Relativistic laser interaction with solids and its probing with advanced light sources

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The interaction of ultra-intense lasers with solids creates extreme states of matter: dense, hot, non-equilibrium transient plasmas.

Their application to some of the most exciting and important questions - How can we produce enough sustainable energy? How can treat cancer better and make the best treatments available for everybody? How do plasmas form and behave in the extreme conditions of distant space objects? - can give new and surprising answers. We study how to accelerate ions with two of the most powerful lasers ever constructed, how to heat plasmas hot enough to fuse atoms and generate the energy we all need to power our modern live and simulate plasma flows and instabilities in astrophysical jets to learn more about our universe.

We use the most advanced computing codes (PIConGPU(1)), most powerful supercomputers (HYPNOS(2), TITAN(3) and others) and search for patterns, laws and sometimes find surprisingly simple explanations of the wonderful physics that is seen in laser plasma experiments.

cone intensity
plasma-sim
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Research highlights

  • T. Kluge, M. Bussmann, E. Galtier, S. Glenzer, J. Grenzer, C. Gutt, N.J. Hartley et al. "Probing the dynamics of solid density micro-wire targets after ultra-intense laser irradiation using a free-electron laser", arXiv preprint arXiv:2302.03104(4)
  • F.-L. Paschke-Bruehl, M. Banjafar, M. Garten, L.G. Huang, B. Edward Marré, M. Nakatsutsumi, L. Randolph, T. E. Cowan, U. Schramm, T. Kluge "Heating in Multi-Layer Targets at ultra-high Intensity Laser Irradiation and the Impact of Density Oscillation", arXiv preprint arXiv: 2211.16868(5)
  • T. Miethlinger, N. Hoffmann, T. Kluge"Acceptance Rates of Invertible Neural Networks on Electron Spectra from Near-Critical Laser-Plasmas: A Comparison", arXiv preprint arXiv:2212.05836(6)
  • I. Göthel, C. Bernert, M. Bussmann, M. Garten, T. Miethlinger, M. Rehwald, K. Zeil, T. Ziegler, T. E. Cowan, U. Schramm, T. Kluge "Optimized laser ion acceleration at the relativistic critical density surface", Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 64 044010 (2022)(7)
  • T. Kluge, M. Bussmann, U. Schramm, T.E. Cowan, "Simple scaling equations for electron spectra, currents and bulk heating in ultra-intense short-pulse laser-solid interaction", Physics of Plasmas 25, 073106 (2018)(8).
     
  • P. Hilz, T.M. Ostermayr, a. Huebl, V. Bagnoud, B. Borm, M. Bussmann, M. Gallei, J. Gebhard, D. Haffa, J. Hartmann, T. Kluge, F.H. Lindner, P. Neumayr, C.G. Schaefer, U. Schramm, P.G. Thirolf, T.. F. Rösch, F. Wagner, B. Zielbauer, and J. Schreiber, "Isolated proton bunch acceleration by a petawatt laser pulse, "Nat. Commun. 9, 423 (2018)(9).
  • S. Göde, C. Rödel, K. Zeil, R. Mishra, M. Gauthier, F.-E. Brack, T. Kluge, M. J. MacDonald, J. Metzkes, L. Obst, M. Rehwald, C. Ruyer, H.-P. Schlenvoigt, W. Schumaker, P. Sommer, T. E. Cowan, U. Schramm, S. Glenzer, and F. Fiuza, "Relativistic Electron Streaming Instabilities Modulate Proton Beams Accelerated in Laser-Plasma Interactions", Phys. Rev. Lett 118, 194801 (2017)(10).
  • T. Kluge, J. Metzkes, K. Zeil, M. Bussmann, U. Schramm, and T.E. Cowan, "Two surface plasmon decay of plasma oscillations", Phys. Plasmas 22, 064502 (2015)
  • J. Metzkes, T. Kluge, K. Zeil, M. Bussmann, S.D. Kraft, T.E. Cowan, and U. Schramm, "Experimental observation of transverse modulations in laser-driven proton beams", New J. Phys. 16, 023008 (2014).
  • M. Bussmann, H. Burau, T.E. Cowan, A. Debus, A. Huebl, G. Juckeland, T. Kluge, W.E. Nagel, R. Pausch, F. Schmitt, U. Schramm, J. Schuchart, and R. Widera, "Radiative Signatures of the Relativistic Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability", in Proc. SC13 Int. Conf. High Perform. Comput. Networking, Storage Anal. (ACM, New York, NY, USA, 2013), p. 5:1.
  • T. Kluge, S. A. Gaillard, K. A. Flippo, T. Burris-Mog, W. Enghardt, B. Gall, M. Geissel, a Helm, S.D. Kraft, T. Lockard, J. Metzkes, D.T. Offermann, M. Schollmeier, U. Schramm, K. Zeil, M. Bussmann, and T.E. Cowan, "High proton energies from cone targets: electron acceleration mechanisms",New J. Phys. 14, 23038 (2012).
  • T. Kluge, T. Cowan, A. Debus, U. Schramm, K. Zeil, and M. Bussmann, "Electron Temperature Scaling in Laser Interaction with Solids", Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 205003 (2011).
  • T. Kluge, W. Enghardt, S.D. Kraft, U. Schramm, K. Zeil, T.E. Cowan, and M. Bussmann, "Enhanced laser ion acceleration from mass-limited foils", Phys. Plasmas 17, 123103 (2010).

