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Recent oncological studies identified beneficial properties of radiation applied at ultra-high dose rates several orders of magnitude higher than the clinical standard of the order of Gy/min. Sources capable of providing these ultra-high dose rates are under investigation. Here, we show that a stable, compact laser-driven proton source with energies greater than 60 MeV enables radiobiological in vivo studies. We performed a pilot irradiation study on human tumors in a mouse model, showing the concerted preparation of mice and laser accelerator, the dose-controlled, tumor-conform irradiation using a laser-driven as well as a clinical reference proton source, and the radiobiological evaluation of irradiated and unirradiated mice for radiation-induced tumor growth delay. The prescribed homogeneous dose of 4 Gy was precisely delivered at the laser-driven source. The results demonstrate a complete laser-driven proton research platform for diverse user-specific small animal models, able to deliver tunable single-shot doses up to around 20 Gy to millimeter-scale volumes on nanosecond time scales, equivalent to around 1E9 Gy/s, spatially homogenized and tailored to the sample. The platform provides a unique infrastructure for translational research with protons at ultra-high dose rate.

We present novel experimental results of ultra fast heating of Warm Dense Cu diagnosed by means of x-ray absorption and emission spectroscopy carried out at the Draco laser facility at HZDR in 2021. A thin Cu foil was directly heated to few eV temperature by an ultra short laser pulse (40 fs, 2e15 W/cm2) and probed with variable delay in the range 0.2-20 ps by a laser-driven betatron radiation. This betatron radiation, created by a laser wakefield accelerator, is an unique x-ray source with its ultra short duration and broadband spectrum, therefore ideally suited for studies of non-equilibrium dense plasmas while its high brightness allows for single-shot measurement. The sample is studied via the X-ray absorption spectroscopy in the region above the Cu K-edge. This method provides temporally-resolved information about both the ionic structure of the matter and its temperature during the process of ultrafast heating and melting of the material. The measured spectra are understood and analyzed by using Ab initio simulations and the temporal evoution of heatig and melting is compared to PIC simulations to infer the electron to ion energy transer.

Laser plasma based particle accelerators have attracted great interest in fields where conventional accelerators reach limits based on size, cost or beam parameters. Designing future laser ion accelerators requires a high degree of control of the advanced acceleration schemes involved and predictive modelling capabilities. Here, we investigate the interaction of petawatt class laser pulses with a micrometer sized cryogenic hydrogen jet target. Controlled pre-expansion of the target by low intensity pre-pulses allowed for tailored density scans over more than two orders of magnitude. On-shot target characterization using two-color optical probing provided precise starting conditions for numerical simulations. For the optimal target density profile in the near critical regime proton energies of up to 80 MeV were observed which represents a two-fold increase with respect to the initial solid target case. Three-dimensional particle in cell simulations confirmed the transition between different acceleration mechanisms involved and suggested the magnetic-vortex regime to be responsible for the highest proton energies achieved.

Few-cycle shadowgraphy is a valuable diagnostic for laser-plasma accelerators to obtain insight into the µm- and fs-scale relativistic plasma dynamics. To enhance the understanding of experimental shadowgrams we developed a synthetic shadowgram diagnostic within the fully relativistic particle-in-cell code PIConGPU. In an initial version of the synthetic shadowgraphy diagnostic, the probe laser is propagated through the plasma using PIConGPU, and then extracted and propagated onto a virtual CCD using a post-processing code based on Fourier optics. However, the latter step requires 3D-FFTs, which results in performance and scaling limitations in large-scale simulations. To circumvent this, we develop an in-situ plugin for PIConGPU, in which we extract the probe laser slice-wise to obtain the synthetic shadowgrams during the simulation without post-processing. In this talk, we present the development of the PIConGPU plugin and show preliminary results of synthetic shadowgrams for laser and plasma wakefield accelerators.

