Laser-produced plasmas articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    The laser pulses that drive most laser wakefield accelerators have wavelengths near 1 micrometer and peak power > 100 terawatts. Here, the authors drive plasma wakes with 10 micrometer, 2-terawatt pulses, yielding relativistic electron beams with a collimated, narrow-energy-bandwidth component.

    • R. Zgadzaj
    • , J. Welch
    •  & M. C. Downer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In laser-driven inertial fusion, finding optimal driving pressure is a major challenge. Here, the authors use a 100 kJ SG laser and a hybrid-drive scheme to demonstrate such driving pressure with the help of the direct-drive laser such that the indirect-drive radiation ablation pressure is turned into a well-smoothed hybrid-drive pressure much greater than the radiation ablation pressure.

    • Ji Yan
    • , Jiwei Li
    •  & Shaoping Zhu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Intense laser interaction with matter creates plasma which can act as a nonlinear optical medium. Here the authors demonstrate plasma as a refractive optics for relativistic intensity radiation, evident by the acceleration of multiple electron beams from a single laser pulse passing through the plasma.

    • Omri Seemann
    • , Yang Wan
    •  & Victor Malka

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Existing methods for temperature estimation of warm dense matter rely on model calculations. Here the authors report a method to extract the temperature of complex materials that is previously only inferred by using model calculations.

    • Tobias Dornheim
    • , Maximilian Böhme
    •  & Jan Vorberger

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Atoms and molecules under extreme temperature and pressure can be investigated using dense plasmas achieved by laser-driven implosion. Here the authors report spectral change of copper in billions atmosphere pressure that can only be explained by a self-consistent approach.

    • S. X. Hu
    • , David T. Bishel
    •  & Timothy Walton

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Charged particle interaction and energy dissipation in plasma is fundamentally interesting. Here the authors study proton stopping in laser-produced plasma for the moderate to strong coupling with electrons.

    • S. Malko
    • , W. Cayzac
    •  & L. Volpe

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Most plasmas are created in a nonequilibrium state and understanding the non-trivial pathway to equilibrium is critical for predicting their time-evolving properties. Here the authors discuss the ion-ion temperature relaxation in a dual-species ultracold neutral plasma.

    • R. Tucker Sprenkle
    • , L. G. Silvestri
    •  & S. D. Bergeson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Experimental measurements involving multiple laser and plasma parameters are useful in understanding the relativistic laser-plasma interactions. Here the authors extend the model of holeboring for arbitrary profiles of laser pulse and plasma scale lengths.

    • J. Hornung
    • , Y. Zobus
    •  & V. Bagnoud

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Turbulence effects explored use macroscale systems in general. Here the authors generate a turbulent plasma using laser irradiation of a solid target and study the dynamics of the plasma flow at the micron-scale by using scattering of an XFEL beam.

    • G. Rigon
    • , B. Albertazzi
    •  & M. Koenig

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The electrical conductivity is critical to understand warm dense matter, but the accurate measurement is extremely challenging. Here the authors use multi-cycle THz pulses to measure the conductivity of gold foils strongly heated by free-electron laser, determining the individual contributions of electron-electron and electron-ion scattering.

    • Z. Chen
    • , C. B. Curry
    •  & S. H. Glenzer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Warm dense silica is a key component in rocky planets’ mantles, but reproducing the relevant conditions in experiments is challenging. Here the authors use a double-shock technique to achieve such conditions and measure the reflectivity in situ, providing insight into the conductivity and its possible impact on dynamo processes in super-Earths’ mantles.

    • M. Guarguaglini
    • , F. Soubiran
    •  & A. Ravasio

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here the authors report on the creation of ultracold plasma by photoionization of a Bose-Einstein condensate with a femtosecond laser pulse. The experimental setup grants direct access to the electron temperature and reveals ultrafast cooling of electrons in an initially strongly coupled plasma.

    • Tobias Kroker
    • , Mario Großmann
    •  & Juliette Simonet

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Laser wakefield accelerators are compact sources of ultra-relativistic electrons which are highly sensitive to many control parameters. Here the authors present an automated machine learning based method for the efficient multi-dimensional optimization of these plasma-based particle accelerators.

    • R. J. Shalloo
    • , S. J. D. Dann
    •  & M. J. V. Streeter

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A detailed understanding of particle stopping in matter is essential for nuclear fusion and high energy density science. Here, the authors report one order of magnitude enhancement of intense laser-accelerated proton beam stopping in dense ionized matter in comparison with currently used models describing ion stopping in matter.

    • Jieru Ren
    • , Zhigang Deng
    •  & Yongtao Zhao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Plasma wakefield accelerators promise compact, affordable future particle accelerators, but require deposition of enormous energy into a small volume. Here, the authors measure and simulate how this energy transfers from the wake into surrounding plasma, a process that ultimately governs the accelerator’s repetition rate.

    • Rafal Zgadzaj
    • , T. Silva
    •  & M. C. Downer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Excited charge carriers, such as photoelectrons, play an important role in fundamental and technological fields. Here the authors employ an ultrafast electron microscope to directly visualize the cyclotron oscillations and oblate-to-prolate shape change of a photoemitted electron gas from a laser-excited copper surface.

