High Fidelity Fluid-Kinetic Hybrid Modeling of Intense, Short Pulse Laser Plasma Interactions

The project is dedicated to the development of new computational tools for studying laser-plasma accelerators that achieve high physical fidelity at reasonable computational cost. The key element is the use of multiple physics models, each tuned to accurately represent particular plasma processes. The project includes the development of new two-dimensional simulation codes which will be used to determine the key physical processes involved in electron beam formation in laser-plasma accelerators.

Knowledge gained in this project will aid the effort to realize the technological promise of laser-plasma accelerators with a wide range of applications from high-energy physics, astrophysics, and nuclear science to medicine, biology, and chemistry. Additionally, this project has an important educational component and will aid in workforce development by providing training in the basic plasma physics and the physics underlying advanced accelerator technologies.

Laser-plasma acceleration is a key enabling technology for a new generation of compact particle and radiation sources. Detailed manipulation of phase space will lead to a further revolution in advanced accelerators. Realizing these advances requires exploiting the promise of laser-plasma accelerators with a first principles understanding of the phase-space dynamics of these systems.

Clear and complete understanding of phase-space processes opens the door to the manipulation of phase space and to greater control over the electron beam parameters. High-fidelity computational tools are essential to developing this understanding. Multi-physics approaches alter the physics content of the models, depending on the system behavior, allowing for high accuracy while keeping the computational cost to manageable levels.

Many of the technological applications of intense-laser plasma interactions, such as compact, next-generation light sources, have stringent limits on beam quality that exceed what is currently available. The results of this study are expected to advance the development of these technologies, having ultimate applications in a wide range of fields.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.