Data for the publication: Calorimeter with Bayesian unfolding of spectra of high-flux broadband X-rays Containing: - Raw datasets - Source code for extracting calibrated energy information from datasets - Source code for simulations - Source code for unfolding of spectra

Laser-plasma based proton accelerators as a novel accelerator technology have matured to a level at which laboratory-scale setups for the emerging topic of image-guided precision small animal irradiation studies come into reach [Bra2019]. Providing a high proton energy bandwidth [Sch2016] which is filtered in a tunable pulsed magnet beam transport, these accelerators enable flexibility in terms of scattering-free irradiation field formation [Mas2014, Mas2015]. Regarding temporal dose delivery, with single pulse doses reaching the Gy level at unprecedented peak dose rates of up to 1012 Gy/s [Sch2016], laser-plasma based proton accelerator setups can give access to the dose rate regime of FLASH [Fav2014, Voz2019]. The realization of a full-scale setup for image-guided precision radiobiological studies for small animals focusing on dose rate dependent effects is currently prepared at the PENELOPE laser-plasma based proton accelerator at HZDR and will be presented with a focus on the technological requirements and solutions for dose delivery at laser-plasma based sources. This development relies on our experience in performing dose-controlled radiobiological in vitro studies [Kra2010, Zei2013] and first in vivo irradiation experiments at the DRACO laser-plasma based proton accelerator at HZDR, where we have established a pulsed solenoid beamline for 3D irradiation field formation, yielding a (5 mm)³ homogeneous volumetric dose distribution at a Gy single pulse dose level [8]. [Bra2019] F.-E. Brack, F. Kroll, L. Gaus, C. Bernert, E. Beyreuther, T. E. Cowan, L. Karsch, S. D. Kraft, L. A. Kunz-Schughart, E. Lessmann, J. Metzkes-Ng, L. Obst-Hübl, J. Pawelke, M. Rehwald, H.-P. Schlenvoigt, U. Schramm, M. Sobiella, E. R. Szabó, T. Ziegler, K. Zeil, Spectral and spatial shaping of laser-driven proton beams using a pulsed high-field magnet beamline. arXiv:1910.08430 (2019) [Sch2016] J. Schreiber, P. Bolton, K. Parodi, “Hands-on” laser-driven ion acceleration: A primer for laser-driven source development and potential applications, Rev. Sci. Instr. 87, 071101 (2016)

Source data for all figures of publication: "Tumor irradiation in mice with a laser-accelerated proton beam". The folder structure is adapted to match thefigures in the publication.

In the effort of achieving high-energetic ion beams from the interaction of ultrashort laser pulses with a plasma, volumetric acceleration mechanisms beyond Target Normal Sheath Acceleration have gained attention. A relativisticly intense laser can turn a near critical density plasma slowly transparent, facilitating a synchronized acceleration of ions at the moving relativistic critical density front. While simulations promise extremely high ion energies in in this regime, the challenge resides in the realization of a synchronized movement of the ultra-relativistic laser pulse ($a_0\gtrsim 30$) driven reflective relativistic electron front and the fastest ions, which imposes a narrow parameter range on the laser and plasma parameters. We present an analytic model for the relevant processes, confirmed by a broad parameter simulation study in 1D- and 3D-geometry. By tayloring the pulse length and plasma density profile at the front side, we can optimize the proton acceleration performance and extend the regions in parameter space of efficient ion acceleration at the relativistic relativistic density surface.

