Peer-Review Publications

Electronic structure computations of atoms and ions have a long tradition in physics with applications in basic research, spectroscopy, life sciences and technology. Various theoretical methods (and codes) have therefore been developed to account for the many-particle structure of atoms, from simple semi-empirical estimates to accurate predictions of selected data, and up to highly advanced time-independent and time-dependent numerical techniques. — Here, I present a fresh concept and implementation of (relativistic) atomic structure theory that supports the computation of interaction amplitudes, properties as well as a large number of excitation and decay processes for open-shell atoms and ions across the whole periodic table. This implementation will facilitate also studies on atomic cascades, responses as well as the time-evolution of atoms and ions. It is based on Julia, a new programming language for scientific computing, and provides an easy-to-use but powerful platform to extent atomic theory towards new applications.

We investigate phase matching for high-order harmonic generation with linearly polarized Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) beams with nonzero orbital angular momentum (OAM). We compare the conditions for efficient phase matching for LG beams with those of Gaussian beams. In particular, we show how the OAM of the incident beams affects the phase-matching conditions for the short and long trajectories that arise from the saddle-point approximation of the dipole moment. Thereby we illustrate that the coherence length for the short trajectories decreases for LG beams near the focus compared to Gaussian beams, whereas efficient phase matching can be achieved before and behind the focus. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the coherence length for the long trajectory behind the focus plane can be controlled by the OAM. This paper provides a route for the experiment in order to have good coherence control to enhance the conversion efficiency for high-order harmonic generation with beams carrying OAM.

We present a comprehensive experimental and theoretical study on superfluorescence in the extreme ultraviolet wavelength regime. Focusing a free-electron laser pulse in a cell filled with Xe gas, the medium is quasi-instantaneously population inverted by 4d-shell ionization on the giant resonance followed by Auger decay. On the timescale of ∼10 ps to ∼100 ps (depending on parameters) a macroscopic polarization builds up in the medium, resulting in superfluorescent emission of several Xe lines in the forward direction. As the number of emitters in the system is increased by either raising the pressure or the pump-pulse energy, the emission yield grows exponentially over four orders of magnitude and reaches saturation. With increasing yield, we observe line broadening, a manifestation of superfluorescence in the spectral domain. Our novel theoretical approach, based on a full quantum treatment of the atomic system and the irradiated field, shows quantitative agreement with the experiment and supports our interpretation.

A plasma channel undulator/wiggler may be created through the plasma wakefield excited by the beating of several Hermite-Gaussian laser modes propagating in a parabolic plasma channel. Control over both the betatron and undulator forces is conveniently achieved by tuning the amplitude ratios, colors, and order numbers of the modes. A special structure of the undulator/wiggler field without the focusing force near the propagation axis is generated inside the plasma wakefield by matching the strengths of the fundamental and first-order Hermite-Gaussian modes. The electron beam only experiences forced undulator oscillations in such a field, which significantly improves the quality of the emitted radiation. Since the value of the undulator strength parameter could be in a wide range, less or larger than unity, it is capable of generating narrow bandwidth x-ray, as well as the synchrotronlike high-energy x/γ-ray, radiation by harmonics. Additionally, controlling the relative phases between the laser modes allows for polarization control of the plasma undulator. High-order harmonics produced from a circularly polarized plasma undulator clearly show the vortex nature and carry well-defined orbital angular momentum.

Nonsequential two-photon ionization of inner-shell np subshell of neutral atoms by circularly polarized light is investigated. Detection of subsequent fluorescence as a signature of the process is proposed and the dependence of fluorescence degree of polarization on incident photon beam energy is studied. It is generally expected that the degree of polarization remains approximately constant, except when the beam energy is tuned to an intermediate n′ resonance. However, strong unexpected change in the polarization degree is discovered for nonsequential two-photon ionization at specific incident beam energy due to a zero contribution of the otherwise dominant ionization channel. Polarization degree of the fluorescence depends less on the beam parameters, and its measurements at this specific beam energy, whose position is very sensitive to the details of the employed theory, are highly desirable for evaluation of theoretical calculations of nonlinear ionization at hitherto unreachable accuracy.

We summarize the development of high harmonic generation (HHG) with linearly polarized Laguerre–Gaussian (LG) beams and their superpositions to explain the non-perturbative aspects of HHG. Furthermore, we show that circularly polarized extreme ultraviolet vortices with well-defined orbital angular momentum (OAM) can be generated by HHG with bicircular LG beams. We introduce photon diagrams in order to explain how to calculate the OAM and the polarization of the generated harmonics by means of simultaneous conservation of spin angular momentum and OAM. Moreover, we show how the intensity ratio of the driving fields in HHG with bicircular LG beams further enhances the generation of circularly polarized twisted attosecond pulse trains.

