicius, A.; Schramm, U.; Geissler, M.; Meyer-ter-Vehn, J.; Habs, D. & Krausz, F.
  
• Laser-Driven Shock Acceleration of Ion Beams from Spherical Mass-Limited Targets, Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 095022 (2009)
  Henig, A.; Kiefer, D.; Geissler, M.; Rykovanov, S. G.; Ramis, R.; Hörlein, R.; Osterhoff, J.; Major, Zs.; Veisz, L.; Karsch, S.; Krausz, F.; Habs, D. & Schreiber, J.
  
• Laser-driven soft x-ray undulator source, Nature Phys. 5, 826 (2009)
  Fuchs, Matthias; Weingartner, Raphael; Popp, Antonia; Major, Zsuzsanna; Becker, Stefan; Osterhoff, Jens; Cortrie, Isabella; Zeitler, Benno; Hörlein, Rainer; Tsakiris, George D.; Schramm, Ulrich; Rowlands-Rees, Tom P.; Hooker, Simon M.; Habs, Dietrich; Krausz, Ferenc; Karsch, Stefan & Grüner, Florian
  
• Momentum signatures for Schwinger pair production in short laser pulses with sub-cycle structure, Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 150404 (2009)
  Hebenstreit, F.; Alkofer, R.; Dunne, G. V. & Gies, H.
  
• Radiation-Pressure Acceleration of Ion Beams Driven by Circularly Polarized Laser Pulses, Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 245003 (2009)
  Henig, A.; Steinke, S.; Schnürer, M.; Sokollik, T.; Hörlein, R.; Kiefer, D.; Jung, D.; Schreiber, J.; Hegelich, B. M.; Yan, X. Q.; Meyer-ter-Vehn, J.; Tajima, T.; Nickles, P. V.; Sandner, W. & Habs, D.
  
• Controlling the spacing of attosecond pulse trains from relativistic surface plasmas, Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 185002 (2011)
  Behmke, M.; an der Brügge, D.; Rödel, C.; Cerchez, M.; Hemmers, D.; Heyer, M.; Jäckel, O.; Kübel, M.; Paulus, G. G.; Pretzler, G.; Pukhov, A.; Toncian, M.; Toncian, T. & Willi, O.
  
• Real-time observation of laser-driven electron acceleration, Nature Phys. 7, 543 (2011)
  Buck, Alexander; Nicolai, Maria; Schmid, Karl; Sears, Chris M. S.; Sävert, Alexander; Mikhailova, Julia M.; Krausz, Ferenc; Kaluza, Malte C. & Veisz, Laszlo
  
• Ultrahigh-contrast few-cycle pulses for multipetawatt-class laser technology, Opt. Lett. 36, 3145 (2011)
  Mikhailova, Julia M.; Buck, Alexander; Borot, Antonin; Schmid, Karl; Sears, Christopher; Tsakiris, George D.; Krausz, Ferenc & Veisz, Laszlo
  
• Characterizing the electron-beam source size from a laser-plasma electron accelerator with betatron radiation, Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 075001 (2012)
  Schnell, Michael; Sävert, Alexander; Landgraf, Björn; Reuter, Maria; Nicolai, Maria; Jäckel, Oliver; Peth, Christian; Thiele, Tobias; Jansen, Oliver; Pukhov, Alexander; Willi, Oswald; Kaluza, Malte C. & Spielmann, Christian
  
• Few-cycle driven relativistically oscillating plasma mirrors: a source of intense isolated attosecond pulses, Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 235003 (2012)
  Heissler, P.; Hörlein, R.; Mikhailova, J. M.; Waldecker, L.; Tzallas, P.; Buck, A.; Schmid, K.; Sears, C. M. S.; Krausz, F.; Veisz, L.; Zepf, M. & Tsakiris, G. D.
  
• Magnetically amplified tunneling of the 3rd kind as a probe of minicharged particles, Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 131802 (2012)
  Döbrich, Babette; Gies, Holger; Neitz, Norman & Karbstein, Felix
  
• Generation and the spectral composition control of laser driven higher harmonics from grating targets, Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 065003 (2013)
  Cerchez, M.; Giesecke, A. L.; Peth, C.; Toncian, M.; Albertazzi, B.; Fuchs, J.; Willi, O. & Toncian, T.
  
• High-precision x-ray polarimetry, Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 254801 (2013)
  Marx, B.; Schulze, K. S.; Uschmann, I.; Kämpfer, T.; Lötzsch, R.; Wehrhan, O.; Wagner, W.; Detlefs, C.; Roth, T.; Härtwig, J.; Förster, E.; Stöhlker, T. & Paulus, G. G.
  