Due to the non-linear nature of relativistic laser induced plasma processes, the development of laser-plasma accelerators requires precise numerical modeling. Especially high intensity laser-solid interactions are sensitive to the temporal laser rising edge and the predictive capability of simulations suffers from incomplete information on the plasma state at the onset of the relativistic interaction. Experimental diagnostics utilizing ultra-fast optical backlighters can help to ease this challenge by providing temporally resolved inside into the plasma density evolution. We present the successful implementation of an off-harmonic optical probe laser setup to investigate the interaction of a high-intensity laser at 5.4E21 W / cm^2 peak intensity with a solid-density cylindrical cryogenic hydrogen jet target of 5 um diameter as a target test bed. The temporal synchronization of pump and probe laser, spectral filtering and spectrally resolved data of the parasitic plasma self-emission are discussed. The probing technique mitigates detector saturation by self-emission and allowed to record a temporal scan of shadowgraphy data revealing details of the target ionization and expansion dynamics that were so far not accessible for the given laser intensity. Plasma expansion speeds of up to (2.3+-0.4)E7 m / s followed by full target transparency at 1.4 ps after the high intensity laser peak are observed. A three dimensional particle-in-cell simulation initiated with the diagnosed target pre-expansion at -0.2 ps and post processed by ray tracing simulations supports the experimental observations and demonstrates the capability of time resolved optical diagnostics to provide quantitative input and feedback to the numerical treatment within the time frame of the relativistic laser-plasma interaction.

Exploiting the strong electromagnetic fields that can be supported by a plasma, high-power laser driven compact plasma accelerators can generate short, high-intensity pulses of high energy ions with special beam properties interesting for many application areas. The transition of laser driven ion accelerators from physics experiments to turn-key sources for these applications relies on improvement of generated beam parameters (kinetic energy, flux), as well as increased reproducibility, robustness and scalability to high repetition rate. Recent developments at the high-power laser facility DRACO-PW enabled the production of polychromatic proton beams with unprecedented stability [1] which enabled the first in vivo radiobiological study to be conducted using a laser-driven proton source [2]. Yet, the ability to achieve highest energies around or even beyond the 100 MeV frontier is matter of ongoing research, mainly addressed by exploring advanced acceleration schemes. In parallel to the testing of these schemes an important challenge is to provide convincing evidence that these very high energies could be reached at all for a significant number of particles. Occurring complications are due to the nature of the multi-species beams with typically exponentially decaying spectra and low shot statistics of laser-plasma experiments at the necessary laser pulse energy levels. The latter is in particular complicated for highly non-linear acceleration regimes with intrinsically low reproducibility. In this talk we summarize our approaches for the spatial and spectral characterization of our proton beam parameters with cut-off energies larger than 80 MeV. Key is the combination of a multitude of different methods based on different detection principles established for single shot measurements. Time-of-flight methods are discussed for energy cross-calibration of our Thomson parabola spectrometers and the use of different screen types for on-shot particle number calibration is presented.

This work presents first insights into the dynamics of free-surface release clouds from dynamically compressed polystyrene and pyrolytic graphite at pressures up to 200 GPa, where they transform into diamond or lonsdaleite, respectively. These ejecta clouds are released into either vacuum or various types of catcher systems, and are monitored with high-speed recordings (frame rates up to 10 MHz). Molecular dynamics simulations are used to give insights to the rate of diamond preservation throughout the free expansion and the catcher impact process, highlighting the challenges of diamond retrieval. Raman spectroscopy data show graphitic signatures on a catcher plate confirming that the shock-compressed PS is transformed. First electron microscopy analyses of solid catcher plates yield an outstanding number of different spherical-like objects in the size range between ten(s) up to hundreds of nanometres, which are one type of two potential diamond candidates identified. The origin of some objects can unambiguously be assigned, while the history of others remains speculative.

In this presentation we provide an overview of the commissioning and first user experiment of ReLaX in combination with the XFEL beam. We will introduce the setup and laser parameters. We will show the established standard setup combining small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS), phase-contrast imaging (PCI) and spectroscopy techniques. Finally we will show examples of the data obtained in the interaction of the ReLaX laser with targets of interested for the short-pulse laser community.

