NSF-BSF: Creating and Studying Plasma Structures for Extreme Optics

这项工作的目标是开发压缩和操纵激光脉冲的方法，以达到前所未有的强度。这种新的能力将使人们能够进入高能密度科学的新体制，包括研究存在于恒星和行星内部的极端条件下的材料。激光强度的限制是由于传统的光学元件在暴露于高强度激光时被损坏或破坏。这项研究将探讨当传统光学元件被等离子体结构取代时，如何克服这些限制。在基础层面上，该项目研究了具有大量相互作用组件的非线性系统的控制，这是贯穿物理学许多分支的主题，也是现代科学中最大的挑战之一。这项研究也有望对光学科学产生重大影响，因为它允许对强激光脉冲进行新的光学操作，并可能为惯性聚变和基于等离子体的离子加速器带来新的想法。与电场触发结构行为变化的传统结构不同，等离子体可以使用光操纵技术进行雕刻，以在纳秒级时间尺度上创建新颖，坚固的光学元件。在这个广泛的研究领域内，该奖项支持的研究将集中在通过操纵离子声波产生布拉格反射体上。理论研究将检验结构动力学及其在强脉冲压缩中的应用。这种结构可以是静止的，也可以是移动的。美国-以色列两国科学基金会将支持对大振幅离子声波的自共振激励进行紧密耦合的实验和理论合作研究，这些声波是拟议结构的主干。在希伯来大学实验室进行过小规模理论研究和实验测试的想法，可能会在劳伦斯利弗莫尔国家实验室进行更大规模的实验研究。本波激励研究将涉及在多维和多波效应的背景下对非线性集体系统的控制的最新研究。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The goal of this effort is to develop methods to compress and manipulate laser pulses to reach unprecedented intensities. Such new capability will enable access to new regimes of high-energy density science, including studies of materials under extreme conditions that exist in stars and planetary interiors. The constraints on laser intensity arise because conventional optical components are damaged or destroyed when exposed to high intensity lasers. This research will investigate how these limits can be overcome when conventional optical elements are replaced with plasma structures. At a fundamental level, the project investigates the control of nonlinear systems with large numbers of interacting components as a theme that runs through many branches of physics and is one of the greatest challenges in modern science. This research is also expected to have a significant impact on optical science by allowing for new regimes of optical manipulation of intense laser pulses and may lead to new ideas for inertial fusion and plasma-based ion accelerators. Unlike conventional structures, where an electric field triggers changes in structure behavior, plasma can be sculpted using light manipulation techniques to create novel, robust, optical elements on nanosecond timescales. Within this broad area of inquiry, the research supported by this award will focus on generating Bragg reflectors by manipulating ion acoustic waves. Theoretical research will examine structure dynamics and their utility for intense pulse compression. Such structures may be stationary or moving. The United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation will support closely coupled collaborative experimental and theoretical research on the autoresonant excitation of large amplitude ion acoustic waves that serve as the backbone of the proposed structures. Ideas that have been theoretically studied and experimentally tested on a small scale at the Hebrew University laboratory may be investigated on a larger experimental set-up at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. This wave excitation study will involve state-of-the art research on the control of nonlinear collective systems within the context of both multi-dimensional and multi-wave effects.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.