Towards manipulating relativistic laser pulses with 3D printed materials

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel method using 3D printed materials and high contrast lasers to manipulate relativistic laser pulses, enabling enhanced control over laser-matter interactions at ultra-high intensities.

Contribution

It presents a new approach combining 3D direct laser writing and plasma lenses to control relativistic laser pulses, demonstrated through simulations.

Findings

Achievable intensities >10^23 W/cm^2 with current tabletop lasers and 3D printed plasma lenses.

Plasma optical elements can focus laser light and guide secondary particle beams.

Potential to engineer light-matter interactions at ultra-relativistic intensities.

Abstract

Efficient coupling of intense laser pulses to solid-density matter is critical to many applications including ion acceleration for cancer therapy. At relativistic intensities, the focus has been mainly on investigating various laser beams irradiating initially flat interfaces with little or no control over the interaction. Here, we propose a novel approach that leverages recent advancements in 3D direct laser writing (DLW) of materials and high contrast lasers to manipulate the laser-matter interactions on the micro-scales. We demonstrate, via simulations, that usable intensities >10^23Wcm^(-2) could be achieved with current tabletop lasers coupled to 3D printed plasma lenses. We show that these plasma optical elements act not only as a lens to focus laser light, but also as an electromagnetic guide for secondary particle beams. These results open new paths to engineering light-matter interactions at ultra-relativistic intensities.