85 research outputs found
Short Intense Laser Pulse Collapse in Near-Critical Plasma
It is observed that the interaction of an intense ultra-short laser pulse
with an overdense gas jet results in the pulse collapse and the deposition of a
significant part of energy in a small and well localized volume in the rising
part of the gas jet, where the electrons are efficiently accelerated and
heated. A collisionless plasma expansion over 150 microns at a sub-relativistic
velocity (~c/3) has been optically monitored in time and space, and attributed
to the quasistatic field ionization of the gas associated to the hot electron
current. Numerical simulations in good agreement with the observations suggest
the acceleration in the collapse region of relativistic electrons, along with
the excitation of a sizeable magnetic dipole that sustains the electron current
over several picoseconds. Perspectives of ion beam generation at high
repetition rate directly from gas jets are discussed
Laser-plasma interactions with a Fourier-Bessel Particle-in-Cell method
A new spectral particle-in-cell (PIC) method for plasma modeling is presented
and discussed. In the proposed scheme, the Fourier-Bessel transform is used to
translate the Maxwell equations to the quasi-cylindrical spectral domain. In
this domain, the equations are solved analytically in time, and the spatial
derivatives are approximated with high accuracy. In contrast to the
finite-difference time domain (FDTD) methods that are commonly used in PIC, the
developed method does not produce numerical dispersion, and does not involve
grid staggering for the electric and magnetic fields. These features are
especially valuable in modeling the wakefield acceleration of particles in
plasmas. The proposed algorithm is implemented in the code PLARES-PIC, and the
test simulations of laser plasma interactions are compared to the ones done
with the quasi-cylindrical FDTD PIC code CALDER-CIRC.Comment: submitted to Phys. Plasma
Coherence and superradiance from a plasma-based quasiparticle accelerator
Coherent light sources, such as free electron lasers, provide bright beams
for biology, chemistry, physics, and advanced technological applications.
Increasing the brightness of these sources requires progressively larger
devices, with the largest being several km long (e.g., LCLS). Can we reverse
this trend, and bring these sources to the many thousands of labs spanning
universities, hospitals, and industry? Here we address this long-standing
question by rethinking basic principles of radiation physics. At the core of
our work is the introduction of quasi-particle-based light sources that rely on
the collective and macroscopic motion of an ensemble of light-emitting charges
to evolve and radiate in ways that would be unphysical when considering single
charges. The underlying concept allows for temporal coherence and superradiance
in fundamentally new configurations, providing radiation with clear
experimental signatures and revolutionary properties. The underlying concept is
illustrated with plasma accelerators but extends well beyond this case, such as
to nonlinear optical configurations. The simplicity of the quasi-particle
approach makes it suitable for experimental demonstrations at existing laser
and accelerator facilities.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figure
Revealing Josephson vortex dynamics in proximity junctions below critical current
Made of a thin non-superconducting metal (N) sandwiched by two
superconductors (S), SNS Josephson junctions enable novel quantum
functionalities by mixing up the intrinsic electronic properties of N with the
superconducting correlations induced from S by proximity. Electronic properties
of these devices are governed by Andreev quasiparticles [1] which are absent in
conventional SIS junctions whose insulating barrier (I) between the two S
electrodes owns no electronic states. Here we focus on the Josephson vortex
(JV) motion inside Nb-Cu-Nb proximity junctions subject to electric currents
and magnetic fields. The results of local (Magnetic Force Microscopy) and
global (transport) experiments provided simultaneously are compared with our
numerical model, revealing the existence of several distinct dynamic regimes of
the JV motion. One of them, identified as a fast hysteretic entry/escape below
the critical value of Josephson current, is analyzed and suggested for
low-dissipative logic and memory elements.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, 43 reference
Undulator design for Laser Plasma Based Free electron laser
The fourth generation of synchrotron radiation sources, commonly referred to as the Free Electron Laser (FEL), provides an intense source of brilliant X-ray beams enabling the investigation of matter at the atomic scale with unprecedented time resolution. These sources require the use of conventional linear accelerators providing high electron beam performance. The achievement of chirped pulse amplification allowing lasers to be operated at the Terawatt range, opened the way for the Laser Plasma Acceleration (LPA) technique where high energy electron bunches with high current can be produced within a very short centimeter-scale distance. Such an advanced acceleration concept is of great interest to be qualified by an FEL application for compact X-ray light sources. We explore in this paper what the LPA specificities imply on the design of the undulator, part of the gain medium. First, the LPA concept and state-of-art are presented showing the different operation regimes and what electron beam parameters are likely to be achieved. The LPA scaling laws are discussed afterwards to better understand what laser or plasma parameters have to be adjusted in order to improve electron beam quality. The FEL is secondly discussed starting with the spontaneous emission, followed by the different FEL configurations, the electron beam transport to the undulator and finally the scaling laws and correction terms in the high gain case. Then, the different types of compact undulators that can be implemented for an LPA based FEL application are analyzed. Finally, examples of relevant experiments are reported by describing the transport beamline, presenting the spontaneous emission characteristics achieved so far and the future prospects
Quantizing N=2 Multicenter Solutions
N=2 supergravity in four dimensions, or equivalently N=1 supergravity in five
dimensions, has an interesting set of BPS solutions that each correspond to a
number of charged centers. This set contains black holes, black rings and their
bound states, as well as many smooth solutions. Moduli spaces of such solutions
carry a natural symplectic form which we determine, and which allows us to
study their quantization. By counting the resulting wavefunctions we come to an
independent derivation of some of the wall-crossing formulae. Knowledge of the
explicit form of these wavefunctions allows us to find quantum resolutions to
some apparent classical paradoxes such as solutions with barely bound centers
and those with an infinitely deep throat. We show that quantum effects seem to
cap off the throat at a finite depth and we give an estimate for the
corresponding mass gap in the dual CFT. This is an interesting example of a
system where quantum effects cannot be neglected at macroscopic scales even
though the curvature is everywhere small.Comment: 49 pages + appendice
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