Taking the fast lane on laser acceleration

At Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf ultra-short high-power laser pulses drive sources of electron, ion and X-ray pulses. Close collaboration of experimental and theoretical studies drive the understanding and optimization of these sources for applications such as laser-driven ion beam tumour therapy.
When working close to the experiment fast simulation results and surveys of large parameter spaces are mandatory. We have developed a new code that works on accelerator hardware to return simulation results in hours instead of weeks. These fast response times allow us to add physical effects not yet available in simulation due to time constraints. We present simulations using our code PIConGPU, a particle-in-cell code working on graphic processing units, which show what is in reach of simulations based on modern hardware.
Besides developing new simulation software we work on making numerical and analytical models of laser-driven particle acceleration more realistic in order to better predict the outcome of experiments. This is necessary since our focus lies on optimum control of laser-driven radiation sources for applications. We present results on laser-driven ion acceleration and its applications that show how realistic models influence our experimental strategy.
We end with an outlook on why we see data analysis of large-scale simulations as an integrated part of our joint experimental and theoretical program and how we plan to integrate this into our daily work.