Numerical plasma physics for the beauty of complexity and for novel applications

等离子体在我们的现代社会有着令人难以置信的广泛的科学和实际应用，从天体物理学到纳米制造，从核聚变到医疗器械的灭菌，表面功能化和家庭照明。众所周知，等离子体是非常复杂的，这是由于几种粒子之间的相互作用，包括带正负电荷的离子、原子、分子、自由基、电子、光子，最终是纳米粒子，以及它对自感和外部电磁场(包括激光磁场)的高响应性。特别是，由于电子质量小，通常具有复杂的能量分布，但知道这对于量化发生在等离子体中的大多数关键过程是必不可少的。正因为如此，数值模拟一直是等离子体物理的一个内在和必不可少的组成部分。这项研究计划旨在进一步发展数值等离子体物理的几个方面，其中一些已经在进行中，并与实验者合作完成。计划中的研究特别涉及与时间相关的放电等离子体和激光-等离子体相互作用，包括高强度和低强度。例如，这项研究的益处将包括：(1)脉冲等离子体放电相对于固定等离子体表现出不同的性质；(2)纳米颗粒在磁化等离子体中的生长和传输过程用于表面功能化、天体物理学和空间科学；(3)超短激光脉冲放大用于进入新的超高强度区域；以及(4)激光诱导等离子体光谱学用于采矿勘探。

Plasmas have an incredibly wide range of scientific and practical applications in our modern societies, ranging from astrophysics to nanofabrication, and from nuclear fusion to sterilization of medical instruments, surface functionalization and home lighting. Plasmas are known to be very complex due to the interaction between several particle species, including positively and negatively charged ions, atoms, molecules, radicals, electrons, photons, and eventually nanoparticles, and to its high responsivity to self-induced and external electromagnetic fields, including laser fields. In particular, electrons, due to their small mass, generally have a complicated energy distribution but knowing it is essential to quantify most critical processes taking place in plasmas. For this reason, numerical modeling has always been an intrinsic and essential component of plasma physics. This research program aims at developing further several aspects of numerical plasma physics, some of which are already ongoing and done in collaboration with experimentalists. The planned research relates particularly to time-dependent discharge plasmas and to laser-plasma interaction, at both high and low intensity. The benefits of this research will include for instance the understanding (i) of pulsed plasma discharges, which show different properties with respect to stationary plasmas, (ii) of the growth and transport processes of nanoparticles in magnetized plasmas for applications to surface functionalization, astrophysics and space science, (iii) of ultrashort laser pulse amplification for accessing new ultra-high intensity regimes, and (iv) of laser-induced plasma spectroscopy for mining exploration.