Peer-Review Publications

We performed a laser spectroscopic determination of the 2s hyperfine splitting (HFS) of Li-like 209Bi80+ and repeated the measurement of the 1s HFS of H-like 209Bi82+. Both ion species were subsequently stored in the Experimental Storage Ring at the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung Darmstadt and cooled with an electron cooler at a velocity of ≈0.71c. Pulsed laser excitation of the M1 hyperfine transition was performed in anticollinear and collinear geometry for Bi82+ and Bi80+, respectively, and observed by fluorescence detection. We obtain ΔE(1s)=5086.3(11)meV for Bi82+, different from the literature value, and ΔE(2s)=797.50(18)meV for Bi80+. These values provide experimental evidence that a specific difference between the two splitting energies can be used to test QED calculations in the strongest static magnetic fields available in the laboratory independent of nuclear structure effects. The experimental result is in excellent agreement with the theoretical prediction and confirms the sum of the Dirac term and the relativistic interelectronic-interaction correction at a level of 0.5%, confirming the importance of accounting for the Breit interaction.

In the last decades, ultrafast lasers and amplifiers have achieved an extraordinary power increase and have enabled a plethora of scientific, medical or industrial applications. However, especially in recent years, it has become more and more challenging to keep up with this pace since intrinsic physical limitations are becoming difficult to avoid. A promising way to get around this problem is the technique of spatially and/or temporally separated amplification and subsequent coherent addition of ultrashort pulses. It turns out that fiber amplifiers are perfect candidates for this concept due to their outstanding average-power capability and their simple single-pass setups, which can be easily parallelized. Herein we provide an overview of the most important experimental implementations of this concept and recent results. We discuss the ability of these approaches to generate laser parameters that, only a few years ago, seemed impossible to achieve.

We present a theoretical study of bremsstrahlung produced by high-energy electrons scattered by heavy atomic targets. Considering coincident observation of the emitted photons and the scattered electrons, we pay special attention to the polarization degree and direction of the outgoing light. To investigate these properties of atomic bremsstrahlung, we apply the density matrix approach and solutions of the Dirac equation. Detailed calculations are performed for initial electron energies ranging from 100 to 500 keV and different fixed electron scattering angles. The results of these calculations are compared with predictions obtained under the assumption that the scattered electrons remain unobserved. This comparison reveals that both the degree and the direction of linear polarization of bremsstrahlung are very sensitive to the direction of the scattered electron.

Laser-accelerated electron pulses have been used to irradiate human tumors grown on mice’s ears during radiobiological experiments. These experiments have been carried out with the JETI laser system at the Institute of Optics and Quantum Electronics in Jena, Germany. To treat a total of more than 50 mice, a stable and reliable operation of the laser-electron accelerator with a dose rate exceeding 1 Gy/min was necessary. To achieve this, a sufficient number of electrons at energies in excess of 5 MeV had to be generated. The irradiation time for a single mouse was a few minutes. Furthermore, the particle pulses’ parameters needed to remain achievable for a time period of several weeks. Due to the online detection of the radiation dose, the unavoidable shot-to-shot fluctuations, currently still typical for laser-based particle accelerators, could be compensated. The results demonstrate that particle pulses generated with laser-based accelerators have the potential to be a future alternative for conventional particle accelerators used for the irradiation of tumors.

A key feature of extreme ultraviolet (XUV) radiation from free-electron lasers (FELs) is its spatial and temporal coherence. We measured the spatio-temporal coherence properties of monochromatized FEL pulses at 13.5 nm using a Michelson interferometer. A temporal coherence time of (59±8) fs has been determined, which is in good agreement with the spectral bandwidth given by the monochromator. Moreover, the spatial coherence in vertical direction amounts to about 15% of the beam diameter and about 12% in horizontal direction. The feasibility of measuring spatio-temporal coherence properties of XUV FEL radiation using interferometric techniques advances machine operation and experimental studies significantly.

