Electromagnetic Wave Compression in Plasma

等离子体中的电磁波压缩

• 批准号: 1202162
• 负责人: Nathaniel Fisch
• 金额: $ 42万
• 依托单位: Princeton University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-06-15 至 2016-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1202162&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Electromagnetic; Wave; Compression; Plasma

The next generation of laser intensities, say a factor of 1000 more intense than current laser intensities, would both open up new avenues of fundamental research and give rise to new applications. The current technology is limited by the material properties of gratings and amplifiers. But optical elements made out of plasma do not suffer this limitation. Hence, the next generation of lasers almost certainly should involve plasma technology. The research objective of this project is thus to identify plasma-based mechanisms that compress laser pulses, to evaluate experimental progress in this area, and to identify the experiments that will retire the key uncertainties. This project will consider both compression in the micron wavelength optical regime as well as the extension of these effects to sub-micron wavelengths, where alternative compression techniques fail at even lower intensities. The broader impacts of this project lie beyond simply predicting new plasma effects and in building a much more powerful laser. As an enabling technology, the broader impact of this project lies in how various subfields of physics might utilize the next generation of lasers. Apart from the opportunities at high intensity in probing strong field effects, there is the derivative technology that higher intensities invariably enable shorter durations. Thus the next generation of intensities will usher in as well the next generation of pulse durations, into the sub-attosecond regimes, thereby providing the time-resolution that could enable the probing of, for example, nuclear phenomena.

下一代的激光强度，比如说比目前的激光强度高1000倍，将开辟基础研究的新途径，并产生新的应用。目前的技术受到光栅和放大器的材料特性的限制。但是由等离子体制成的光学元件不受此限制。因此，下一代激光器几乎肯定会涉及等离子体技术。因此，该项目的研究目标是确定基于等离子体的机制，压缩激光脉冲，以评估在这一领域的实验进展，并确定实验，将退休的关键不确定性。该项目将考虑在微米波长光学制度的压缩，以及这些影响的延伸到亚微米波长，其中替代压缩技术在更低的强度失败。这个项目的更广泛的影响不仅仅是预测新的等离子体效应，而是建立一个更强大的激光器。作为一项使能技术，该项目的更广泛影响在于物理学的各个子领域如何利用下一代激光器。除了在高强度下探测强场效应的机会外，还有一种衍生技术，即更高的强度总是能够缩短持续时间。因此，下一代的强度将迎来下一代的脉冲持续时间，进入亚阿秒制度，从而提供时间分辨率，可以使探测，例如，核现象。