Peer-Review Publications

The efficient coherent combination of two ultrafast Tm-doped fiber amplifiers in the 2-µm wavelength region is demonstrated. The performance of the combined amplifiers is compared to the output characteristics of a single amplifier being limited by the onset of detrimental nonlinear effects. Nearly transform-limited pulses with 830- fs duration, 22-µJ pulse energy, and 25-MW peak power have been achieved with a combining efficiency greater than 90%. Based on this result, it can be expected that 2-µm-ultrafast-fiber-laser systems will enter new performance realms in the near future.

The long-term goal to integrate laser-based particle accelerators into radiotherapy clinics not only requires technological development of high-intensity lasers and new techniques for beam detection and dose delivery, but also characterization of the biological consequences of this new particle beam quality, i.e. ultra-short, ultra-intense pulses. In the present work, we describe successful in vivo experiments with laser-driven electron pulses by utilization of a small tumour model on the mouse ear for the human squamous cell carcinoma model FaDu. The already established in vitro irradiation technology at the laser system JETI was further enhanced for 3D tumour irradiation in vivo in terms of beam transport, beam monitoring, dose delivery and dosimetry in order to precisely apply a prescribed dose to each tumour in full-scale radiobiological experiments. Tumour growth delay was determined after irradiation with doses of 3 and 6 Gy by laser-accelerated electrons. Reference irradiation was performed with continuous electron beams at a clinical linear accelerator in order to both validate the dedicated dosimetry employed for laser-accelerated JETI electrons and above all review the biological results. No significant difference in radiation-induced tumour growth delay was revealed for the two investigated electron beams. These data provide evidence that the ultra-high dose rate generated by laser acceleration does not impact the biological effectiveness of the particles.

Ab initio calculations of dielectronic recombination (DR) rate coefficients of initially rubidium-like W³⁷⁺ ions have been performed for the electron temperatures from 1 eV to 5×10⁴ eV, by using the Flexible Atomic Code based on the relativistic configuration-interaction method. Special attention has been paid to the partial contributions to total DR rate coefficients as associated with the excitation of individual subshells. A detailed comparison of the calculations shows that the excitation from 4p subshell dominates total DR rate coefficients followed by the excitations from 4s and 4d subshells, while the contribution of excitations from 3l(l=s, p, d) subshells becomes important only at high temperatures. Besides, it is found that the electron excitations associated with Δ n=0,1 dominate at low-temperature plasmas, however, the excitations associated with Δ n≥2 become non-negligible at high-temperature ones.

The electron-positron pair production due to the dynamical Schwinger process in a slowly oscillating strong electric field is enhanced by the superposition of a rapidly oscillating weaker electric field. A systematic account of the enhancement by the resulting bifrequent field is provided for the residual phase space distribution. The enhancement is explained by a severe reduction of the suppression in both the tunneling and multiphoton regimes.

Surface high-harmonic generation in the relativistic regime is demonstrated as a source of extreme ultra-violet (XUV) pulses with extended operation time. Relativistic high-harmonic generation is driven by a frequency-doubled high-power Ti:Sapphire laser focused to a peak intensity of 3·10^19 W/cm2 onto spooling tapes. We demonstrate continuous operation over up to one hour runtime at a repetition rate of 1 Hz. Harmonic spectra ranging from 20 eV to 70 eV (62 nm to 18 nm) were consecutively recorded by an XUV spectrometer. An average XUV pulse energy in the µJ range is measured. With the presented setup, relativistic surface high-harmonic generation becomes a powerful source of coherent XUV pulses that might enable applications in, e.g. attosecond laser physics and the seeding of free-electron lasers, when the laser issues causing 80-% pulse energy fluctuations are overcome.

Access to stored and cooled highly-charged radionuclides offers unprecedented opportunities to perform high-precision investigations of their decays. Since the few-electron ions, e.g. hydrogen- or helium-like ions, are quantum mechanical systems with clear electronic ground state configurations, the decay studies of such ions are performed under well-defined conditions and allow for addressing fundamental aspects of the decay process. Presented here is a compact review of the relevant experiments conducted at the Experimental Storage Ring ESR of GSI. A particular emphasis is given to the investigations of the two-body beta decay, namely the bound-state β-decay and its time-mirrored counterpart, orbital electron-capture.

A theoretical analysis is presented for the elastic Rayleigh scattering of x-rays by many-electron atoms and ions. Special emphasis is placed on the angular distribution and linear polarization of the scattered photons for the case when the incident light is completely (linearly) polarized. Based on second-order perturbation theory and the independent particle approximation, we found that the Rayleigh angular distribution is strongly affected by the charge state and shell structure of the target ions or atoms. This effect can be observed experimentally at modern synchrotron facilities and might provide further insight into the structure of heavy atomic systems.

