Details

Speaker Name/Affiliation

Martin Formanek / MPIK, Heidelberg, Germany

When

Wed, Apr 2 2025, 4 - 5pm

Seminar Type

Physics Department Colloquium

Location (Room)

JILA Auditorium

Event Details & Abstracts

• Abstract: Due to the exponential progress in laser technology, ultra-intense lasers are quickly becoming an essential tool for studying phenomena of quantum electrodynamics. These include e.g. radiation of accelerated charged particles, photon decay into particle-antiparticle pair, and polarization of vacuum. After a brief overview of these effects, we will discuss “Flying Focus” (FF) laser pulses which enable co-propagation of particle beams (e.g. ultra-relativistic electrons or hard photons) with the laser focus, so that they stay in the region of peak field intensity for prolonged interaction times. We will introduce FF generation methods and analytical description of FF pulses with arbitrary focal velocities and discuss experimental configurations in which the long laser-particle interaction time aids high-intensity applications. Since signatures of strong field effects in laser-particle interactions accumulate with interaction time, the FF regime enables experimental access at orders of magnitude lower laser powers and intensities than in conventional fixed-focus setups. Even more importantly, in the quantum regime of the laser-electron interaction the energy loss and photon yield scale more favorably with the interaction time than the laser intensity, giving FF an outright advantage over fixed-focus pulses.
• Bio: Martin Stack Formanek earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from Charles University in Prague. Then he moved to the U.S. on a Fulbright fellowship which enabled him to pursue PhD in physics at the University of Arizona (Tucson, USA). After completing his degree, Martin worked as a postdoc with Antonino Di Piazza at Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, Germany. Since 2022, he is employed at ELI Beamlines Extreme Light Infrastructure facility near Prague, Czech Republic. At ELI Beamlines he studies strong field electrodynamics in flying focus pulses as a Marie Sklodowska-Curie fellow.