29 research outputs found
Petawatt laser absorption bounded
The interaction of petawatt () lasers with solid matter
forms the basis for advanced scientific applications such as table-top particle
accelerators, ultrafast imaging systems and laser fusion. Key metrics for these
applications relate to absorption, yet conditions in this regime are so
nonlinear that it is often impossible to know the fraction of absorbed light
, and even the range of is unknown. Here using a relativistic
Rankine-Hugoniot-like analysis, we show for the first time that exhibits a
theoretical maximum and minimum. These bounds constrain nonlinear absorption
mechanisms across the petawatt regime, forbidding high absorption values at low
laser power and low absorption values at high laser power. For applications
needing to circumvent the absorption bounds, these results will accelerate a
shift from solid targets, towards structured and multilayer targets, and lead
the development of new materials
Multi-filament structures in relativistic self-focusing
A simple model is derived to prove the multi-filament structure of
relativistic self-focusing with ultra-intense lasers. Exact analytical
solutions describing the transverse structure of waveguide channels with
electron cavitation, for which both the relativistic and ponderomotive
nonlinearities are taken into account, are presented.Comment: 21 pages, 12 figures, submitted to Physical Review
Electromagnetic energy penetration in the self-induced transparency regime of relativistic laser-plasma interactions
Two scenarios for the penetration of relativistically intense laser radiation
into an overdense plasma, accessible by self-induced transparency, are
presented. For supercritical densities less than 1.5 times the critical one,
penetration of laser energy occurs by soliton-like structures moving into the
plasma. At higher background densities laser light penetrates over a finite
length only, that increases with the incident intensity. In this regime
plasma-field structures represent alternating electron layers separated by
about half a wavelength by depleted regions.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, submitted for publication to PR
Optimization of plasma amplifiers
Plasma amplifiers offer a route to side-step limitations on chirped pulse amplification and generate laser pulses at the power frontier. They compress long pulses by transferring energy to a shorter pulse via the Raman or Brillouin instabilities. We present an extensive kinetic numerical study of the three-dimensional parameter space for the Raman case. Further particle-in-cell simulations find the optimal seed pulse parameters for experimentally relevant constraints. The high-efficiency self-similar behavior is observed only for seeds shorter than the linear Raman growth time. A test case similar to an upcoming experiment at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics is found to maintain good transverse coherence and high-energy efficiency. Effective compression of a 10 kJ , nanosecond-long driver pulse is also demonstrated in a 15-cm-long amplifier
Multiplatform Analysis of 12 Cancer Types Reveals Molecular Classification within and across Tissues of Origin
Recent genomic analyses of pathologically-defined tumor types identify “within-a-tissue” disease subtypes. However, the extent to which genomic signatures are shared across tissues is still unclear. We performed an integrative analysis using five genome-wide platforms and one proteomic platform on 3,527 specimens from 12 cancer types, revealing a unified classification into 11 major subtypes. Five subtypes were nearly identical to their tissue-of-origin counterparts, but several distinct cancer types were found to converge into common subtypes. Lung squamous, head & neck, and a subset of bladder cancers coalesced into one subtype typified by TP53 alterations, TP63 amplifications, and high expression of immune and proliferation pathway genes. Of note, bladder cancers split into three pan-cancer subtypes. The multi-platform classification, while correlated with tissue-of-origin, provides independent information for predicting clinical outcomes. All datasets are available for data-mining from a unified resource to support further biological discoveries and insights into novel therapeutic strategies
Overview of ignition conditions and gain curves for the fast ignitor
Fast ignited inertially confined fusion targets have potentials for high gain at moderate laser energy. Gain estimates are based on simulations of separate aspects of target evolution and on gain models, and depend critically on ignition requirements and assumptions concerning coupling of the igniting beam to the compressed fuel. In this paper, we review and discuss ignition requirements, burn studies, and gain models. We present selected gain results, illustrating the dependence of the gain on the parameters of the ignition beam. We discuss the requirements for very large gain, as well as for substantial gain at small driver energy