In a recent work, the Kα₁ (1s 2p₃/₂ ¹,³P₁,₂ → 1s² ¹S₀) x-ray emission following the radiative electron capture into initially hydrogen-like ions has been explored for ions with nonzero nuclear spin (I ≠ 0). A rather strong influence upon the angular distribution of the (hyperfine- and fine-structure averaged) Kα₁ radiation was found, especially for isotopes with nuclear spin I=1/2, while this effect are less important for isotopes with nuclear spin I>1/2. Two comments were made by Inal and Benmouna about this work with regard to (i) the incoherent summation of the individual hyperfine components of the 1s2p3/2 1P1→1s21S0 transition and (ii) the treatment of the hyperfine-induced E1-M2 multipole mixing in the 1s 2p3/2 ³P₂ → 1s², ¹S₀ fine-structure component. While we agree with the first comment and here provide updated anisotropy parameters, the hyperfine-induced modification of the Kα₁ emission remains valid and may help in the future to determine the nuclear parameters of radioactive isotopes. We also explain that the hyperfine-induced E1-M2 mixing has already been fully taken into account in our previous work.

We report on the successful demonstration of selective acceleration of deuterium ions by target-normal sheath acceleration (TNSA) with a high-energy petawatt laser. TNSA typically produces a multi-species ion beam that originates from the intrinsic hydrocarbon and water vaporcontaminants on the target surface. Using the method first developed by Morrison et al., an ion beam with >99% deuterium ions and peak energy 14 MeV/nucleon is produced with a 200 J, 700 fs, >10²⁰ W/cm² laser pulse by cryogenically freezing heavy water (D₂O) vapor onto the rear surface of the target prior to the shot. Within the range of our detectors (0°-8.5°), we find laser-to-deuterium-ion energy conversion efficiency of 4.3% above 0.7 MeV/nucleon while a conservative estimate of the total beam gives a conversion efficiency of 9.4%.

Be-like ¹³⁶Xe⁵⁰⁺ ions have been investigated employing the resonant electron-ion collision process of dielectronic recombination (DR) as a spectroscopic tool. The experiments were performed at the experimental storage ring in Darmstadt, Germany, using its electron cooler as a target for free electrons. DR Rydberg resonance series 2s²+e⁻ \to 2s 2pj n lj for the associated intra-L-shell transitions 2s² ¹S₀ - 2s 2p₁/₂ ³P₁, 2s² ¹S₀ - 2s 2p₃/₂ ³P₂ and 2s² ¹S₀ - 2s 2p₃/₂ ¹P₁ were observed with high resolution. In addition to these excitations from the ground state we determined resonances associated with excitations 2s 2p₁/₂ ³P₀ to 2p₁/₂ 2p₃/₂ ³P₁ of ions initially in the metastable 2s 2p₁/₂ ³P₀ state. The corresponding excitation energies were determined to be E(¹S₀ \to ³P₁)=127.269(46) eV, E(¹S₀ \to ³P₂)=469.474(81) eV and E(¹S₀ to ¹P₁)=532.801(16) eV and E(³P₀ to 2p₁/₂ 2p₃/₂ ³P₁)=533.733(22) eV. These excitation energies are compared with previous measurements and with recent state-of-the-art atomic structure calculations.

Triple photoionization of Xe³⁺, Xe⁴⁺ and Xe⁵⁺ ions has been studied in the energy range 670-750 eV, including the 3d ionization threshold. The photon-ion merged-beam technique was used at a synchrotron light source to measure the absolute photoionization cross sections. These cross sections exhibit a progressively larger number of sharp resonances as the ion charge state is increased. This clearly visualizes the re-ordering of the ε f continuum into a regular series of (bound) Rydberg orbitals as the ionic core becomes more attractive. The energies and strengths of the resonances are extracted from the experimental data and are further analysed by relativistic atomic-structure calculations.

We present measurements of the complex ion structure of warm dense carbon close to the melting line at pressures around 100 GPa. High-pressure samples were created by laser-driven shock compression of graphite and probed by intense laser-generated x-ray sources with photon energies of 4.75 keV and 4.95 keV. High-efficiency crystal spectrometers allow for spectrally resolving the scattered radiation. Comparing the ratio of elastically and inelastically scattered radiation, we find evidence for a complex bonded liquid that is predicted by ab-initio quantum simulations showing the influence of chemical bonds under these conditions. Using graphite samples of different initial densities we demonstrate the capability of spectrally resolved x-ray scattering to monitor the carbon solid-liquid transition at relatively constant pressure of 150 GPa. Showing first single-pulse scattering spectra from cold graphite of unprecedented quality recorded at the Linac Coherent Light Source, we demonstrate the outstanding possibilities for future high-precision measurements at 4th Generation Light Sources.

