Introduction to Laser-Plasma Interaction Physics

The following three lectures are intended to provide a short, elementary tutorial on the field of high-intensity laser interactions with matter, loosely based on material from the author’s book[1]. The discourse starts with basic characteristics of the plasmas produced in such interactions and subsequently exploited as a source of radiation or energetic particles. In the first lecture, the reader is introduced to elementary phenomena such as Debye shielding, plasma oscillations, ionization, plasma optics and important thresholds for the onset of non-linear behaviour. The second lecture treats topics relevant to laser-based electron acceleration, starting from a simple fluid description of electromagnetic and electrostatic wave propagation in underdense plasmas, before moving to more advanced topics such as the ponderomotive force and wave breaking. The third and final lecture covers various topics related to the high-intensity laser interactions with solid targets, including absorption and electron heating in overdense plasma layers, ion acceleration and mechanisms for the generation of strong magnetic fields and short-wavelength surface harmonics. The lecture material is supplemented by a number of self-contained numerical Python scripts which will be made available to Summer School participants.References:[1] P. Gibbon, Short Pulse Laser Interactions with Matter: An Introduction, Imperial College Press (2005