    • Omid Zandi
    • , Allan E. Sykes
    •  & Renske M. van der Veen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The influence of contaminants is one of the factors hindering self-sustained thermonuclear burn in inertial confinement fusion. Here, the authors present evidence, through simulations and experiments, that contaminants do not fully reach thermal equilibrium, and thus their amount is usually underestimated.

    • Brian M. Haines
    • , R. C. Shah
    •  & D. W. Schmidt

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Vortices in light fields are of growing importance in the XUV and X-ray ranges. Here the authors show by simulations that high harmonics and attosecond pulses, generated while irradiating a deformed thin foil with circularly-polarized Gaussian laser pulses, carry a well-defined orbital angular momentum.

    • J. W. Wang
    • , M. Zepf
    •  & S. G. Rykovanov

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Supersonic turbulence is relevant to astrophysical plasmas with their study mostly limited to numerical simulations. Here the authors demonstrate supersonic turbulence in collisional high Mach number plasma jets generated in laboratory by using high power lasers.

    • T. G. White
    • , M. T. Oliver
    •  & G. Gregori

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Shaping particle beams generated from laser-plasma accelerators is challenging. Here the authors demonstrate an all-optical method to structure the accelerated proton beam by modulating and imprinting the spatial laser profile onto the proton beam.

    • Lieselotte Obst-Huebl
    • , Tim Ziegler
    •  & Karl Zeil

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Magnetic reconnection is the process of releasing energy by magnetized and space plasma. Here the authors report experimental observation of magnetic reconnection in laser-produced plasma and the role of electron scaling on reconnection.

    • Y. Kuramitsu
    • , T. Moritaka
    •  & M. Hoshino

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Plasma releases magnetic energy by magnetic reconnection but the clear evidence of this phenomenon in relativistic regime is still lacking. Here the authors present a scheme for laboratory observation of the relativistic magnetic reconnection driven by laser-produced energetic electrons in the plasma.

    • Longqing Yi
    • , Baifei Shen
    •  & Tünde Fülöp

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Neutron beams are useful studying fundamental physics problems, fusion process and material properties. Here the authors use intense laser irradiation of deuterated nanowire array targets to create high energy density plasmas capable of efficient generation of ultrafast neutron pulses.

    • Alden Curtis
    • , Chase Calvi
    •  & Jorge J. Rocca

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It is a challenge to scale up laser-ion acceleration to higher ion energies. Here the authors demonstrate a hybrid acceleration scheme based on the relativistic induced transparency mechanism using linearly polarised laser interaction with foil targets and its future implication in using high power lasers.

    • A. Higginson
    • , R. J. Gray
    •  & P. McKenna

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Different energy transport mechanisms come into play when intense laser pulses interact with dense plasma. Here the authors provide a limit on the plasma density reachable with an intense laser and an insight into the hole boring process.

    • Natsumi Iwata
    • , Sadaoki Kojima
    •  & Kunioki Mima

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Exploring astrophysical turbulent effects in laboratory plasma is challenging due to high threshold values of relevant parameters, such as the magnetic Reynolds number. Here the authors demonstrate the turbulent dynamo effect at large magnetic Reynolds numbers in laser-generated magnetized plasma.

    • P. Tzeferacos
    • , A. Rigby
    •  & G. Gregori

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Monoenergetic proton beams can be useful in many applications but their generation from laser irradiation of targets is challenging. Here the authors demonstrate a laser-accelerated proton bunch with improved density and energy resolution by using a refined target.

    • P. Hilz
    • , T. M. Ostermayr
    •  & J. Schreiber

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Efficient energy transport by laser-driven relativistic electron beams is crucial in many applications including inertial confinement fusion, and particle acceleration. Here the authors demonstrate relativistic electron beam guiding in dense plasma with an externally imposed high magnetic field.

    • M. Bailly-Grandvaux
    • , J. J. Santos
    •  & Z. Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Dispersive wave emission in gas-filled hollow-core photonic crystal fibres has been possible in the visible and ultraviolet via the optical Kerr effect. Here, Köttig et al. demonstrate dispersive waves generated by an additional transient anomalous dispersion from gas ionization in the mid-infrared.

    • F. Köttig
    • , D. Novoa
    •  & P. St.J. Russell

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding the role of magnetic turbulence in the atmosphere is difficult as direct access is limited, but latest laser technology can enable such studies in the lab. Here the authors probe the evolution of such turbulence in laser-generated plasma with its implications to astrophysical environments.

    • Gourab Chatterjee
    • , Kevin M. Schoeffler
    •  & G. Ravindra Kumar

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Studying the properties of dense plasmas is challenging due to strong interactions between electrons and ions, and numerical methods overcome this difficulty using a static thermostat. Here the authors predict a strong diffusive ion mode at low energy by including dissipative processes in the model.

    • P. Mabey
    • , S. Richardson
    •  & G. Gregori

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