Laser-driven electron emission and expansion for the generation and guidance of giant EMPs.

High-power laser interacting with matter generates intense electromagnetic pulses (EMPs), which are closely associated with laser and target parameters. In this study, EMPs induced by picosecond (ps) laser coupling with solid targets are recorded at the XG-III laser facility. Gold wire targets produce more intense EMPs with a maximum EMP value of 608 kV/m compared to some planar targets.

Picosecond laser-driven coded-source radiography with high resolution and contrast.

The X-ray sources for Compton radiography of ICF experiments are generated by using intense picosecond lasers to irradiate wire targets. The wire diameter must be designed thin enough, for example ∼ 10 µm in many published works, to comply a high spatial resolution. This results in a low laser-target interception, which limits the photon yield.

Crystal structure prediction and non-superconductivity of N-doped LuHat near ambient pressure.

Lanthanide polyhydrides, which have attracted the attention of researchers, are considered as a potential candidate material for high-temperature superconductivity. Especially, it is reported that N-doped LuHexhibits near ambient superconductivity recently. It has attracted attention to room temperature superconductivity of ternary Lu-N-H systems at near ambient pressure.

Target Density Effects on Charge Transfer of Laser-Accelerated Carbon Ions in Dense Plasma.

We report on charge state measurements of laser-accelerated carbon ions in the energy range of several MeV penetrating a dense partially ionized plasma. The plasma was generated by irradiation of a foam target with laser-induced hohlraum radiation in the soft x-ray regime. We use the tricellulose acetate (C_{9}H_{16}O_{8}) foam of 2  mg/cm^{3} density and 1 mm interaction length as target material.

Selective generation of narrow-band harmonics by a relativistic laser pulse interaction with a detuned plasma grating.

The spectral characteristics of high-order harmonics generated by the interaction of a linearly polarized relativistic laser pulse with a plasma grating target are investigated. Through particle-in-cell simulations and an analytical model, it is shown that a plasma grating target with periodic structure can select special harmonics with integer multiples of the grating frequency, and that low-order harmonics with frequencies being integer times of the laser frequency are generated nearly parallel to the target surface from a Fresnel zone plate target with an aperiodic structure. Spectral control of the harmonics can be achieved by introducing a correction factor β to the radius formula of the Fresnel zone plate, which can create a slightly detuned plasma grating, and then only the narrow-band harmonics can be selected nearly parallel to the target surface.

Measuring fluence distribution of intense short laser based on the radiochromic effect.

This Letter demonstrates a novel, to the best of our knowledge, method to measure the fluence distribution of an intense short laser pulse based on the radiochromic effect. We discovered that an intense short laser pulse can induce the color reaction with a radiochromic film (RCF). Further, the net optical density of an irradiated RCF is proportional to the fluence of the incident laser pulse in a large range (${2 {-} 120}\;{{{\rm mJ}/{\rm cm}}^2}$).

Observation of a high degree of stopping for laser-accelerated intense proton beams in dense ionized matter.

Intense particle beams generated from the interaction of ultrahigh intensity lasers with sample foils provide options in radiography, high-yield neutron sources, high-energy-density-matter generation, and ion fast ignition. An accurate understanding of beam transportation behavior in dense matter is crucial for all these applications. Here we report the experimental evidence on one order of magnitude enhancement of intense laser-accelerated proton beam stopping in dense ionized matter, in comparison with the current-widely used models describing individual ion stopping in matter.

Quantum Mechanisms of Electron and Positron Acceleration through Nonlinear Compton Scatterings and Nonlinear Breit-Wheeler Processes in Coherent Photon Dominated Regime.

Electric force is presently the only means in laboratory to accelerate charged particles to high energies, corresponding acceleration processes are classical and continuous. Here we report on how to accelerate electrons and positrons to high energies using ultra intense lasers (UIL) through two quantum processes, nonlinear Compton scattering and nonlinear Breit-Wheeler process. In the coherent photon dominated regime of these two processes, the former can effectively boost electrons/positrons and the latter can produce high energy electrons and positrons with low energy γ photons.