A high-order implicit multidimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) method is developed for simulating plasmas at solid densities. The space-time arrangement is based on Yee and a leapfrog algorithm for electromagnetic fields and particle advancement. The field solver algorithm completely eliminates numerical instabilities found in explicit PIC methods with relaxed time step and grid resolution. Moreover, this algorithm eliminates the numerical cooling found in the standard implicit PIC methods by using a pseudo-electric-field method. The particle pusher algorithm combines the standard Boris particle pusher with the Newton-Krylov iteration method. This algorithm increases the precision accuracy by several orders of magnitude when compared with the standard Boris particle pusher and also significantly decreases the iteration time when compared with the pure Newton-Krylov method. The code is tested with several benchmarks, including Weibel instability, and relativistic laser plasma interactions at both low and solid densities.

We present experiments investigating dense carbon at pressures between 100 GPa and 200 GPa and temperatures between 5,000 K and 15,000 K. High-pressure samples with different temperatures were created by laser-driven shock compression of graphite and varying the initial density from 1.53 g/cm³ to 2.21 g/cm³ and the drive laser intensity from 7.1 TW/cm² to 14.2 TW/cm². In order to deduce temperatures, spectrally resolved X-ray scattering was applied to determine ion-ion structure factors at a scattering vector of k = 4.12x10¹⁰ m⁻¹ which shows high sensitivity to temperature for the investigated sample conditions. After comparison to corresponding DFT-MD simulations, we were able to assign each structure factor a temperature. This information is indicative of the expected temperature range for the melting line of carbon at high pressures and can be compared to theoretical predictions.

Great progress has been made in recent years in realizing compact, laser-based neutron generators. These devices, however, were inapplicable for conducting neutron absorption spectroscopy because of the electromagnetic noise produced by the interaction of a strong laser field with matter. To overcome this limitation, we developed a novel neutron time-of-flight detector, largely immune to electromagnetic noise. The detector is based on a plastic scintillator, only a few-millimeters in size, coupled with a silicon photo-multiplier by a long light-guiding fiber. Using this detector, we demonstrated for the first time laser-based fast neutron spectroscopy. This achievement paves the way to realizing compact neutron radiography systems for research, security, and commercial applications, and introduces new prospects for probing the temperature of matter under extreme conditions and for inertial confinement fusion diagnostics.

Thermal profile modification of an active material in a laser amplifier via optical pumping results in a change in the material’s refractive index, and causes thermal expansion and stress, eventually leading to spatial phase aberrations, or even permanent material damage. For this purpose, knowledge of the 3D spatio-temporal thermal profile, which can currently only be retrieved via numerical simulations, is critical for joule-class laser amplifiers to reveal potentially dangerous thermal features within the pumped active materials. In this investigation, a detailed, spatio-temporal numerical simulation was constructed and tested for accuracy against surface thermal measurements of various end-pumped Yb³⁺-doped laser-active materials. The measurements and simulations show an excellent agreement and the model was successfully applied to a joule-class Yb³⁺-based amplifier currently operating in the POLARIS laser system at the Friedrich-Schiller-University and Helmholtz-Institute Jena in Germany.

A particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation code is used to investigate the transport and energy deposition of an intense proton beam in solid-state material. This code is able to simulate close particle interactions by using a Monte Carlo binary collision model. Such a model takes into account all related interactions between the incident protons and material particles, e.g., proton-nucleus, proton–bound-electron, and proton–free-electron collisions. This code also includes a Monte Carlo model for the collisional ionization and electron-ion recombination as well as the depression of the ionization potential by shielding of surrounding particles. Moreover, for intense proton beams, in order to include collective electromagnetic effects, significantly speed up the simulation, and simultaneously avoid numerical instabilities, an approach that combines the PIC method with a reduced model of high-density plasma based on Ohm's law is used. Simulation results indicate that the collective electromagnetic effects have a significant influence on the transport and energy deposition of proton beams. The Ohmic electric field would increase the stopping power and leads to a shortened range of proton beams in solid. The magnetic field would localize the energy deposition by collimating proton beams, which would otherwise be deflected by the collisions with nuclei.