We present the concluding result from an Ives-Stilwell-type time dilation experiment using Li+7 ions confined at a velocity of β=v/c=0.338 in the storage ring ESR at Darmstadt. A Λ-type three-level system within the hyperfine structure of the Li+7S13→P23 line is driven by two laser beams aligned parallel and antiparallel relative to the ion beam. The lasers’ Doppler shifted frequencies required for resonance are measured with an accuracy of <4×10−9 using optical-optical double resonance spectroscopy. This allows us to verify the special relativity relation between the time dilation factor γ and the velocity β, γ√(1- β^2)=1 to within ±2.3×10−9 at this velocity. The result, which is singled out by a high boost velocity β, is also interpreted within Lorentz invariance violating test theories.

A high-power thulium (Tm)-doped fiber chirped-pulse amplification system emitting a record compressed average output power of 152 W and 4 MW peak power is demonstrated. This result is enabled by utilizing Tm-doped photonic crystal fibers with mode-field diameters of 35 μm, which mitigate detrimental nonlinearities, exhibit slope efficiencies of more than 50%, and allow for reaching a pump-power-limited average output power of 241 W. The high-compression efficiency has been achieved by using multilayer dielectric gratings with diffraction efficiencies higher than 98%.

Various alumino silicate glasses (network modifier ions: Li^+ , Mg^2+ , Zn^2+ and/or La^^3+ ) doped with 1  ×  10^20 Yb^3+  cm^−3 (about 0.2 mol% Yb_2 O_3 ) were prepared. The glasses were studied with respect to their thermo-mechanical and fluorescence properties. Huge differences are found for the coefficients of thermal expansion which determine the thermal shock resistance of the material and hence are required for ultra-high power laser applications. Here, zinc and magnesium alumino silicate glasses show the lowest values. The fluorescence lifetimes of the glasses increase with decreasing average atomic weight of the glass composition (685–1020  µ s). All glasses show broad and smooth emission spectra with little variations due to compositional changes. Mixed lithium zinc or lithium magnesium alumino silicate glasses could be promising new laser materials especially with respect to ultra-high peak power systems or applications with high repetition rates.

We study the effect of laser photon merging, or equivalently high harmonic generation, in the quantum vacuum subject to inhomogeneous electromagnetic fields. Such a process is facilitated by the effective nonlinear couplings arising from charged particle-antiparticle fluctuations in the quantum vacuum subject to strong electromagnetic fields. We derive explicit results for general kinematic and polarization configurations involving optical photons. Concentrating on merged photons in reflected channels which are preferable in experiments for reasons of noise suppression, we demonstrate that photon merging is typically dominated by the competing nonlinear process of quantum reflection, though appropriate polarization and signal filtering could specifically search for the merging process. As a byproduct, we devise a novel systematic expansion of the photon polarization tensor in plane wave fields.

The velocity map of the above-threshold ionization electron spectrum at long laser wavelength exhibits a characteristic structure normal to the laser polarization, which has the appearance of a trident or a three-pronged fork. The forklike structure vanishes for few-cycle laser pulses. It is explained in terms of the classical-electron-trajectories model of strong-field ionization augmented so as to allow for rescattering. The analysis reveals its relation to the so-called low-energy structure, which was recently observed for very small transverse momenta.

We analyze the many-flavor phase diagram of quantum electrodynamics (QED) in 2+1 (Euclidean) space-time dimensions. We compute the critical flavor number above which the theory is in the quasiconformal massless phase. For this, we study the renormalization group fixed-point structure in the space of gauge interactions and pointlike fermionic self-interactions, the latter of which are induced dynamically by fermion-photon interactions. We find that a reliable estimate of the critical flavor number crucially relies on a careful treatment of the Fierz ambiguity in the fermionic sector. Using a Fierz-complete basis, our results indicate that the phase transition towards a chirally broken phase occurring at small flavor numbers could be separated from the quasiconformal phase at larger flavor numbers, allowing for an intermediate phase which is dominated by fluctuations in a vector channel. If these interactions approach criticality, the intermediate phase could be characterized by a Lorentz-breaking vector condensate.

