Quantum electrodynamics experiments with colliding petawatt laser pulses

A new generation of high power laser facilities will provide laser pulses with extremely high powers of 10 petawatt (PW)and even 100 PW, capable of reaching intensities of 1023W/cm2in the laser focus. These ultra-high intensities arenevertheless lower than the Schwinger intensityIS=2.3×1029W/cm2at which the theory of quantum electrodynamics(QED) predicts that a large part of the energy of the laser photons will be transformed to hard Gamma-ray photonsand even to matter, via electron–positron pair production. To enable the investigation of this physics at the intensitiesachievable with the next generation of high power laser facilities, an approach involving the interaction of two collidingPW laser pulses is being adopted. Theoretical simulations predict strong QED effects with colliding laser pulses of>10 PW focused to intensities>1022W/cm2

Probing orbital structure of polyatomic molecules by high-order harmonic generation (vol 98, art no 203007, 2007)

Publisher’s Note: Probing Orbital Structure of Polyatomic Molecules by High-Order Harmonic Generation [Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 203007 (2007)

ALP production through non-linear Compton scattering in intense fields

23 pages, 14 figuresWe derive production yields for massive pseudo-scalar and scalar axion-like-particles (ALPs), through non-linear Compton scattering of an electron in the background of low- and high-intensity electromagnetic fields. In particular, we focus on electromagnetic fields from Gaussian plane wave laser pulses. A detailed study of the angular distributions and effects of the scalar and pseudo-scalar masses is presented. It is shown that ultra-relativistic seed electrons can be used to produce scalars and pseudo-scalars with masses up to the order of the electron mass. We briefly discuss future applications of this work towards lab-based searches for light beyond-the-Standard-Model particles