Group velocity control is demonstrated for x-ray photons of 14.4 keV energy via a direct measurement of the temporal delay imposed on spectrally narrow x-ray pulses. Subluminal light propagation is achieved by inducing a steep positive linear dispersion in the optical response of Fe57 Mössbauer nuclei embedded in a thin film planar x-ray cavity. The direct detection of the temporal pulse delay is enabled by generating frequency-tunable spectrally narrow x-ray pulses from broadband pulsed synchrotron radiation. Our theoretical model is in good agreement with the experimental data.

We present recent advances in the development of atomic ab initio multiconfiguration Dirac-Hartree-Fock theory, implemented in the GRASP relativistic atomic structure code. For neutral atoms, the deviations of properties calculated within the Dirac-Hartree-Fock (DHF) method (based on independent particle model of an atomic cloud) are usually dominated by electron correlation effects, i.e. the non-central interactions of individual electrons. We present the recent advances in accurate calculations of electron correlation effects in small, medium, and heavy neutral atoms. We describe methods of systematic development of multiconfiguration expansions leading to systematic, controlled improvement of the accuracy of the ab initio calculations. These methods originate from the concept of the complete active space (CAS) model within the DHF theory, which, at least in principle, permits fully relativistic calculations with full account of electron correlation effects. The calculations within the CAS model on currently available computer systems are feasible only for very light systems. For heavier atoms or ions with more than a few electrons, restrictions have to be imposed on the multiconfiguration expansions. We present methods and tools, which are designed to extend the numerical calculations in a controlled manner, where multiconfiguration expansions account for all leading electron correlation effects. We show examples of applications of the GRASP code to calculations of hyperfine structure constants, but the code may be used for calculations of arbitrary bound-state atomic properties. In recent years it has been applied to calculations of atomic and ionic spectra (transition energies and rates), to determinations of nuclear electromagnetic moments, as well as to calculations related to interactions of bound electrons with nuclear electromagnetic moments leading to violations of discrete symmetries.

Crystalline Au nanoparticles embedded in epitaxially grown SrTiO₃ layers were prepared by an annealing and coating procedure of Au seed layers on SrTiO₃ (STO) substrates. X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy measurements were performed to investigate the size, shape, and deformation of the particles and their crystal orientation. The shape and size of the crystalline Au nanoparticles can be tuned by controlling the Au seed layer thickness and single crystalline elliptically shaped Au nanoparticles have been generated. Furthermore, the orientation of the surrounding SrTiO₃ matrix changes significantly from homoepitaxially grown (001) to secondary (111) and (011) orientations for Au seed layers that are thicker than 4 nm. This is of great interest for modifying the electrical properties of SrTiO₃ layers, whereas the anisotropically shaped crystalline particles are relevant for optical applications, due to localized surface plasmon resonances.

The process of high harmonic generation (HHG) enables the development of table-top sources of coherent extreme ultraviolet (XUV) light. Although these are now matured sources, they still mostly rely on bulk laser technology that limits the attainable repetition rate to the low kilohertz regime. Moreover, many of the emerging applications of such light sources (e.g., photoelectron spectroscopy and microscopy, coherent diffractive imaging, or frequency metrology in the XUV spectral region) require an increase in the repetition rate. Ideally, these sources are operated with a multi-MHz repetition rate and deliver a high photon flux simultaneously. So far, this regime has been solely addressed using passive enhancement cavities together with low energy and high repetition rate lasers. Here, a novel route with significantly reduced complexity (omitting the requirement of an external actively stabilized resonator) is demonstrated that achieves the previously mentioned demanding parameters. A krypton-filled Kagome photonic crystal fiber is used for efficient nonlinear compression of 9 mJ, 250 fs pulses leading to ,7 mJ, 31 fs pulses at 10.7 MHz repetition rate. The compressed pulses are used for HHG in a gas jet. Particular attention is devoted to achieving phase-matched (transiently) generation yielding .10^13 photons s-1 (.50 mW) at 27.7 eV. This new spatially coherent XUV source improved the photon flux by four orders of magnitude for direct multi-MHZ experiments, thus demonstrating the considerable potential of this source.

We present two Penning trap experiments concerned with different aspects of the physics of extreme electromagnetic fields, the ARTEMIS experiment designed for bound-electron magnetic moment measurements in the presence of the extremely strong fields close to the nucleus of highly charged ions, and the HILITE experiment, in which well-defined ion targets are to be subjected to high-intensity laser fields.