Some interesting summary charts of selected experimental results




If you want to put your data into these plots and embed them into your website, please contact me!

Probing of relativistic laser interaction with advanced light sources

SAXS @ XFEL
SAXS @ XFEL
Foto: Thomas Kluge(11)
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We proposed and developed a novel approach to obtain unprecedented insight in dense and relativistic plasmas. Currently, experiments rely on intensive and complex simulations to interpret results and verify deduced explanations and models. We aim to turn that around and will soon be able to do ultra-short snapshots of the interior of dense laser-heted plasmas using X-ray pulses. In the future, combining the world's most intense optical lasers and most advanced X-ray sources - X-ray free electron lasers - at European XFEL(13) (HIBEF(14)) will give detailed information that for the first time would allow a direct glimpse on the femtosecond, nanoscale plasma physics involved in ultra-short ultra-intense laser-solid interaction. Then, experiments could be used to benchmark our simulations and numerical models and eventually drive their predictive capabilities further.

Research highlights

  • L. Gaus, ..., T. Kluge "Probing ultrafast laser plasma processes inside solids with resonant small-angle x-ray scattering", Phys. Rev.Res. 3, 043194 (2021)(15)
  • T. Kluge, M. Rödel, J. Metzkes, A. Pelka, A. Laso Garcia, I. Prencipe, M. Rehwald et al., "Observation of ultrafast solid-density plasma dynamics using femtosecond X-ray pulses from a free-electron laser", (Phys. Rev. X 8, 031068 (2018)(16)).
  • T. Kluge, C. Rödel, M. Rödel, A. Pelka, E.E. McBride, L.B. Fletcher, M. Harmand, A. Krygier, A. Higginbotham, M. Bussmann, E. Galtier, E. Gamboa, A.L. Garcia, M. Garten, S.H. Glenzer, E. Granados, C. Gutt, H.J. Lee, B. Nagler, W. Schumaker, F. Tavella, M. Zacharias, U. Schramm, and T.E. Cowan, "Nanometer-scale characterization of laser-driven compression, shocks, and phase transitions, by x-ray scattering using free electron lasers", Phys. Plasmas 24, 102709 (2017)(17).
  • T. Kluge, M. Bussmann, H.-K. Chung, C. Gutt, L. G. Huang, M. Zacharias, U. Schramm, and T. E. Cowan, "Nanoscale femtosecond imaging of transient hot solid density plasmas with elemental and charge state sensitivity using resonant coherent diffraction", Phys. Plasmas 23, 033103 (2016).
  • T. Kluge, C. Gutt, L.G. Huang, J. Metzkes, U. Schramm, M. Bussmann, and T.E. Cowan, "Using X-ray free-electron lasers for probing of complex interaction dynamics of ultra-intense lasers with solid matter", Phys. Plasmas 21, 033110 (2014).