Application Research on Interaction between Intense Laser and Plasmas

The main purpose of the project is to apply the theoretical analysis and numerical simulation on the study of the dynamical behaviors of interactions between the intense electromagnetic wave and plasma in the relativistic regime as well as their applications. Three major research topics include:1.The study of the interaction between the sub-terawatt laser pulse and dense plasma: The femtosecond, MeV electrons can be generated by introducing sub-terawatt laser pulse into highly dense plasma, which benefits to develop a compact laser wakefield accelerator. This scheme can help decrease the operation complexity of laser systems and enhances the repetition rate of laser operation for the generation of high repetition rate electron pulse train. To figure out the acceleration limitation, a series of simulation will be conducted for parametric studies, which provides in-depth understanding for the development of electron accelerators operated at a higher repetition rate. The acceleration efficiency can be improved by designing the two-stage gas cell or mixing hydrogen gas with some high Z gas.2.The study of plasma-based proton/ion acceleration: The energetic protons can be generated by the interaction between intense laser with a thin target. The requirement of laser intensity is reduced when the target is extremely thin. However, the transition of dominant regimes has not been studied yet. Besides, the pre-pulse will affect the efficiency of ion acceleration. In this topic, the simulation model will be developed to investigate the plasma-based proton/ion acceleration and the effect of the pre-pulse.3.The study of Thomson scattering: The state of non-equilibrium (non-Maxwellian) and a non-linear plasma can be measured by collective Thomson scattering. In the measurement of a high-density plasma, the probe laser is compressed to overcome the strong background emission on the electron features. In this way, the plasma will be heated. The study will be conducted to investigate the electron heating effect in the equilibrium plasma by theoretical analysis and numerical simulation.