Group of Lasers and Plasmas

ACCELERATES featured in National TV show aired
during 2013 and 2014

The project ACCELERATES has been highlighted in the tv show 100 segundos de
ciência/100 seconds of science in a short documentary (100 seconds of duration)
describing the project and aired several times in prime time in 2013 and 2014.
Generation of miniature magnetised shockwaves

By interacting with minimagnetospheres, super-alfvénic plasma streams
can generate collisionless shocks with very distinct features, like solitary
(tsunami-like) magnetosonic waves.  In the figure, we represent the magnetic field
of a train of solitary waves (in blue tones) resulting from the interaction with a
minimagnetosphere, whose typical size is of a few ion Larmor radii. In orange/red
tones, we represent the electron fluid velocity component perpendicular to the
magnetic field, that illustrates the development of electron-scale instabilities
at the magnetopause.
Brillouin amplification: towards
next generation laser energy densities

This animation illustrates efficient energy transfer from a long and
energetic pump to a short probe laser pulse via stimulated
Brillouin backscattering. It is shown that the probe pulse can be
amplified to to high intensities (15x pump intensity) while
preserving a smooth envelope. Pushing the interaction
further leads to probe filamentation, which destroys the
probe envelope and limits the amplification process.
Cascading in laser pulses

The figure represents the development of an
electron-positron pair plasma at the focus of two
counter circularly polarized intense laser pulses.
The electrons, positrons and photons are respectively
colored in red, green and yellow. The laser pulses
are displayed in a rainbow color scale according
to the wave intensity. The arrows represent the field
lines of the electric field.
High-resolution x-ray 3D imaging of bone micro-structure

Osteoporosis impact on public health is sharply increasing justifying a significant effort to diagnose,
reat and understand this disease. Bones have been imaged with x-rays for almost a century and the
basic technology for clinical image is well established, but with the recent development of large scale
synchrotron light sources and high-end microfiches x-ray generators, imaging of the intricate bone inner
structure with a few micron resolution become possible. Laser driven betatron x-ray microscope was
built and used to demonstrate the feasibility of high-resolution bone imaging in the Astra-Gemini laser
facility (UK). A sample of femur trabecular bone was imaged from multiple angles and a 3D model of the
bone was built using tomographic techniques to a resolution below 50 micron. This demonstration renew
the interest in the development of compact laser-plasma electron accelerators and its applications. It also
opens prospects for its use in clinic diagnostics in the medium term.

Welcome to the website of the Group of Lasers and Plasmas of the Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear at Instituto Superior Técnico.

Latest News

2018 Nobel Prize in Physics celebrates lasers

This year’s Nobel Prize in Physics was shared between Gérard Mourou (École Polytechnique, France), Donna Strickland (University of Waterloo, Canada) and Arthur Ashkin (Bell Laboratories, USA). The work of the first two winners, who were awarded half the prize, consisted of the invention of the Chirped Pulse Amplification (CPA) technique in the mid-1980s, which enabled increasing… Read more

epp team awarded multi-year PRACE grant

Our team has been awarded a multi-year project PRACE allocation in the 17th call for the project PULSAR (first year allocation: 40 million cpu-core hour). This proposal, one of the 42 selected for supercomputing time, addresses the challenges and supports the ERC Advanced Grant InPairs. The allocation is assigned for the great MareNostrum4 at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center. More information here. Read more

Latest Publications

All optical dual stage laser wakefield acceleration driven by two-color laser pulses, Scientific Reports 8 (2018) p. 11772
Vishwa Bandhu Pathak, Hyung Taek Kim, J. Vieira, L. O. Silva, Chang Hee Nam
Optical Control of the Topology of Laser-Plasma Accelerators, Physical Review Letters 121 (2018) p. 054801
Jorge Vieira, José Tito Mendonça, Fabien Quéré
Fully Kinetic Large-scale Simulations of the Collisionless Magnetorotational Instability, The Astrophysical Journal 859 (2018) p. 2
G. Inchingolo, T. Grismayer, N. F. Loureiro, R. A. Fonseca, L. O. Silva
Ion-channel laser growth rate and beam quality requirements, Journal of Plasma Physics 84 (2018) p. 905840304
X. Davoine, F. Fiúza, R. A. Fonseca, W. B. Mori, and L. O. Silva

ACCELERATES featured in National TV show aired during 2013 and 2014

Generation of miniature magnetised shockwaves

Brillouin amplification: towardsnext generation laser energy densities

Cascading in laser pulses

High-resolution x-ray 3D imaging of bone micro-structure

Latest News

2018 Nobel Prize in Physics celebrates lasers

epp team awarded multi-year PRACE grant

Latest Publications

ACCELERATES featured in National TV show aired
during 2013 and 2014

Brillouin amplification: towards
next generation laser energy densities