Erhard Gaul

TL;DR: Simulations indicate that with improvements in the laser-pulse focus quality, acceleration to nearly 10 GeV should be possible with the available pulse energy, and the principal physical barriers to multi-gigaelectronvolt acceleration are overcome.

TL;DR: The design and performance of the Texas Petawatt Laser, which produces a 186 J 167 fs pulse based on the combination of optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA) and mixed Nd:glass amplification, is presented.

TL;DR: The Petawatt High Energy Laser for heavy Ion eXperiments (PHELIX) as discussed by the authors has been commissioned for operation in stand-alone mode and, in combination with ions accelerated up to an energy of 13 MeV/u by the heavy ion accelerator UNILAC enables a large variety of unique experiments.

TL;DR: This work reports on a novel compact laser-driven neutron source with an unprecedented short pulse duration and high peak flux, an order of magnitude higher than any existing source, that opens venues for enhancing neutron radiography contrast and for creating astrophysical conditions of heavy element synthesis in the laboratory.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present experimental results on laser-driven ion acceleration from relativistically transparent, overdense plasmas in the break-out afterburner (BOA) regime.