Spin correlations in nonperturbative electron–positron pair creation by petawatt laser pulses colliding with a TeV proton beam

The influence of the electron spin degree of freedom on nonperturbative electron–positron pair production by high-energy proton impact on an intense laser field of circular polarization is analyzed. Predictions from the Dirac and Klein–Gordon theories are compared and a spin-resolved calculation is performed. We show that the various spin configurations possess very different production probabilities and discuss the transfer of helicity in this highly nonlinear process. Our predictions could be tested by combining the few-TeV proton beam at CERN-LHC with an intense laser pulse from a table-top petawatt laser source.     

Seed and vacuum pair production in strong laser field

Researches on the electron-positron pair production in the presence of the intense laser field are reviewed, motivated by the theoretical importance of the nonperturbative QED problem and the worldwide development of high power laser facilities. According to the distinct experimental requirements and theoretical methods, two types of pair production are elaborated, which are, respectively, pair production in the combination of a seed particle and the strong laser, and vacuum pair production without a seed particle. The origin of the nonperturbative problem caused by the strong field is analyzed. The main ideas, realisation, achievements, validity, challenges and bottleneck problems of the nonperturbative methods developed for each type of the pair production problem are discussed.     

线偏振双色激光场中氪原子的阈上电离现象

采用基于Guo,Aberg和Crasemann发展的强激光场中的非微扰量子散射理论(GAC理论),研究了线偏振双色激光场中氪(Kr)原子阈上电离的光电子角分布,双色激光场由一系列相同的单周期激光脉冲组成.研究发现光电子角分布有强烈的位相依赖关系,且呈现出反演不对称性、喷射结构和展宽结构等现象,这为实验上通过改变双色激光场的相对相位来观察和控制光电子角分布提供了一种有效的方法.     

How to measure the internuclear vector from photoelectron angular distributions

This paper uses a nonperturbative scattering theory to study photoelectron angular distributions of homonuclear diatomic molecules irradiated by circularly polarized laser fields. This study shows that the nonisotropic feature of photoelectron angular distributions is not due to the polarization of the laser field but the internuclear vector of the molecules. It suggests a method to measure the molecular orientation and the internuclear distance of molecules through the measurement of photoelectron angular distributions.     

Magneto-donors in laser-dressed inverse parabolic quantum wells

By using a nonperturbative theory within the effective mass approximation, the combined effects of the intense laser radiation and applied magnetic field on the shallow-donor binding energy in inverse parabolic quantum wells are investigated. It is found that: (i) the increasing of the laser intensity dramatically modifies the confinement potential shape leading to the formation of a multiple well potential within the structure; (ii) the binding energy as a function of the impurity position and external fields follows a similar behavior to that observed for the spatial distribution of the electron wave function; (iii) the peak positions in valence-to-donor-related absorption spectra can be tuned at specific energies by changing the external field strengths. Our results suggest that this profile could be used in designing new devices with properties controlled by laser and magnetic fields.     

A quark model based on QCD scale anomaly

We consider a quark model based on QCD scale anomaly in which the quarks move in the field of an effective glueball field. Hadrons correspond to solitonic bags of higher energy density in a nonperturbative sea of condensed gluons. We calculate the static properties of nucleon in this model and find that the nucleon mass is far too large (2.4–4 GeV) and the proton charge radius (0.37–0.54 fm) is low. The proton gyromagnetic ratio and g_A/g_v are in reasonable agreement with the experimental numbers.     

Relativistic nonperturbative above-threshold phenomena in strong laser fields

Relativistic features of various nonperturbative above-threshold phenomena in strong laser fields are discussed and compared. This includes above-threshold ionization of multiply charged ions as well as pair production in an ultrastrong laser wave, superimposed with either a nuclear Coulomb field or another counterpropagating laser wave. For the probability of above-threshold pair production, a new scaling relation is given. Particular attention is paid to similarities among these processes, regarding the energy and angular spectra of the particles as well as the total reaction rates.     

