Ultrafast Dynamics and High-Order Harmonics of Relativistic Plasma Mirrors

Julia Mikhailova

Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
Princeton University

Seminar Information

Seminar Series
Energy: Joint Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Dept & Center for Energy Research

Seminar Date - Time
April 14, 2021, 11:00 am
-
12:15

Seminar Location
Topic: MAE+CER Energy Webinar (4/14) w/ Prof. Julia Mikhailova (PU)
Time: Apr 14, 2021 10:45 AM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
Zoom Meeting ID: 997 2462 2857

Recording is available. Please contact Jake at j1blair@eng.ucsd.edu

Important Links
Zoom Join Link: https://ucsd.zoom.us/j/99724622857

Professor Julia Mikhailova

Abstract

Driven by relativistically intense light, the plasma mirrors – microscopic transient reflectors formed at solid surfaces exposed to strong laser fields – can generate broadband spectra of higher harmonics. Relativistic plasma harmonics may fill the gap between petawatt-class infrared laser facilities and x-ray free-electron lasers and serve as diagnostics for high-energy-density plasmas hard to probe by other means. In my lab at Princeton, we use a terawatt near-infrared laser to produce relativistic harmonics and study their properties in experiment, theory, and numerical particle-in-cell simulations. I will explain key spectral features of this radiation in terms of an electron-bunch-width-corrected coherent synchrotron emission model in a broad set of conditions. I will also discuss the efficiency limits of harmonic generation by plasma mirrors and describe the ways to increase it in ongoing experiments.

Speaker Bio

Julia Mikhailova is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Associated Faculty with the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, and the Plasma Physics Division of the Department of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University. At Princeton, she leads a research program in strong-field and ultrafast laser physics supported by the NSF and DOE (https://www.mikhailovalab.com/). Her work integrates experimental and theoretical research to get a better understanding of the physics of laser-matter interactions under extreme conditions and use those interactions to study ultrafast dynamics of matter. Before joining Princeton as a faculty member, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Germany for five years, and a research scientist at the A.M. Prokhorov General Physics Institute in Russia. She got her undergraduate degree (2003) and PhD in Physics (2007) from M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University in Russia.