MENU High Field Science
The High Field Science group at the Center for Ultrafast Optical Science (CUOS) is a world-leading group researching the science and applications of relativistic plasma. In High Field Science we are engaged in a number of ongoing key research projects involving the generation of relativistic plasmas, including table-top acceleration of high peak energy electron beams using plasma bubbles, acceleration of high quality energetic ion beams, the generation of high brightness x-ray pulses and laser driven neutron sources, in addition to numerical modeling of laser-plasma interactions. We are also involved with other studies, ranging from the investigation of phenomena related to generating fusion energy using lasers, to the use of laser-plasmas to study astrophysical phenomena. In addition, we are home to the NSF ZEUS User Facility, which includes a dual-beamline 3 Petawatt laser system. ZEUS is currently the highest powered laser user facility and is used by scientists in both the U.S. and the wider international research community.
The High Field Science group also supports two additional high powered laser systems. The lambda-cubed high-repetition-rate Ti:Sapphire laser system operates at 500 Hz with a power of 0.3 TW, and through the use of adaptive optics, has the unique ability to produce relativistic intensities at high-repetition-rate, enabling the systematic study of these plasmas. As well as T-cubed which is a 20 TW Nd:Glass laser system operating with longer pulses of 400 fs duration. These complimentary systems allow us to study relativistic plasmas under a range of conditions. We have a number of ongoing collaborations with researchers in High Field Science around the world, including the Laboratoire d’Optique Appliquee in France, the Central Laser Facility at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and Imperial College London in the UK, the Centre for Plasma Physics at the Queen’s University Belfast in the UK, the Institute for Laser Engineering at the University of Osaka in Japan and the University of California, Los Angeles in the US.
Our research is supported by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy. Additional support is provided by the Office of Naval Research, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Department of Homeland Security, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the Army Research Office and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.