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It was discovered that optical vortices twist isotropic and homogenous materials, e.g., azo-polymer films to form spiral structures on a nano- or micro-scale. However, the formation mechanism has not yet been established theoretically. To understand the mechanism of the spiral surface relief formation in the azo-polymer film, we theoretically investigate the optical radiation force induced in an isotropic and homogeneous material under irradiation using a continuous-wave optical vortex with arbitrary topological charge and polarization. It is revealed that the spiral surface relief formation in azo-polymer films requires the irradiation of optical vortices with a positive (negative) spin angular momentum and a positive (negative) orbital angular momentum (constructive spin-orbital angular momentum coupling), i.e., the degeneracy among the optical vortices with the same total angular momentum is resolved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By using two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, we demonstrate high-flux dense positrons generation by irradiating an ultra-intense laser pulse onto a tapered hollow target. By using a laser with an intensity of 4 ×1023W/cm², it is shown that the Breit-Wheeler process dominates the positron production during the laser-target interaction and a positron beam with a total number >1015 is obtained, which is increased by five orders of magnitude than in the previous work at the same laser intensity. Due to the focusing effect of the transverse electric fields formed in the hollow cone wall, the divergence angle of the positron beam effectively decreases to ~15° with an effective temperature of ~674 MeV. When the laser intensity is doubled, both the positron flux (>1016) and temperature (963 MeV) increase, while the divergence angle gets smaller (~13°). The obtained high-flux low-divergence positron beam may have diverse applications in science, medicine, and engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, shift multiplex recording of phase data pages on a volume polarization-sensitive medium by retardagraphy is demonstrated. The origin of shift selectivity in volume retardagraphy is explained. In the experiment, four-valued phase data pages are used. Then, a coding method is proposed to correct a reconstructed phase pattern. The recorded phase data pages are reconstructed using the feature of the coding method. By comparing the reconstructed phase data pages with recording phase data pages, symbol error rates of less than 11% are achieved. From the experimental result, it is verified that volume retardagraphy is applicable to optical memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The generation of a high energy microelectron bunch in vacuum by an intense short pulse laser in the TEM(1, 0) + TEM(0, 1) mode is investigated in this paper numerically and analytically. A focused short pulse laser in the TEM(1, 0) + TEM(0, 1) mode has a confinement effect on electrons in the transverse direction due to the transverse ponderomotive force, and at the same time the electrons are accelerated and compressed longitudinally by a longitudinal electric field. In our three-dimensional particle simulations, the maximum kinetic energy of electrons reaches 455 MeV, the maximum density is 3.87 × 1010 cm-3, and the normalized transverse and longitudinal rms emittances of accelerated electrons are of the order of 10-6 m rad at the following parameter values: a0 = eE0/(meω c) = 10 (where a0 is the dimensionless parameter of the laser amplitude, e and me are the electron charge and rest mass, respectively, E0 is the laser amplitude, ω the angular frequency of the laser and c the speed of light in vacuum), a laser wavelength λ = 0.8 µm, laser spot size 20λ, laser pulse length 5λ and initial electron velocity 0.99c. Moreover, the transverse and longitudinal sizes of the compressed electron bunch are about 600λ and 10λ, respectively. In this paper, we also present a scaling law of the maximum electron energy. The estimated results of the maximum electron energy coincide well with the simulation results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An all-optical scheme for high-density pair plasmas generation is proposed by two laser pulses colliding in a cylinder channel. Two dimensional particle-in-cell simulations show that, when the first laser pulse propagates in the cylinder, electrons are extracted out of the cylinder inner wall and accelerated to high energies. These energetic electrons later run into the second counter-propagating laser pulse, radiating a large amount of high-energy gamma photons via the Compton back-scattering process. The emitted gamma photons then collide with the second laser pulse to initiate the Breit–Wheeler process for pairs production. Due to the strong self-generated fields in the cylinder, positrons are confined in the channel to form dense pair plasmas. Totally, the maximum density of pair plasmas can be , for lasers with an intensity of . Both the positron yield and density are tunable by changing the cylinder radius and the laser parameters. The generated dense pair plasmas can further facilitate investigations related to astrophysics and particle physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-energy-density electron–positron pairs play an increasingly important role in many potential applications. Here, we propose a scheme for enhanced positron production by an ultra intense laser irradiating a gas-Al compound target via the multi-photon Breit–Wheeler (BW) process. The laser pulse first ionizes the gas and interacts with a near-critical-density plasma, forming an electron bubble behind the laser pulse. A great deal of electrons are trapped and accelerated in the bubble, while the laser front hole-bores the Al target and deforms its front surface. A part of the laser wave is thus reflected by the inner curved target surface and collides with the accelerated electron bunch. Finally, a large number of γ photons are emitted in the forward direction via the Compton back-scattering process and the BW process is initiated. Dense electron–positron pairs are produced with a maximum density of m−3. Simulation results show that the positron generation is greatly enhanced in the compound target, where the positron yield is two orders of magnitude greater than that in only the solid slab case. The influences of the laser intensity, gas density and length on the positron beam quality are also discussed, which demonstrates the feasibility of the scheme in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]