The linear polarization of x rays produced by dielectronic recombination into highly charged xenon ions was measured at an electron beam ion trap using the Compton polarimetry technique. This opens numerous possibilities for diagnostics of anisotropies of hot plasmas. Moreover, it was observed that the polarization of x rays, following the dielectronic capture populating the [1s 2s2 2p1/2]_1 state, is highly sensitive to the Breit interaction. The experimental results for this transition rule out by 5σ calculations not taking the Breit interaction into account.

Starting from the Heisenberg-Euler effective Lagrangian, we determine the photon current and photon polarization tensor in inhomogeneous, slowly varying electromagnetic fields. To this end, we consider background field configurations varying in both space and time, paying special attention to the tensor structure. As a main result, we obtain compact analytical expressions for the photon polarization tensor in realistic Gaussian laser pulses, as generated in the focal spots of high-intensity lasers. These expressions are of utmost importance for the investigation of quantum vacuum nonlinearities in realistic high-intensity laser experiments.

An undulator is proposed based on the plasma wakefields excited by a laser pulse in a plasma channel. Generation of the undulator fields is achieved by inducing centroid oscillations of the laser pulse in the channel. The period of such an undulator is proportional to the Rayleigh length of the laser pulse and can be submillimeter, while preserving high undulator strength. The electron trajectories in the undulator are examined, expressions for the undulator strength are presented, and the spontaneous radiation is calculated. Multimode and multicolor laser pulses are considered for greater tunability of the undulator period and strength.

We reconsider the recently proposed nonlinear quantum electrodynamics effect of quantum reflection of photons off an inhomogeneous strong-field region. We present new results for strong fields varying both in space and time. While such configurations can give rise to new effects such as frequency mixing, estimated reflection rates based on previous one-dimensional studies are corroborated. On a conceptual level, we critically re-examine the validity regime of the conventional locally-constant-field approximation and identify kinematic configurations which can be treated reliably. Our results further underline the discovery potential of quantum reflection as a new signature of the nonlinearity of the quantum vacuum.

Relativistic configuration-interaction calculations have been performed for energy levels of the low-lying and core-excited states of beryllium-like argon, Ar14+. These calculations include the one-loop quantum electrodynamics (QED) effects as obtained by two different methods: the screening-potential approach and the model QED operator approach. The calculations are supplemented by a systematic estimation of the uncertainties of the theoretical predictions.

The radiative capture of free electrons (radiative recombination) and bound electrons (radiative electron capture) are among the most important charge changing processes for fast, highly-charged ions. While total cross sections can be obtained by an approximate formula with reasonable accuracy, the estimation of angular distributions and polarization properties of the emitted radiation requires a fully relativistic treatment that is numerical expensive. Therefore we recently started the development of a fast calculator for these radiation characteristics. The program is based on a grid of rigorously calculated data points for free- electron capture into bare ions, between which interpolation is performed to obtain radiation characteristics for specific collision systems. Also capture into few-electron systems is taken into account in an approximate way. We present first results from this development.

Self-organized monocrystalline Au nanoparticles with potential applications in plasmonics are grown in a SrTiO3 matrix by a novel two-step deposition process. The crystalline preferred orientation of these Au nanoparticles is investigated by synchrotron hard x-ray diffraction. Nanoparticles preferentially align with the (111) direction along the substrate normal (001), whereas two in-plane orientations are found with [110]SrTiO3∥[110]Au and [100]SrTiO3∥[110]Au. Additionally, a smaller diffraction signal from nanoparticles with the (001) direction parallel to the substrate normal (001) is observed; once again, two in-plane orientations are found, with [100]SrTiO3∥[100]Au and [100]SrTiO3∥[110]Au. The populations of the two in-plane orientations are found to depend on the thickness of the gold film deposited in the first step of the growth.

A method for calculations of electron-positron pair-creation probabilities in low-energy heavy-ion collisions is developed. The approach is based on the propagation of all one-electron states via the numerical solving of the time-dependent Dirac equation in the monopole approximation. The electron wave functions are represented as finite sums of basis functions constructed from B-splines using the dual-kinetic-balance technique. The calculations of the created particle numbers and the positron energy spectra are performed for the collisions of bare nuclei at the energies near the Coulomb barrier with the Rutherford trajectory and for different values of the nuclear charge and the impact parameter. To examine the role of the spontaneous pair creation, the collisions with a modified velocity and with a time delay are also considered. The obtained results are compared with the previous calculations and the possibility of observation of the spontaneous pair creation is discussed.