Projects per year
Abstract
The collective response of charged particles to intense fields is intrinsic to plasma accelerators and radiation sources, relativistic optics and many astrophysical phenomena. Here we show that a \textit{relativistic plasma aperture} is generated in thin foils by intense laser light, resulting in the fundamental optical process of diffraction. The plasma electrons collectively respond to the resulting laser near-field diffraction pattern, producing a beam of energetic electrons with spatial structure which can be controlled by variation of the laser pulse parameters. It is shown that static electron beam, and induced magnetic field, structures can be made to rotate at fixed or variable angular frequencies depending on the degree of ellipticity in the laser polarization. The concept is demonstrated numerically and verified experimentally, and is an important step towards optical control of charged particle dynamics in laser-driven dense plasma sources.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 505-512 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Nature Physics |
Volume | 12 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 11 Jan 2016 |
Keywords
- plasma accelerators
- radiation sources
- relativistic plasma
Fingerprint
Dive into the research topics of 'Optically controlled dense current structures driven by relativistic plasma aperture-induced diffraction'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Profiles
-
Ross Gray
- SUPA
- Measurement Science and Enabling Technologies
- Physics - Senior Research Fellow
Person: Academic, Research Only
Projects
- 3 Finished
-
Focusing Plasma Optics: Towards Extreme Laser Intensities
EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council)
1/07/13 → 30/06/15
Project: Research
-
Multi-PetaWatt Laser-Plasma Interactions: A New Frontier in Physics
EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council)
1/03/12 → 28/02/17
Project: Research Fellowship
Datasets
-
Optically controlled dense current structures driven by relativistic plasma aperture-induced diffraction
Gray, R. (Creator), McKenna, P. (Creator) & Izquierdo, B. (Creator), University of Strathclyde, 1 Dec 2015
DOI: 10.15129/ca9b213a-ad79-4ba7-a2f4-6d572f6cf2ee
Dataset