Ultra-intense & Ultra-fast
laser-matter interaction
Robin Marjoribanks Group
To better understanding laser/matter interaction, we use different methods, including analytic theory and computer modelling. Computer simulations must be adapted to the phenomena studied, so we run different codes for hydrodynamics, atomic excitation and ionization,
molecular dynamics (MD) and particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations.
In our group, we are using a PIC code called emi2d. This PIC code was developed by Jean-Claude Adam and Anne Héron at the Centre for Theoretical Physics (CPhT) at École Polytechnique, France; we use it in collaborative studies with them and with Jean-Paul Geindre and Patrick Audebert at the Laboratoire pour l’Utilisation des Lasers Intenses (LULI), also at Polytechnique. This code allows us to look in detail at the effect of relativistically intense fields on targets of different geometries and structures.
For example, the image above shows a nanostructured target (nickel nanowire) which absorbs about 95% of any light incident on it, even though it is a metallic target. The movie at right shows a “phase-space” plot (x,Px) of this target irradiated by a intense laser field at an intensity around 1019 W/cm2. First, we see the electrons driven at the laser frequency, and then we start to observe more and more complex features, waves of electrons accelerated along the wires, building up charge, and then electrons driven back by charge imbalances.
Last update : 2012 March
©RSMarjoribanks 2008,09,12