Date and Time:  16-June-2023  10am

Speaker:  Prof. Victor Malka, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel

Host: Wei Lu (Tsinghua University & BAQIS）

Title: Laser plasma accelerators: First results from the HIGGINS 2x100 TW laser

Abstract: 

Laser Plasma Accelerators (LPA) are changing the scientific and societal landscape. Opening new hopes for high energy physics, offering alternative to synchrotron light sources with the recent demonstration with LPA’s based Free Electron Radiation, and delivering particle and radiation beams for medical and security applications, they are among the most innovative tools of modern sciences. The laser plasma accelerators are a perfect illustration of what cross-domain fertilization with a zest of imagination can produce. In this talk I’ll explain the main involved concepts, and why these wonderful machines rely on our ability to control finely the electrons motion with intense laser pulses. I’ll show how the electrons collective manipulation permits to produce giant electric fields of value in the 100GV/m exceeding by 3 orders of magnitude or more the ones used in current machines. These collective motions when controlled permits also to modify and to shape the longitudinal and radial components of the plasma fields for either accelerating efficiently electrons or for producing energetic photons by wiggling electron during their acceleration. This control is crucial for electrons injection that is essential for delivering stable ultra-short and ultra-bright energetic particle or radiation beams. To illustrate the beauty of laser plasma accelerators I will show some concepts we recently demonstrated that allow these controls for beams improvements. Finally, I will show the commissioning of the HIGGINS dual laser system of the Weizmann Institute of Science, together with a set of first experimental results showing new insights of the relativistic plasma fields and a new approach for producing plasma refractive optics for relativistic beam manipulation.

About the Speaker:

Victor Malka is now a Professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. Before that, for three decades, he was a CNRS Research Director at Laboratoire d’Optique Appliquée and a Professor at Ecole Polytechnique. Prof. Malka is an international research leader in the field of laser-driven plasma accelerators. He was one of the first researchers to realize the potential of laser-driven particle and radiation sources, and has dedicated much of his research career to developing this subject. His numerous world-leading achievements are frequently reported in leading international journals including Science, Nature, Nature Physics, and Physical Review Letters. He has more than two hundred scientific publications and has given more than two hundred invited lectures at international scientific conferences, workshops and summer schools. Prof. Malka’s most significant contributions to the field include: the production of the first relativistic electron beams in the wave breaking regime; leading one of the first experiments to demonstrate monoenergetic electron beam acceleration in a laser-plasma wakefield; the introduction of colliding laser pulse techniques for controlling electron injection and acceleration; and pioneering measurements on laser-plasma accelerators as a driver of high energy synchrotron radiation. In addition, he is a pioneer of the application of laser-plasma accelerators to address several societal challenges. For example, he collaborates with clinicians and industry to pursue medical applications, both in terms of imaging and cancer therapy. For these contributions to the field, he was awarded the IEEE Particle Accelerator Science and Technology Award in 2007, the Julius Springer Prize for Applied Physics in 2017, and the Hannes Alfvén Prize in 2019.