Ultrafast Plasma Optics for High-Power Coherent Light Sources

Executive Summary

We are developing plasma-based optical components for the manipulation of high-power laser beams, including redirection, polarization control, and frequency conversion. If successful, these components will yield a significant increase in deliverable energy and intensity, thus improving tools that can drive and probe dense plasmas and novel materials, with applications in national security, energy production, and high-energy-density science.

Publications, Presentations, and Patents

Edwards, M.R., N.M. Fasano, and J.M. Mikhailova. 2020. “Electron-nanobunch-width-dominated spectral power law for relativistic harmonic generation from ultra-thin foils,” Physical Review Letters 124, 185004. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.185004.

Edwards, M.R., N.M. Fasano, T. Bennett, A. Griffith, N. Turley, B. M. O’Brien, and J. M. Mikhailova. 2020. “A multi-terawatt two-color beam for high-power field-controlled nonlinear optics,” Optics Letters 45, 6542-6545. https://doi.org/10.1364/OL.403806.

Goyon, C., M.R. Edwards, T. Chapman, L. Divol, N. Lemos, G. J. Williams, D. A. Mariscal, D. Turnbull, A. M. Hansen, and P. Michel. 2021. “Slow and Fast Light in Plasma Using Optical Wave Mixing,” Physical Review Letters 126, 205001. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.205001.

Edwards, M.R., N.J. Fisch, and J.M. Mikhailova. 2021. “Laser-driven sources of intense, ultrafast, and coherent radiation,” Physics of Plasmas 28, 013105. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0031459.