Ultra-High Intensity Laser Research at BELLA

ORAL

Abstract

This presentation will review the status of ion acceleration at the BELLA petawatt (PW) facility with a large laser spot (f\65) and give an outlook on science enabled by a short-focal length (f\2.5) laser beamline, currently under construction. Proton beams from the long-focal length beam line exhibit a strongly reduced divergence and increased ion numbers and are hence, ideally suited for subsequent capture and transport with an active plasma lens (APL). As part of our development of an experimental platform for investigating radiobiological effects of laser-accelerated ions, we were able to irradiate normal and radioresistant prostate cancer tumor cell samples with over 1500 PW shots using the APL. The new the short-focal length beamline will be equipped with a re-collimating double-plasma mirror to study laser-plasma interactions at ultra-high temporal contrast. The BELLA center is now part of LaserNetUS, providing international user access.

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Authors

  • Sven Steinke

    Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley 94720, USA

  • Jianhui Bin

    Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Antoine Snijders

    Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Jian-Hua Mao

    Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Qing Ji

    Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, LBNL

  • Kei Nakamura

    Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley 94720, USA

  • Anthony Gonsalves

    Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, LBL, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley 94720, USA

  • Stepan Bulanov

    Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Cameron Geddes

    Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley Nat. Lab., LBNL, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley 94720, USA

  • Carl Schroeder

    Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, LBNL

  • Thomas Schenkel

    Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Eleanor Blakely

    Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Eric Esarey

    Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley 94720, USA