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Petawatt laser absorption bounded

The interaction of petawatt (10(15) W) lasers with solid matter forms the basis for advanced scientific applications such as table-top particle accelerators, ultrafast imaging systems and laser fusion. Key metrics for these applications relate to absorption, yet conditions in this regime are so nonl...

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Autores principales: Levy, Matthew C., Wilks, Scott C., Tabak, Max, Libby, Stephen B., Baring, Matthew G.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Pub. Group 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4083416/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24938656
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms5149
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author Levy, Matthew C.
Wilks, Scott C.
Tabak, Max
Libby, Stephen B.
Baring, Matthew G.
author_facet Levy, Matthew C.
Wilks, Scott C.
Tabak, Max
Libby, Stephen B.
Baring, Matthew G.
author_sort Levy, Matthew C.
collection PubMed
description The interaction of petawatt (10(15) W) lasers with solid matter forms the basis for advanced scientific applications such as table-top particle accelerators, ultrafast imaging systems and laser fusion. Key metrics for these applications relate to absorption, yet conditions in this regime are so nonlinear that it is often impossible to know the fraction of absorbed light f, and even the range of f is unknown. Here using a relativistic Rankine-Hugoniot-like analysis, we show for the first time that f exhibits a theoretical maximum and minimum. These bounds constrain nonlinear absorption mechanisms across the petawatt regime, forbidding high absorption values at low laser power and low absorption values at high laser power. For applications needing to circumvent the absorption bounds, these results will accelerate a shift from solid targets, towards structured and multilayer targets, and lead the development of new materials.
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spelling pubmed-40834162014-07-09 Petawatt laser absorption bounded Levy, Matthew C. Wilks, Scott C. Tabak, Max Libby, Stephen B. Baring, Matthew G. Nat Commun Article The interaction of petawatt (10(15) W) lasers with solid matter forms the basis for advanced scientific applications such as table-top particle accelerators, ultrafast imaging systems and laser fusion. Key metrics for these applications relate to absorption, yet conditions in this regime are so nonlinear that it is often impossible to know the fraction of absorbed light f, and even the range of f is unknown. Here using a relativistic Rankine-Hugoniot-like analysis, we show for the first time that f exhibits a theoretical maximum and minimum. These bounds constrain nonlinear absorption mechanisms across the petawatt regime, forbidding high absorption values at low laser power and low absorption values at high laser power. For applications needing to circumvent the absorption bounds, these results will accelerate a shift from solid targets, towards structured and multilayer targets, and lead the development of new materials. Nature Pub. Group 2014-06-18 /pmc/articles/PMC4083416/ /pubmed/24938656 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms5149 Text en Copyright © 2014, Nature Publishing Group, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited. All Rights Reserved. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-by/3.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
spellingShingle Article
Levy, Matthew C.
Wilks, Scott C.
Tabak, Max
Libby, Stephen B.
Baring, Matthew G.
Petawatt laser absorption bounded
title Petawatt laser absorption bounded
title_full Petawatt laser absorption bounded
title_fullStr Petawatt laser absorption bounded
title_full_unstemmed Petawatt laser absorption bounded
title_short Petawatt laser absorption bounded
title_sort petawatt laser absorption bounded
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4083416/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24938656
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms5149
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