Measurement of the injecting time of picosecond laser in indirect-drive integrated fast ignition experiments using an x-ray streak camera.

The injecting time of the picosecond laser in an indirect-drive integrated fast ignition experiment was measured by using an x-ray streak camera. Despite overlapping spatially and temporally in experiments, the soft x-ray signal from the nanosecond laser ablating the inner wall of an Au hohlraum and the hard x-ray signal from the bremsstrahlung radiation of hot electrons generated by a picosecond laser were separated by different image processes by filtering and collimating the two signals differently. The time sequence between the two x-ray signals was analyzed to extract the injection time of the picosecond laser relative to the hohlraum emission.

Retrieving the excitation and polarization configurations in Coulomb explosion of a trimer driven by strong laser field.

Ultrafast imaging and manipulating transient molecular structures in chemical reactions and photobiological processes is a fundamental but challenging goal for scientists. Theoretically, the challenge originates from the complex multiple-time-scale correlated electron dynamics and their coupling with the nuclei. Here, we employ classical polyatomic models for this kind of study and take the Coulomb explosion of argon and neon trimers in strong laser fields as an illuminating example.

High-energy X-ray radiography of laser shock loaded metal dynamic fragmentation using high-intensity short-pulse laser.

The dynamic fragmentation of shock-loaded high-Z metal is of considerable importance for both basic and applied science. The areal density and mass-velocity distribution of dynamic fragmentation are crucial factors in understanding this issue. Experimental methods, such as pulsed X-ray radiography and proton radiography, have been utilized to obtain information on such factors; however, they are restricted to a complex device, and the spatial resolution is in the order of 100 m.

Effects of Involved Laser Photons on Radiation and Electron-Positron Pair Production in one Coherence Interval in Ultra Intense Lasers.

Electron radiation and γ photon annihilation are two of the major processes in ultra intense lasers (UIL). Understanding their behavior in one coherence interval (CI) is the basis for UIL-matter interaction researches. However, most existing analytic formulae only give the average over many CIs.

An angular-resolved multi-channel Thomson parabola spectrometer for laser-driven ion measurement.

A multi-channel Thomson parabola spectrometer was designed and employed to diagnose ion beams driven by intense laser pulses. Angular-resolved energy spectra for different ion species can be measured in a single shot. It contains parallel dipole magnets and wedged electrodes to fit ion dispersion of different charge-to-mass ratios.

Note: Tandem Kirkpatrick-Baez microscope with sixteen channels for high-resolution laser-plasma diagnostics.

Multi-channel Kirkpatrick-Baez (KB) microscopes, which have better resolution and collection efficiency than pinhole cameras, have been widely used in laser inertial confinement fusion to diagnose time evolution of the target implosion. In this study, a tandem multi-channel KB microscope was developed to have sixteen imaging channels with the precise control of spatial resolution and image intervals. This precise control was created using a coarse assembly of mirror pairs with high-accuracy optical prisms, followed by precise adjustment in real-time x-ray imaging experiments.

Quasi suppression of higher-order diffractions with inclined rectangular apertures gratings.

Advances in the fundamentals and applications of diffraction gratings have received much attention. However, conventional diffraction gratings often suffer from higher-order diffraction contamination. Here, we introduce a simple and compact single optical element, named inclined rectangular aperture gratings (IRAG), for quasi suppression of higher-order diffractions.

Focusing single-order diffraction transmission grating with a focusing plane perpendicular to the grating surface.

By combining the single-order dispersion properties of quasi-sinusoidal single-order diffraction transmission gratings (QSTG) and the single-foci focusing properties of annulus-sector-shaped-element binary Gabor zone plate (ASZP), we propose a novel focusing single-order diffraction transmission grating (FSDTG). Different from the diffraction patterns of a normal transmission grating (TG), it has a focusing plane perpendicular to the grating surface. Numerical simulations are carried out to verify its diffraction patterns in the framework of Fresnel-Kirchhoff diffraction.

Single-order diffraction grating designed by trapezoidal transmission function.