Population Kinetics for PIC Standard atomic physics models in PIC simulation either neglect excited states, predict atomic state population in post processing only, or assume quasi-thermal plasma conditions. This is no longer sufficient for high-intensity short-pulse laser generated plasmas, due to their non-equilibrium, transient and non-thermal plasma conditions, which are now becoming accessible in XFEL experiments at HIBEF (EuropeanXFEL), SACLA (Japan) or at MEC (LCLS/SLAC). To remedy this, we have developed a new extension for our ParticleInCell simulation framework PIConGPU to allow us to model atomic population kinetics in situ in PIC-Simulations, in transient plasmas and without assuming temperatures. This extension is based on a reduced atomic state model, which is directly coupled to the existing PIC-simulation and for which the atomic rate equation is solved explicitly in time, depending on local interaction spectra and with feedback to the host simulation. This allows us to model de-/excitation and ionization and of ions in transient plasma conditions, as typically encountered in laser generated plasmas. This new approach to atomic physics modeling will be very useful in plasma emission prediction, plasma condition probing with XFELs and better understanding of isochoric heating processes, since all of these rely on an accurate prediction of atomic state populations inside transient plasmas.

We generate inverse Compton scattered X-rays in both linear and nonlinear regimes with a 250 MeV laser wakefield electron accelerator and plasma mirror by retro-reflecting the unused drive laser light to scatter from the accelerated electrons. We characterize the X-rays using a CsI(Tl) voxelated scintillator that measures their total energy and divergence as a function of plasma mirror distance from the accelerator exit. At each plasma mirror position, these X-ray properties are correlated with the measured fluence and inferred intensity of the laser pulse after driving the accelerator to determine the laser strength parameter $a_0$. The results show that ICS X-rays are generated at $a_0$ ranging from $0.3\pm0.1$ to $1.65\pm0.25$, and exceed the strength of co-propagating bremsstrahlung and betatron X-rays at least ten-fold throughout this range of $a_0$., Proceedings of the Advanced Accelerator Concepts Seminar Series 2020

All source data and scripts for publication: "Tumor irradiation in mice with a laser-accelerated proton beam"

Vacuum birefringence as a clear variant of light-by-light scattering is a feasible experiment at an XFEL combined with a PW-class laser. Such experiment would measure the birefringence of vacuum – induced by the giant electromagnetic field in the focus of the PW laser – directly by ultra-sensitive X-ray polarimetry. In this way, the effect depends on real photons of externally controllable beams, complementary to other effects where photon-photon couplings are in play. The HIBEF user consortium at the European XFEL is aiming for such experiment. We will give a status update on the progress made in recent beamtimes, concerning a) the polarimeter extinction for a well-collimated (laser-like) X-ray beam, b) the X-ray optics to be used inside the polarimeter, c) self-seeded operation of the XFEL and d) assuring best focusing/intensity verification.

Targets for pump probe experiments at upcoming XFEL facilities

Extreme states of matter exist throughout the universe e.g. inside planetary cores, stars or astrophysical jets. Such conditions can be generated in the laboratory in the interaction of powerful lasers with solids. Yet, the measurement of the subsequent plasma dynamics with regard to density, temperature and ionization is a major experimental challenge. However, ultra-short X-ray pulses provided by X-ray free electron lasers (XFELs) allow for dedicated studies, which are highly relevant to study laboratory astrophysics, laser-fusion research or laser-plasma-based particle acceleration. Here, we report on experiments that employ a novel ultrafast method, which allows to simultaneously access temperature, ionization state and nanometer scale expansion dynamics in high-intensity laser-driven solid-density plasmas with a single X-ray detector. Using this method, we gain access to the expansion dynamics of a buried layer in compound samples, and we measure opacity changes arising from bound-bound resonance transitions in highly ionized copper. The presence of highly ionized copper leads to a temperature estimate of at least 2 million Kelvin already after the first 100 femtoseconds following the high-intensity laser irradiation. More specifically, we make use of asymmetries in small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) patterns, which arise from different spatial distributions of absorption and scattering cross sections in nanostructured grating samples when we tune an XFEL to atomic resonant energies of copper. Thereby, changes in asymmetry can be connected with the evolution of the plasma expansion and ionization dynamics. The potential of XFEL-based resonant SAXS to obtain three-dimensional ultrafast, nanoscopic information on density and opacity may offer a unique path for the characterization of dynamic processes in High Energy Density plasmas.

