RUI: Collaborative Research: An Experimental Study of Relativistic, Stochastic Heating of Electrons During the Irradiation of Wavelength-scale Plasmas by a Strong-Laser Field

合作研究：强激光场照射波长尺度等离子体时电子的相对论性、随机加热的实验研究德克萨斯大学迪特米尔（T. Ditmire）和哈维马德学院唐纳利（T. Donnelly）的更新提案科学价值这项资助支持德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校迪特米尔教授和哈维马德学院唐纳利教授（HMC）的合作。我们将研究高强度激光脉冲将能量沉积到物质中的机制。虽然强激光与原子、分子和固体相互作用的本质已经研究了很多年，但确切地说，强激光脉冲是如何与与光的波长相当的空间尺度（小于百万分之一米）的物体相互作用的，这在很大程度上是未知的。我们将把20太瓦的激光聚焦到波长尺度的目标上，并研究由此产生的电子和离子能量，以研究激光能量被目标吸收的机制。这项工作的科学价值在于填补了我们物理学知识中的这一空白，并发展了改进的x射线源和中子源。更广泛的影响这项研究的更广泛的科学影响在于推进对高强度激光与一类以前未被很好地探索的目标的相互作用的理解。这些研究的应用可能有助于开发用于放射照相和时间分辨衍射的改进的x射线源，或用于成像其他系统的紧凑中子源。这项工作在研究生和本科生将接受的培训中发现了更广泛的教育影响。我们的工作代表了一种独特的合作，在这种合作中，一个本科生小组直接和批判性地参与到强场物理研究中，这是一个本科生研究项目单独追求的资源密集的领域。获得这项资助的本科生将有机会在HMC做研究，在夏季前往UT使用他们开发的设备参与研究，并前往会议向科学界展示他们的工作。我们的合作将继续成为激励本科生寻求科学高等学位的有效途径。

Collaborative Research: An Experimental Study of Relativistic, Stochastic Heating of Electrons During the Irradiation of Wavelength-scale Plasmas by a Strong-Laser FieldA renewal proposal from PIs T. Ditmire (University of Texas) and T. Donnelly (Harvey Mudd College)Scientific MeritThis grant supports a collaboration between Prof. Ditmire at the University of Texas at Austin (UT) and Prof. Donnelly at Harvey Mudd College (HMC), an undergraduate institution. We will investigate mechanisms by which high-intensity laser pulses deposit energy into matter. While the nature of intense laser interactions with atoms, molecules, and solids has been studied for many years, exactly how intense laser pulses interact with objects that are of a spatial scale comparable to the light's wavelength (less than a millionth of a meter) is largely unexplored. We will focus a 20 TW laser - a laser with nearly ten times the power of that on the entire US electrical grid - onto wavelength-scale targets and study the resulting electron and ions energies to study the mechanisms by which laser energy is absorbed by the target. The scientific merit of this work rests in filling this gap in our knowledge of physics, and in developing improved x-ray and neutron sources. Broader ImpactThe broader scientific impacts of this research rest in advancing the understanding of high-intensity laser interactions with a class of targets not previously well explored. Application of these studies may aid in the development of improved x-ray sources for radiography and time-resolved diffraction, or compact neutron sources for imaging other systems. The broader educational impact of this work is found in the training that both graduate and undergraduate students will receive. Our work represents a unique collaboration in which an undergraduate group is directly and critically involved in strong-field-physics research, a field which is prohibitively resource intensive for an undergraduate research program to pursue alone. The undergraduates funded by this grant will have the opportunity to do research at HMC, travel to UT in the summers to participate in research using equipment they have developed, and travel to conferences to present their work to the scientific community. Our collaboration will continue to be an effective way to motivate undergraduates to seek advanced degrees in science.