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The Center for Ultrafast Optical Science (CUOS) is an interdisciplinary research center in the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. CUOS was sponsored as a Science and Technology Center by the National Science Foundation during 1990-2001, and as a College of Engineering Center continues its research in ultrafast optics with funding from a variety of government agencies and industry. Its mission is to perform multidisciplinary research in the basic science and technological applications of ultrashort laser pulses, to educate students from a wide variety of backgrounds in the field, and to spur the development of new technologies.

CUOS researchers develop optical instrumentation and techniques to generate, manipulate, and detect ultrashort and ultrahigh-peak-power light pulses. They use these ultrashort pulses to study ultrafast physical phenomena in atomic, nuclear, plasma, and materials physics, in solid-state electronics, in high-energy-density physics, and in biomedicine.

Ultrafast science & technology is one of the most exciting fields in science and engineering today. Ultrashort laser pulses are the shortest controlled bursts of energy ever developed. Optical pulses of a few femtoseconds (10-15 seconds) duration can be used to probe the fastest events in atomic, molecular, biochemical, and solid-state systems. When amplified to even modest energies, such short pulses can achieve the highest peak powers: the Hercules laser at CUOS holds the world record for on-target laser intensity, at an astonishing 1022 Watts per square centimeter. Ultrashort-pulse fiber lasers enable the highest average powers (100-Watt level) available from pulsed laser systems. These lasers enable a tremendous range of applications in fundamental science and applied technology; further information on these applications may be found on the CUOS Mission and Overview pages, and details of specific research programs may be found under Research Groups.

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News

Using electrons to observe extremely strong magnetic fields traveling close to the speed of light

In the January edition of Physical Review Letters, Will Schumaker and colleagues demonstrated imaging of extremely strong magnetic fields (10,000 times that of the strongest bar magnet!) in a surface plasma with a size of only tens of microns expanding at close to the speed of light, by observing the deflections of relativistic electrons. Intense laser pulses interacting with solid surfaces can create energetic plasmas for research into numerous areas, for example: inertial confinement fusion; compact particle accelerators; radiation sources; scaled astrophysical experiments. Such plasmas are highly complex and can evolve on very short time scales, so that measurement of plasma parameters such as density and magnetic field strength requires a time resolved measurement.
Using the 30 femtosecond (30×10-15 seconds) duration laser pulse from the HERCULES laser, which is considered to be the world’s most intense laser, located in the Center for Ultrafast Optical Science at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, the authors focused intense light on to a thin metal foil to generate a rapidly expanding surface plasma. To “probe” the magnetic fields generated within this plasma, they used a second short laser pulse focused into atmospheric density gas. This generates a burst of relativistic electrons by “surfing” them on the electric plasma wave generated behind the pulse, like the wake of a boat, which have a temporal duration comparable to that of the laser pulse. Having propagated through the magnetic fields generated in the laser-solid interaction, the spatial distribution of electrons reflects the magnetic field structure at the time when they were deflected. By adjusting the delay between the pulse hitting the solid target and the probe electron pulse, the authors can effectively make a “movie” of the plasma evolution.
In the January edition of Physical Review Letters, Will Schumaker and colleagues demonstrated imaging of extremely strong magnetic fields (10,000 times that of the strongest bar magnet!) in a surface plasma with a size of only tens of microns expanding at close to the speed of light, by observing the deflections of relativistic electrons. Intense laser pulses interacting with solid surfaces can create energetic plasmas for research into numerous areas, for example: inertial confinement fusion; compact particle accelerators; radiation sources; scaled astrophysical experiments. Such plasmas are highly complex and can evolve on very short time scales, so that measurement of plasma parameters such as density and magnetic field strength requires a time resolved measurement.

Using the 30 femtosecond (30×10-15 seconds) duration laser pulse from the HERCULES laser, which is considered to be the world’s most intense laser, located in the Center for Ultrafast Optical Science at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, the authors focused intense light on to a thin metal foil to generate a rapidly expanding surface plasma. To “probe” the magnetic fields generated within this plasma, they used a second short laser pulse focused into atmospheric density gas. This generates a burst of relativistic electrons by “surfing” them on the electric plasma wave generated behind the pulse, like the wake of a boat, which have a temporal duration comparable to that of the laser pulse. Having propagated through the magnetic fields generated in the laser-solid interaction, the spatial distribution of electrons reflects the magnetic field structure at the time when they were deflected. By adjusting the delay between the pulse hitting the solid target and the probe electron pulse, the authors can effectively make a “movie” of the plasma evolution.

Ultrafast Electron Radiography of Magnetic Fields in High-Intensity Laser-Solid Interactions

W. Schumaker, N. Nakanii, C. McGuffey, C. Zulick, V. Chyvkov, F. Dollar, H. Habara, G. Kalintchenko, A. Maksimchuk, K. A. Tanaka, A. G. R. Thomas, V. Yanovsky, and K. Krushelnick

Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 015003 (2013) Published January 2, 2013

Also highlighted at Physics.aps.org

 

Research Highlights
Record Terahertz average power generated.
Technology Transfer News
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