The relativistic laser matter interaction is a complex interplay of ionization, extreme current densities, rapidly evolving strong fields and acceleration processes. Understanding the interaction physics is a challenging but highly rewarding endeavor. The recently commissioned X-Ray free electron lasers (XFELs) with unprecedented brightness and polarization purity open a new window for discovering the interior of solid-density plasmas created by relativistic laser interactions with matter, resolving the relevant femtosecond and nanometer scales experimentally. Here, we focus on discussing the feasibility of probing the Kilotesla to Megatesla-level magnetic fields by X-Ray polarimetry via Faraday rotation using XFELs. The synthetic simulations show that XFELs are capable to detect the extreme magnetic fields from relativistic laser interactions with solid and near-critical density targets[1, 2]. [1] L. G. Huang, H. P. Schlenvoigt, H. Takabe, and T. E. Cowan, Physics of Plasmas 24, 103115 (2017). [2] T. Wang, T. Toncian, M. S. Wei, and A. V. Arefiev, Physics of Plasmas 26, 013105 (2019).

Establishing precise control over the beam parameters of laser-accelerated ions from the interaction of ultrashort ultra-high intensity (UHI) laser pulses with ultrathin foils has been the major goal of the last 20 years since the first description of the TNSA process. Especially the quest for repeatable, highest maximum energies continues to be challenging as the spatiotemporal coupling of laser-pulse- and target parameters down to the femtosecond-nanometer level was found to be decisive for the overall acceleration performance. In particular, precise control and metrology of the driving UHI laser pulses are paramount to achieving this goal. We present a multi-parameter-space study, bridging the scales from picosecond preplasma formation over transient, non-equilibrium dynamics of the tens of femtosecond laser duration down to attosecond plasma oscillations performed through 1D– up to 3D particle-in-cell simulations. By taking into account realistic temporal intensity contrast features of the last picosecond prior and up to the first picosecond after the main pulse peak, we show how temporal pulse shaping optimizes the TNSA process.

We present structure measurements of biaxially orientated polyethylene terephthalate (PET, (C10H8O4)n , also called mylar) shock-compressed to (155+/-20) GPa and (6000+/-1000) K using in situ X-ray diffraction. Comparing to density functional theory molecular dynamics simulations, we find a highly correlated liquid that exhibits a temperature signficantly lower than predicted by some equation-of-state tables, which underlines the influence of complex chemical interactions in this regime. Indeed, at the inferred temperature and pressure, formation of nanodiamonds may be expected as recently observed in polystyrene at similar conditions. While some hints of diamond formation from PET are visible in the diffraction data, the strong liquid correlations prevent a conclusive statement as to whether diamonds are formed inside the sample volume.

This repository contains raw-data related to our publication "Measuring the structure and equation of state of polyethylene terephthalate at megabar pressures". The XRD data in the "LCLS" folder is accompanied with a "calibration.poni" file that provides information about the experiment's geometry and can be used in pyFAI (GitHub page) or Dioptas (GitHub page) to integrate the two-dimensional data azimuthally. Integrated XRD data after background-subtraction and filter-corrections is presented in Fig. 2 and 3 of the manuscript while 2D data of run 215 is used in Fig. 1. The "shotlist.csv" file contains information about the relative X-ray to drive-laser timing, shot-type and X-ray energy for the individual events. VISAR, SOP and reflectivity measurements can be found in the "LULI" directory. 2ω-VISAR and SOP datasets of shot 08 are displayed as inserts in Fig. 5 (the first after performing a ghost-fringe subtraction). "shotlist.csv" provides additional parameters. The DFTMD folder contains the results of our density functional theory molecular dynamics simulation. In the "XRD" subdirectory, "wrofk_mylar_chomd*.dat" files can be found in which the quantities to calculate the lineouts in Fig. 3 and 4 are saved for given temperatures, pressures and densities. The header of those files is given in "header.txt" and additional information about the conditions and settings for individual calculations can be obtained from "param_mylar_md.txt". The dataset for the Hugoniot curve from our DFT-MD equation-of-state (which is plotted in Fig. 5) is provided in the "Hugoniot" sub-folder.

