Speaker
Description
In this talk the “Flying Focus” (FF) regime will be introduced as a novel method of spatiotemporal laser pulse shaping [1,2]. In the FF regime, the intensity peak formed by the moving focal point can travel at any velocity, independent of the laser group velocity, over distances much longer than a Rayleigh range. This enables co-propagation of an ultra-relativistic particle beam with the laser focus, so that the electrons stay in the region of peak field intensity for prolonged interaction times. Recently (2018), focus propagation for tens of picoseconds was demonstrated experimentally [2], stimulating theoretical study of this phenomenon. We will introduce generation methods and analytical description of FF pulses with arbitrary focus velocity [3] and discuss experimental configurations in which the long laser-particle interaction time is beneficial in high-intensity field applications. Using FF pulses, we demonstrated enhancement of radiative properties in nonlinear Thomson scattering [4], amplification of radiation reaction effects [5], and guiding of the particle beams without spreading over macroscopic distances [6].
[1] A. Sainte-Marie, O. Gobert, and F. Quéré, Optica 4, 1298 (2017).
[2] D. H. Froula, D. Turnbull, A. S. Davies, T. J. Kessler, D. Haberberger et al., Nat. Phot. 12, 262 (2018).
[3] D. Ramsey, A. Di Piazza, M. Formanek, P. Franke, D. H. Froula et al., Phys. Rev. A 107, 013513 (2023).
[4] D. Ramsey, B. Malaca, A. Di Piazza, M. Formanek, P. Franke et al., Phys. Rev. E 105, 065201 (2022).
[5] M. Formanek, D. Ramsey, J. P. Palastro, A. Di Piazza, Phys. Rev. A 105, L020203 (2022).
[6] M. Formanek, J. P. Palastro, M. Vranic, D. Ramsey, A. Di Piazza, arXiv: 2301.08186