强激光与双锥靶作用加速准单能质子束

提出了一种新型的双锥靶结构用于准单能质子束加速。利用二维PIC粒子模拟程序研究了强激光与双锥靶作用加速产生质子束的物理过程以及质子束品质。双锥靶产生的质子束在峰值能量和发散角度等方面都明显优于相同激光条件下单锥靶和平面靶的结果。尤其与平面靶相比,双锥靶质子束的峰值能量提高了5倍以上,而且很好地保持准单能性。一方面双锥靶的内锥部分是临界密度材料,提高了激光的吸收效率;另一方面双锥靶内形成了更强的准静态磁场,可以约束引导更多的超热电子传输过锥尖,进而增强加速质子束的鞘层电场。     

Theoretical study of armchair single-walled carbon nanotubes in the presence of a strong laser field: high harmonic generation

The nonlinear optical response of armchair single-walled carbon nanotubes under high-intensity laser irradiation is investigated theoretically and numerically because the generation of high harmonics requires a strong laser field and come from the nonlinear motion of π electrons in carbon nanotubes. A nonperturbative approach is performed to investigate the effect of group velocity on the high harmonics spectrum by nanotubes. A set of the quantum kinetic equations is derived, which includes coupled equations for the density matrix. By solving the density matrix and the current density equations numerically, we have studied the high-order harmonic generation from metallic carbon nanotubes driven by an electromagnetic external field.     

通道靶对超强激光加速质子束的聚焦效应

发散角过大是制约超强激光与固体靶相互作用加速产生高能质子束应用的一个重大物理难题.本文提出了一种结构化的通道靶型,与超强激光相互作用可提高质子束的发散特性,通道壁上产生的横向电荷分离静电场可对质子有效聚焦.采用二维particle-in-cell粒子模拟程序对激光通道靶相互作用过程进行了研究,分析了加速质子束的性能特点.模拟结果表明,与传统平面靶相比,通道靶可以在不过多损失能量的情况下产生具有更好准直性的质子束,尤其当通道靶的直径与激光焦斑尺寸和质子源尺寸相当时,横向静电场能够有效聚焦质子束,并且可保证相对较高的激光能量利用率.     

Phase jump in resonance harmonic emission driven by strong laser fields

We present a theoretical investigation of the multiphoton resonance dynamics in the high-order-harmonic generation(HHG) process driven by a strong driving continuous wave(CW) field along with a weak control harmonic field.The Floquet theorem is employed to provide a nonperturbative and exact treatment of the interaction between a quantum system and the combined laser field.Multiple multiphoton-transition paths for the harmonic emission are coherently summed.The phase information about paths can be extracted via the Fourier transform analysis of the harmonic signals which oscillate as a function of the relative phase between driving and control fields.Phase jumps are observed when sweeping across the resonance by varying the frequency or intensity of the driving field.The phase variation as a function of driving frequency at a fixed intensity and as a function of the intensity at a fixed driving frequency allows us to determine the intensity dependence of the transition energy of quantum systems.     

Photoelectron angular distributions from strong-field coherent electronic excitation

Photoelectron Angular Distributions (PADs) resulting from nonperturbative excitation of potassium atoms using shaped femtosecond laser pulses are presented. We study control exerted by (1) the polarization of an unshaped, i.e., a bandwidth-limited light pulse, (2) shaped linearly polarized light, and (3) a combination of both degrees of freedom, i.e., polarization-shaped laser pulses. A theoretical approach to describe PADs from nonperturbative Resonance Enhanced Multi-Photon Ionization (REMPI) with ultrashort polarization-shaped laser pulses is presented and compared to experimental results. Applications of this technique to the generation and observation of atomic ring currents are discussed.     

The optical Stark effect in semiconductor quantum wires

A new approach for controlling the optical emission wavelength of semiconductor quantum wires is proposed. The wavelength control resides upon the effect of an intense, long-wavelength laser field radiation applied to the semiconductor structure. Under such condition a strong optical Stark effect leads to optical tunability. Calculation of the optical Stark effect was carried out in the frame of the nonperturbative theory and finite difference method. Different geometries concerning the size of GaAs–AlGaAs quantum wires as well as the polarization direction and the strength of the applied laser field with respect to the quantum structure were considered.     