Understanding the ionization dynamics is fundamentally important in the interaction of a relativistic laser pulse with a solid density target. In this talk, firstly we present the particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations with various collisional ionization and potential models, showing the target heating, magnetic instabiltiy and plasma resistivity are highly model-dependent \cite{Huang2016,Huang2017}. Secondly, we propose to probe the evolution of ionic density at specific bound-bound resonances by scanning the XFEL photon energy via established SAXS method, which is cable to access the spatial–temporal resolution down to few nanometers and femtoseconds simultaneously. The plasma opacity plays a key role of the XFEL absorption, which in turn affects the resonant SAXS pattern contributed by the imaginary part of ionic scattering form factor\cite{Kluge2016}. We present the calculation of plasma opacity using the atomic collisional-radiative code SCFLY and further simulate the synthetic resonant SAXS imaging pattern which shows strong asymmetric feature. Our recently performed experiment reveals the connection of the temporal evolution of the asymmetry signal and ionization dynamics \cite{Gaus2020}. [1] L. G. Huang, T. Kluge, and T. E. Cowan, Physics of Plasmas23, 063112 (2016).[2] L. G. Huang, H. P. Schlenvoigt, H. Takabe, and T. E. Cowan, Physics of Plasmas24, 103115 (2017). [3] T. Kluge, M. Bussmann, H.-K. Chung, C. Gutt, L. G. Huang, M. Zacharias, U. Schramm, and T. E.Cowan, Physics of Plasmas23, 033103 (2016). [4] L. Gaus, L. Bischoff, M. Bussmann, E. Cunningham, C. B. Curry, E. Galtier, M. Gauthier, A. L.Garc ́ıa, M. Garten, S. Glenzer, J. Grenzer, C. Gutt, N. J. Hartley, L. Huang, U. H ̈ubner, D. Kraus,H. J. Lee, E. E. McBride, J. Metzkes-Ng, B. Nagler, M. Nakatsutsumi, J. Nikl, M. Ota, A. Pelka,I. Prencipe, L. Randolph, M. R ̈odel, Y. Sakawa, H.-P. Schlenvoigt, M.ˇSm ́ıd, F. Treffert, K. Voigt,K. Zeil, T. E. Cowan, U. Schramm, and T. Kluge, “Probing ultrafast laser plasma processes insidesolids with resonant small-angle x-ray scattering,” (2020), arXiv:2012.07922 [physics.plasm-ph].

Ultra-high-intensity laser pulse interactions with solid density targets are of central importance for modern accelerator physics, Inertial Confinement Fusion(ICF) and astrophysics. In order to meet the requirements of real-world applications, a deeper understanding of the underlying plasma dynamics, including plasma instabilities and acceleration mechanisms, is needed. Due to high electron density, the over-dense target bulk is impenetrable to probes in the optical range. Hence, several X-ray diagnostics, such as small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and X-ray polarimetry, were proposed by the community. Therefore, we bring a Monte Carlo based X-ray radiation transport module into our Particle In Cell simulation framework PIConGPU. Among others, this allows for Thompson scattering, e.g. for SAXS, and Faraday effect calculation for polarimetry - as online, in-situ diagnostics.

Relativistic electrons generated by the interaction of petawatt-class short laser pulses with solid targets can be used to generate bright x-rays via bremsstrahlung. The efficiency of laser energy transfer into these electrons depends on multiple parameters including the focused intensity and pre-plasma level. This paper reports experimental results from the interaction of a high intensity petawatt-class glass laser pulses with solid targets at a maximum intensity of 1019 W cm−2. In-situ measurements of specularly reflected light are used to provide an upper bound of laser absorption and to characterize focused laser intensity, the pre-plasma level and the generation mechanism of second harmonic light. The measured spectrum of electrons and bremsstrahlung radiation provide information about the efficiency of laser energy transfer.

Asymmetries in resonant SAXS

Archiving of raw and results data and scripts as describef in the associated paper