The radiative electron capture of a target electron into the projectile continuum has been studied for the collision system U88+ + N2 → U88+ + [N+2]∗ + e− + γ at 90 MeV/u. Using a magnetic electron spectrometer, the energy distribution of cusp electrons emitted under an angle of 0∘ with respect to the projectile beam and with a velocity close to the projectile velocity has been measured in coincidence with the emitted photons under various observation angles. The experimental results provide a stringent test for the corresponding process in inverse kinematics, namely, the theory of electron-nucleus bremsstrahlung at the high-energy endpoint. For comparison this process is calculated using fully relativistic Dirac wave functions and using semirelativistic Sommerfeld-Maue wave functions.

We perform relativistic configuration-interaction calculations of the energy levels of the low-lying and core-excited states of berylliumlike iron, Fe^(22+). The results include the QED contributions calculated by two different methods, the model QED operator approach and the screening-potential approach. The uncertainties of theoretical energies are estimated systematically. The predicted wavelengths of the Kα transitions in berylliumlike iron improve previous theoretical results and compare favorably with the experimental data.

We report on the development of a preamplifier module for temporal contrast enhancement and control at petawatt-class lasers. The module is based on an ultrafast optical parametric amplifier (uOPA), which produces temporally clean pulses at the 60 μJ level for seeding a chirped pulse amplification (CPA) system, namely the petawatt facility PHELIX. The amplifier module allows for gain reduction in the following amplifiers, resulting in an attenuation of amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) by more than 4 orders of magnitude. Since the ASE of a CPA system linearly depends on the seeding energy, we were able to demonstrate a continuous variation of the temporal contrast by tuning the gain of the uOPA.

Theoretical analysis of the excitation of low-Z hydrogenlike atoms by incident twisted light is presented. Emphasis is placed on the cross sections that describe transitions between particular atomic substates. Simple expressions for these partial cross sections are derived using the nonrelativistic first-order perturbation theory and the momentum representation of the photon wave functions. Based on the developed approach, calculations have been performed for the 1s→2p and 2p→3d transitions induced in the course of interaction of twisted (Bessel) light with a macroscopic hydrogen target. Results of these calculations, supported by an analytical analysis, clearly indicate that the sublevel population of residual atoms following absorption of twisted photons differs much from what is expected for the standard plane-wave case; this effect can be easily observed experimentally by measuring the linear polarization of the subsequent fluorescent emission.

We investigate subpicosecond dynamics of warm dense hydrogen at the XUV free-electron laser facility (FLASH) at DESY (Hamburg). Ultrafast impulsive electron heating is initiated by a ≤300-fs short x-ray burst of 92 eV photon energy. A second pulse probes the sample via x-ray scattering at jitter-free variable time delay. We show that the initial molecular structure dissociates within (0.9±0.2) ps, allowing us to infer the energy transfer rate between electrons and ions. We evaluate Saha and Thomas-Fermi ionization models in radiation hydrodynamics simulations, predicting plasma parameters that are subsequently used to calculate the static structure factor. A conductivity model for partially ionized plasma is validated by two-temperature density-functional theory coupled to molecular dynamic simulations and agrees with the experimental data. Our results provide important insights and the needed experimental data on transport properties of dense plasmas.

We have measured the polarization purity of undulator radiation at 12.9 keV, with hitherto unachievable precision. We could measure a polarization purity of 1.8 × 10−4 by using a silicon channel-cut crystal with six Bragg reflections at 45° as analyzer.

The results of the Monte-Carlo ray-tracing simulations for a Johann-type Bragg spectrometer with spherically curved-crystal designed to detect the X-rays from a fast-moving source are reported. These calculations were performed to optimize the X-ray spectrometer to be used at the gas-target installed at ion storage ring for high-resolution X-ray experiments. In particular, the two-dimensional distributions of detected photons were studied using the Monte-Carlo method both for the stationary and moving X-ray sources, taking into account a detailed description of X-ray source and X-ray diffraction on the crystal as well as a role of the Doppler effect for in-beam experiments. The origin of the asymmetry of observed X-ray profiles was discussed in detail and the procedure to derive a precise (sub-eV) X-ray transition energy for such asymmetric profiles was proposed. The results are important for the investigations of View the MathML source1s2p P2/3→1s2s S1/3 intrashell transition in excited He-like uranium ions in in-beam X-ray experiments.