激光等离子体相互作用中的两级质子加速（英文）北大核心CSCD

研究了激光辐射压驱动的两级质子加速的相关问题。当超短超强激光脉冲与处在背景等离子体前方的薄固体平靶相互作用时,在固体靶后部形成一个电子层-离子层组成的双层结构。在激光的不断推进下,双层结构在背景等离子体里以一定速度传播,可以看成运动在背景等离子体中的电场。这样,在背景等离子体中的质子被这个运动电场捕获并能加速到很高的能量。通过二维PIC模拟方法和理论分析研究了质子加速的相关问题。研究结果表明,被加速质子的最大能量达到20GeV。     

Generating high-current monoenergetic proton beams by a circularly polarized laser pulse in the phase-stable acceleration regime

A new ion acceleration method, namely, phase-stable acceleration, using circularly-polarized laser pulses is proposed. When the initial target density n(0) and thickness D satisfy a(L) approximately (n(0)/n(c))D/lambda(L) and D>l(s) with a(L), lambda(L), l(s), and n(c) the normalized laser amplitude, the laser wavelength in vacuum, the plasma skin depth, and the critical density of the incident laser pulse, respectively, a quasiequilibrium for the electrons is established by the light pressure and the space charge electrostatic field at the interacting front of the laser pulse. The ions within the skin depth of the laser pulse are synchronously accelerated and bunched by the electrostatic field, and thereby a high-intensity monoenergetic proton beam can be generated. The proton dynamics is investigated analytically and the results are verified by one- and two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations.     

Mono-Energetic Proton Beam Acceleration in Laser Foil-Plasma Interactions

Acceleration of ions from ultrathin foils irradiated by intense circularly polarized laser pulses is investigated using a one-dimensional particle-in-cell code. As a circularly polarized laser wave heats the electrons much less efficiently than the wave of linear polarization, the ion can be synchronously accelerated and bunched by the electrostatic field, thus a monoenergetic and high intensity proton beam can be generated.     

Electron localization of linear symmetric molecular ion H_3~(2+)

Electron localization in the dissociation of the symmetric linear molecular ion H_3~(2+) is investigated. The numerical simulation shows that the electron localization distribution is dependent on the central frequency and peak electric field amplitude of the external ultrashort ultraviolet laser pulse. When the electrons of the ground state are excited onto the 2pσ~2Σ_u~+ by a one-photon process, most electrons of the dissociation states are localized at the protons on both sides symmetrically. Almost no electron is stabilized at the middle proton due to the odd symmetry of the wave function. With the increase of the frequency of the external ultraviolet laser pulse, the electron localization ratio of the middle proton increases, for more electrons of the ground state are excited onto the higher 3pσ~2Σ_u~+ ustate. 50.9% electrons of all the dissociation events can be captured by the middle Coulomb potential well through optimizing the central frequency and peak electric field amplitude of the ultraviolet laser pulse. Besides, a direct current(DC) electric field can be utilized to control the electron motions of the dissociation states after the excitation of an ultraviolet laser pulse, and 68.8% electrons of the dissociation states can be controlled into the middle proton.     

阈上电离过程中光电子角分布的精细结构

应用非微扰散射理论并考虑自发辐射 ,研究了阈上电离过程中光电子的角分布。由于自发辐射的影响 ,电子的角分布具有精细结构 ,成功地解释了Nandor等人的实验观测。     

New strong-field QED effects at extreme light infrastructure

Since the work of Sauter, and Heisenberg, Euler and Köckel, it has been understood that vacuum polarization effects in quantum electrodynamics (QED) predict remarkable new phenomena such as light-light scattering and pair production from vacuum. However, these fundamental effects are difficult to probe experimentally because they are very weak, and they are difficult to analyze theoretically because they are highly nonlinear and/or nonperturbative. The extreme light infrastructure (ELI) project offers the possibility of a new window into this largely unexplored world. I review these ideas, along with some new results, explaining why quantum field theorists are so interested in this rapidly developing field of laser science. I concentrate on the theoretical tools that have been developed to analyze nonperturbative vacuum pair production.