Research activity overview
The advent of the Chirped Pulse Amplification (CPA) technique was the technological breakthrough leading to a dramatic increase in the reachable laser powers and intensities. Higher laser intensities mean also higher laser electric fields. As a result, the continuous technological progress has allowed laboratory studies of new physics, from strong field laser-atom interactions, up to ultra-relativistic laser-plasmas and high-energy particle acceleration. This physics is important and fascinating, because it studies non-linear properties of matter in ultra-strong laser fields.
Our group studies the physics of short laser puse interaction with matter theoretically using both numerical and analytical approaches.
To simulate the relativistic laser-plasmas we use the Particle-in-Cell code VLPL:
Virtual Laser Plasma Lab.
The main directions of our present activity include:
laser-driven particle acceleration
beam-driven particle acceleration
high harmonics and (sub-)attosecond pulses
advanced light sources
laser pulse shortening and/or compression
Fast Ignition concept in Inertial Confinement Fusion
massively parallel programming
development of novel numerical methods for laser-matter interactions
QED effects in plasmas at ultra-high intensities