We present measurements of the absorption and emission cross-sections for Yb:YAG, Yb:LuAG and Yb:CaF_2 as a function of temperature between 80 and 340 K. The cross-sections are determined by the combination of the McCumber relation and the Fuchtbauer–Ladenburg (FL) equation to achieve reliable results in spectral regions of high and low absorption. The experimental setup used for the fluorescence measurements minimizes re-absorption effects due to the measurement from small sample volume, providing nearly undisturbed raw data for the FL approach. The retrieved cross-sections together with the spectral characteristics of the tested materials provide important information for the design of energy efficient, high-power laser amplifiers.

The inverse Compton scattering of laser light on high-energetic twisted electrons is investigated with the aim to construct spatially structured x-ray beams. In particular, we analyze how the properties of the twisted electrons, such as the topological charge and aperture angle of the electron Bessel beam, affect the energy and angular distribution of scattered x rays. We show that with suitably chosen initial twisted electron states one can synthesize tailor-made x-ray beam profiles with a well-defined spatial structure, in a way not possible with ordinary plane-wave electron beams.

The potential of borate crystals, BBO, LBO and BiBO, for high average power scaling of optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifiers is investigated. Up-to-date measurements of the absorption coefficients at 515 nm and the thermal conductivities are presented. The measured absorption coefficients are a factor of 10–100 lower than reported by the literature for BBO and LBO. For BBO, a large variation of the absorption coefficients was found between crystals from different manufacturers. The linear and nonlinear absorption coefficients at 515 nm as well as thermal conductivities were determined for the first time for BiBO. Further, different crystal cooling methods are presented. In addition, the limits to power scaling of OPCPAs are discussed.

We present a compact interferometric autocorrelator that allows the characterization of ultrashort laser pulses in the visible light domain (370–740nm). The presented device uses a GaN photodiode with corresponding two-photon absorption. Different GaN and AlGaN photodiodes were characterized for this purpose. Despite AlGaN diodes have a better matched bandgap for this application, we have found that only the GaN diodes show sufficient nonlinear behavior. Using the autocorrelator we were able to characterize ultrashort frequency doubled Ti:Sapphire laser pulses with a pulse duration down to 18fs in the second harmonic having just a few hundred nanojoules of pulse energy. The broadband behavior and extension towards the UV along with the need for only low energetic pulses are the novelties of this device.

Coherent combination of ultrashort laser pulses emitted from spatially separated amplifiers is a promising power-scaling technique for ultrafast laser systems. It has been successfully applied to fiber amplifiers, since guidance of the signal provides the advantage of an excellent beam quality and straightforward superposition of beams as compared to bulk-type amplifier implementations. Herein we demonstrate, for the first time to our knowledge, a two-channel combining scheme employing Yb:YAG single-crystal rod amplifiers as an energy booster in a fiber chirped-pulse amplification system. In this proof-of-principle experiment, combined and compressed pulses with a duration of 695 fs and an energy of 3 mJ (3.7 GW of peak power) are obtained. The combining efficiency is as high as 94% and the beam quality of the combined output is characterized by a measured M2-value of 1.2.

The coherent combination of ultrashort pulses has recently been established as a technique to overcome the limitations of laser amplifiers regarding pulse peak-power, pulse energy, and average power. Similar limitations also occur in nonlinear compression setups. In a proof-of-principle experiment, we show that the techniques developed for the combination of amplifiers can be adapted to nonlinear compression. We create two spatially separated pulse replica that undergo self-phase modulation in independent optical fibers and are recombined afterwards. Using this technique we demonstrate operation above the self-focusing threshold of a single pulse. Furthermore, we prove that the recombined pulses can be temporally compressed. This experiment paves the way for higher energy or average power operation of various nonlinear compression setups.

A scheme for producing collimated protons from laser interactions with a diamond-like-carbon + pinhole target is proposed. The process is based on radiation pressure acceleration in the multi-species light-sail regime [B. Qiao et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 155002 (2010); T. P. Yu et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 065002 (2010)]. Particle-in-cell simulations demonstrate that transverse quasistatic electric field at TV/m level can be generated in the pinhole. The transverse electric field suppresses the transverse expansion of protons effectively, resulting in a higher density and more collimated proton beam compared with a single foil target. The dependence of the proton beam divergence on the parameters of the pinhole is also investigated.