High-intensity laser-driven proton acceleration: influence of pulse contrast

Proton acceleration from the interaction of ultra-short laser pulses with thin foil targets at intensities greater than 10(18) W cm(-2) is discussed. An overview of the physical processes giving rise to the generation of protons with multi-MeV energies, in well defined beams with excellent spatial quality, is presented. Specifically, the discussion centres on the influence of laser pulse contrast on the spatial and energy distributions of accelerated proton beams. Results from an ongoing experimental investigation of proton acceleration using the 10 Hz multi-terawatt Ti:sapphire laser (35f s, 35 TW) at the Lund Laser Centre are discussed. It is demonstrated that a window of amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) conditions exist, for which the direction of proton emission is sensitive to the ASE-pedestal preceding the peak of the laser pulse, and that by significantly improving the temporal contrast, using plasma mirrors, efficient proton acceleration is observed from target foils with thickness less than 50 nm.     

A broadband laser plasma x-ray source for application in ultrafast chemical structure dynamics

A plasma source free from characteristic emission lines is described, based on laser irradiation of a water jet in a helium atmosphere. Various key aspects of the laser interaction are presented along with practical characterization of the observed isotropic approximately 4-10 keV x-ray emissions, measurements of which indicate subpicosecond duration. Observations are consistent with a vacuum heating plasma mechanism at the helium-water interface and indicate strong potential for in-house ultrafast chemical structure dynamics application when coupled to contemporary detector developments.     

Design of an extreme-ultraviolet monochromator free from temporal stretching

High-order harmonic generation in gases by use of femtosecond lasers is a source of ultrashort pulses in the extreme-ultraviolet (XUV). For many applications it is necessary to select radiation of only one specific harmonic order without affecting the duration of the ultrashort pulse. A three-grating monochromator that meets this demand has been designed and modeled by ray tracing as well as by wave-optical simulations. The only remaining temporal stretching of an XUV pulse is due to distortion of the pulse front on the gratings and is predicted to be approximately 1 fs. The design has been successfully tested in the near infrared. Finally, the monochromator is also capable of eliminating any existing linear chirp in the harmonic pulses, thus compressing them to shorter durations.     

Dietary fibre in bread and corresponding flours —Formation of resistant starch during baking

Dietary fibre, assayed with an enzymatic/gravimetric method, was higher in wheat/rye bread than in the corresponding flours. The increase was most pronounced in crumbs from bread baked with mainly low-extraction-rate flour, and could be accounted for to a large extent as “resistant starch”, i. e. a starch fraction available to amyloglucosidase only after solubilization with 2m-KOH. The resistant starch was formed at dough-making and/or baking and did not increase further during freezing or storage at room temperature. The chemical modifications leading to resistant starch formation remain to be investigated. Starch-lipid complexes are probably not involved, since these are hydrolyzed by the heat-stable amylase used in the dietary fibre assay.