Diffraction grating is a widely used dispersion element in spectral analysis from the infrared to the x-ray region. Traditionally, it has a square-wave transmission function, suffering from high-order diffraction contamination. Single-order diffraction can be achieved by sinusoidal amplitude transmission grating, but the fabrication is difficult.

High direct drive illumination uniformity achieved by multi-parameter optimization approach: a case study of Shenguang III laser facility.

The uniformity of the compression driver is of fundamental importance for inertial confinement fusion (ICF). In this paper, the illumination uniformity on a spherical capsule during the initial imprinting phase directly driven by laser beams has been considered. We aim to explore methods to achieve high direct drive illumination uniformity on laser facilities designed for indirect drive ICF.

Investigation of fragment sizes in laser-driven shock-loaded tin with improved watershed segmentation method.

Studying dynamic fragmentation in shock-loaded metals and evaluating the geometrical and kinematical properties of the resulting fragments are of significant importance in shock physics, material science as well as microstructural modeling. In this paper, we performed the laser-driven shock-loaded experiment on the Shenguang-Ш (SGШ) prototype laser facility, and employed X-ray micro-tomography technique to give a whole insight into the actual fragmentation process. To investigate the size distribution of the soft recovered fragments from Poly 4-methyl-1-pentene (PMP) foam sample, we further developed an automatic analysis approach based on the improved watershed segmentation.

Analysis on preferential free running laser wavelength and performance modeling of Tm³⁺-doped YAP and YLF.

The preferential free running laser wavelength at room temperature for different axes cuts of Tm³⁺-doped YAP and YLF is comparatively analyzed in this paper. The polarized gain spectrum of Tm:YAP and Tm:YLF with different product values of Tm³⁺-doped concentration and crystal length is theoretically calculated under various cavity output mirror transmissions. From the gain spectrum, it straightforwardly determines the preferential free running laser wavelength for a given light polarization.

Blind deconvolution for spatial distribution of Kα emission from ultraintense laser-plasma interaction.

The spatial distributions of the Kα emission from foil targets irradiated with ultra-intensity laser pulses have been studied using the x-ray coded imaging technique. Due to the effect of hard x-ray background contamination, noise as well as imperfection of imaging system, it is hard to determine the PSF analytically or measure it experimentally. Therefore, we propose a blind deconvolution method to restore both the spatial distributions of the Kα emission and the system's PSF from the coded images based on the maximum-likelihood scheme.

Measurement of the chirp characteristics of linearly chirped pulses by a frequency domain interference method.

A linear optical technique for chirp characteristics measurement based on frequency domain interference is developed. This technique can be applied to measure the temporal structure of linearly chirped pulses which have become increasingly important in ultrafast optics. To confirm this technique, an experiment is carried out to measure the chirp rate and duration of a picosecond chirped pulse with an imaging spectrometer.

Fractional spiral zone plates.

In this paper, we generalize the concept of classical spiral zone plates (SZPs) to fractional spiral zone plates (FSZPs). By using an SZP with a fractional topological charge and controlling the starting orientation, we can break down the symmetry of the focusing process to give orientation-selective anisotropic vortex foci. Numerical results show that its binary structure gives additional high-order foci on the optical axis and the intensities in the foci can be controlled by properly choosing the fractional topological charge.

Realizing a Gabor zone plate with quasi-random distributed hexagon dots.

We propose a quasi-random-dot-array binary Gabor zone plate (QBGZP) with focusing properties of single order foci only. These features are verified with simulations and experiments in the visible light region. Moreover, we find that the performance of QBGZP, which is composed of hexagon patterns, is determined by the ratio of hexagon circumcircle diameter to the outermost zone width.

A new method to calculate the beam charge for an integrating current transformer.

The integrating current transformer (ICT) is a magnetic sensor widely used to precisely measure the charge of an ultra-short-pulse charged particle beam generated by traditional accelerators and new laser-plasma particle accelerators. In this paper, we present a new method to calculate the beam charge in an ICT based on circuit analysis. The output transfer function shows an invariable signal profile for an ultra-short electron bunch, so the function can be used to evaluate the signal quality and calculate the beam charge through signal fitting.