The general scope of this proposal is numeric investigation of using high intensity laser pulses to generate intense radiation on a compact scale.
The radiation types of interest are beams of electrons, neutrons and X-rays, which are intended for applications in radiotherapy of cancer, in non-destructive testing, and for material science studies.
Specifically, we study a method known as direct laser acceleration (DLA) of electrons.
The proposed program is based on our recent combined experimental and numeric study about the role of the target’s atomic number in DLA [Cohen I., et. al., , Science Advances, 10(2):eadk1947, 2024]. The numeric part is conducted through Particle-In-Cell (PIC) simulations, carried out with the EPOCH code.
This proposal portrays several extensions to this discovery, which involve optical manipulation of the laser beam to achieve brighter radiation beams. The main strong-suit of the proposed research is that it is closely followed by experiments using our 20 Terawatt (TW) laser lab.
Ishay Pomerantz, Tel Aviv University - Israel