PhD thesis supervisor: dr. Vidmantas Tomkus (apply for recommendation)
Laser driven plasma sources of ionizing radiation
Ionizing radiation sources driven by ultrashort laser pulses comprise energetic beams of electrons, ions and X-rays, and are of high-interest for femtosecond material science, biomedical research, X-ray imaging and radiation therapy. The sources are limited however, by relatively low flux, energy and divergence of accelerated particles. In this work, an independent control of electron injection, acceleration and strength of electron wiggling in an ion channel using tailored plasma profiles will be investigated. This scheme is expected to improve the number of accelerated particles, energy conversion efficiency, and peak brightness of radiation sources. The tailored plasma profiles will be modelled using ANSYS software of computational fluid dynamics. The particle acceleration will be evaluated using software packages FBPIC and SMILEI of Particle-in-Cell simulation. The designed plasma targets will be manufactured in the laboratory and tested in partner high-intensity laser canters using femtosecond kHz 100 mJ and 1-10J 10 Hz lasers. The results of the research will be implemented in the development of VHEE (Very High Energy Electron) source, innovative methods of radiotherapy, and high-energy X-ray source offering new capabilities of time resolved probing of dense matter, electron and nuclear dynamics, and radiographic imaging of dense materials.