Target Plasma Generation for Plasma Acceleration and Associated Electromagnetic Pulse Dynamics

该奖项所促成的研究将促进对激光驱动的等离子体中粒子加速的理解。激光驱动的等离子体加速为带电粒子加速器带来了戏剧性的微型化和成本降低的前景，这些加速器在科学发现、国土安全和医学方面都有用途。成本的降低将扩大此类加速器的可获得性，使其在个别大学和医院变得司空见惯。该项目将试图通过使用低密度等离子体将粒子加速到更高的能量来进一步降低加速器的复杂性。这将减少顺序使用多个加速器以使粒子获得更高能量的需要。该项目还将吸引历史上在物理学方面代表性不足的人口统计群体的成员，增加下一代有抱负的等离子体物理研究人员的榜样数量。该项目将使一项关于激光尾迹场加速(LWFA)中粒子加速的光场电离产生的等离子体通道的研究成为可能。LWFA通过用强激光脉冲激发等离子体中的大电场振荡，在短距离内将电子加速到高能。该项目将涵盖LWFA的三个方面：(1)等离子体通道形成的准确模拟，(2)产生的电磁脉冲特性的确定，以及(3)尾迹场加速与等离子体通道演变的完全和耦合模拟。激光加速脉冲在不断演变的通道中传播的完整耦合模拟将创建一个工具，为未来LWFA系统的开发提供输入。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The research enabled by this award will advance understanding of particle acceleration in plasmas driven by lasers. Laser-driven plasma acceleration holds out the promise of dramatic miniaturization and cost reduction of charged particle accelerators, which have uses in scientific discovery, homeland security, and medicine. The reduction in cost would broaden the availability of such accelerators to make them commonplace at individual universities and hospitals. This project will attempt to further reduce complexity of accelerators by using low-density plasmas to accelerate particles to higher energies. This would reduce the need for using multiple accelerators sequentially to get particles to higher energy. The project will also engage members of demographic groups historically under-represented in physics, increasing the number of role models for the next generations of aspiring plasma physics researchers.This project will enable a study of optical field ionization generated plasma channels for particle acceleration in Laser Wake-Field Acceleration (LWFA). LWFA accelerates electrons to high energies in short distances by exciting large electric field oscillations in a plasma with an intense laser pulse. The project will cover three aspects of LWFA: (1) accurate simulations of the plasma channel formation, (2) determination of the characteristics of the generated electromagnetic pulse, and (3) full and coupled simulations of wake-field acceleration with the evolving plasma channel. The full, coupled simulations of the laser accelerating pulse propagation through the evolving channel will create a tool to provide input into the development of future LWFA systems.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.