• Optical control of hard X-ray polarization by electron injection in a laser wakefield accelerator, Nature Comm. 4, 2421 (2013)
  Schnell, Michael; Sävert, Alexander; Uschmann, Ingo; Reuter, Maria; Nicolai, Maria; Kämpfer, Tino; Landgraf, Björn; Jäckel, Oliver; Jansen, Oliver; Pukhov, Alexander; Kaluza, Malte Christoph & Spielmann, Christian
  
• Shock-Front Injector for High-Quality Laser-Plasma Acceleration, Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 185006 (2013)
  Buck, A.; Wenz, J.; Xu, J.; Khrennikov, K.; Schmid, K.; Heigoldt, M.; Mikhailova, J. M.; Geissler, M.; Shen, B.; Krausz, F.; Karsch, S. & Veisz, L.
  
• Parametric amplification of attosecond pulse trains at 11 nm, Scientific Reports 4, 7356 (2014)
  Seres, J.; Seres, E.; Landgraf, B.; Ecker, B.; Aurand, B.; Hoffmann, A.; Winkler, G.; Namba, S.; Kuehl, T. & Spielmann, C.
  
• Radiation-reaction trapping of electrons in extreme laser fields, Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 145003 (2014)
  Ji, L. L.; Pukhov, A.; Kostyukov, I. Yu.; Shen, B. F. & Akli, K.
  
• Direct observation of the injection dynamics of a laser wakefield accelerator using few-femtosecond shadowgraphy, Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 055002 (2015)
  Sävert, A.; Mangles, S. P. D.; Schnell, M.; Siminos, E.; Cole, J. M.; Leier, M.; Reuter, M.; Schwab, M. B.; Möller, M.; Poder, K.; Jäckel, O.; Paulus, G. G.; Spielmann, C.; Skupin, S.; Najmudin, Z. & Kaluza, M. C.
  
• Electron rephasing in a Laser-Wakefield Accelerator, Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 155002 (2015)
  Guillaume, E.; Döpp, A.; Thaury, C.; Ta Phuoc, K.; Lifschitz, A.; Grittani, G.; Goddet, J.-P.; Tafzi, A.; Chou, S. W.; Veisz, L. & Malka, V.
  
• Noncollinear Polarization Gating of Attosecond Pulse Trains in the Relativistic Regime, Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 193903 (2015)
  Yeung, M.; Bierbach, J.; Eckner, E.; Rykovanov, S.; Kuschel, S.; Sävert, A.; Förster, M.; Rödel, C.; Paulus, G. G.; Cousens, S.; Coughlan, M.; Dromey, B. & Zepf, M.
  
• Quantitative X-ray phase-contrast microtomography from a compact laser-driven betatron source, Nature Comm. 6, 7568 (2015)
  Wenz, J.; Schleede, S.; Khrennikov, K.; Bech, M.; Thibault, P.; Heigoldt, M.; Pfeiffer, F. & Karsch, S.
  
• Tunable All-Optical Quasi mono-chromatic Thomson X-Ray Source in the Nonlinear Regime, Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 195003 (2015)
  Khrennikov, K.; Wenz, J.; Buck, A.; Xu, J.; Heigoldt, M.; Veisz, L. & Karsch, S.
  
• Bright high-order harmonic generation with controllable polarization from a relativistic plasma mirror, Nature Comm. 7, 12515 (2016)
  Chen, Zi-Yu & Pukhov, Alexander
  
• Bright X-Ray Source from a Laser- Driven Microplasma Waveguide, Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 115001 (2016)
  Yi, Longqing; Pukhov, Alexander; Luu-Thanh, Phuc & Shen, Baifei
  
• Guided post-acceleration of laser driven ions by a miniature modular structure, Nature Comm. 7, 10792 (2016)
  Kar, Satyabrata; Ahmed, Hamad; Prasad, Rajendra; Cerchez, Mirela; Brauckmann, Stephanie; Aurand, Bastian; Cantono, Giada; Hadjisolomou, Prokopis; Lewis, Ciaran L. S.; Macchi, Andrea; Nersisyan, Gagik; Robinson, Alexander P. L.; Schroer, Anna M.; Swantusch, Marco; Zepf, Matt; Willi, Oswald & Borghesi, Marco
  
• Optimizing laser-driven proton acceleration from overdense targets, Scientific Reports 6, 29402 (2016)
  Stockem Novo, A.; Kaluza, M. C.; Fonseca, R. A. & Silva, L. O.
  
• Transient plasma photonic crystals for high-power lasers, Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 225002 (2016)
  Lehmann, G. & Spatschek, K. H.