We describe the results of analytical calculations and numerical simulations of the confinement properties of a mechanically compensated cylindrical Penning trap which has conical endcap openings for large-solid-angle access for example with highly focused laser beams. While the analytical calculations show that under the common geometrical conditions the harmonicity of the confining fields near the centre of the trap does not change when a conical shape of the endcap electrodes is introduced, numerical simulations show significant changes when the opening angle of the cone exceeds a certain critical angle. We also show that these sharp features are due to the fringe-field effects above the critical angle, which are not described by the analytical calculations. These effects are also observed in a cylindrical Penning trap when the length of the endcap electrodes is reduced below a certain critical value.

calculations of QED radiative corrections to the 2P1/2 - 2P3/2 fine-structure transition energy are performed for selected F-like ions. These calculations are nonperturbative in αZ and include all first-order and many-electron second-order effects in α. When compared to approximate QED computations, a notable discrepancy is found especially for F-like uranium for which the predicted self-energy contributions even differ in sign. Moreover, all deviations between theory and experiment for the 2P1/2 - 2P3/2 fine-structure energies of F-like ions, reported recently by Li et al., Phys. Rev. A 98, 020502(R) (2018), are resolved if their highly accurate, non-QED fine-structure values are combined with the QED corrections ab initially evaluated here.

Damage formation is investigated in GaAs implanted with 1 MeV Si ions to ion fluences from 3 x 10(12) to 5 x 10(15) cm(-2) at room temperature. Under the conditions applied, amorphization of the implanted layers does not occur. The weakly damaged layers are studied by applying different experimental techniques including Rutherford backscattering spectrometry in channeling configuration, x-ray diffraction, in situ curvature measurement, optical subgap spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. The results are evaluated and quantitatively connected with each other. Damage formation is described as a function of the ion fluence using a common defect evolution model. Point defects and defect clusters have to be taken into account in the ion fluence range of main interest up to 2 x 10(15) cm(-2). Point defects contribute by a factor of about 8 more to both perpendicular strain and in-plane stress than defect clusters. When the concentration of point defects or the induced strain reaches a critical value, defect clusters form, which ensures that no further increase of perpendicular strain occurs. This reveals a clear driving force for cluster formation. The microstructure of the defect clusters cannot be determined from the results. As3Ga2 interstitial clusters are supposed. A remarkable decrease of the shear modulus of the implanted layers below the value of pristine GaAs by approximate to -35% is observed. Surprisingly, the change of shear modulus already sets in at a very low damage level of a few percent.

We consider ionization of atomic hydrogen by antiproton impact. Doubly differential cross sections for ionization calculated within a recently developed semiclassical approach by Bondarev et al. (Phys. Rev. A 95, 052709, 2017) are presented. Comparison of the obtained results with other theoretical predictions is given.

We report the formation of electromagnetic solitons in over-dense plasmas in the relativistic transparency regime. By using one-dimensional and two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, the formation and basic properties of these long-lived relativistic electromagnetic solitons are studied. The predicted mechanism of soliton formation is different from the existing investigations. The latter ones are found to exist in the wake of the high-intensity laser pulse during the interaction with a low density plasma, and such solitons are made of low-frequency, spatially localized electromagnetic fields. While for the former ones, frequency of solitons formed in the relativistic transparency regime is comparable to incident laser frequency. Moreover, a threshold of plasma density under which stable solitons can be formed is analyzed. These newly predicted solitons are expected to be observed in the present-day laser-plasma experiments.

We have measured the ground-state g factor of boronlike argon 40Ar13+ with a fractional uncertainty of 1.4×10−9 with a single ion in the newly developed Alphatrap double Penning-trap setup. The value of g=0.663 648 455 32(93) obtained here is in agreement with our theoretical prediction of 0.663 648 12(58). The latter is obtained accounting for quantum electrodynamics, electron correlation, and nuclear effects within the state-of-the-art theoretical methods. Our experimental result distinguishes between existing predictions that are in disagreement, and lays the foundations for an independent determination of the fine-structure constant.

We discuss the possibility of creating novel research tools by producing and storing highly relativistic beams of highly ionised atoms in the CERN accelerator complex, and by exciting their atomic degrees of freedom with lasers to produce high-energy photon beams. Intensity of such photon beams would be by several orders of magnitude higher than offered by the presently operating light sources, in the particularly interesting gamma-ray energy domain of 0.1-400 MeV. In this energy range, the high-intensity photon beams can be used to produce secondary beams of polarised electrons, polarised positrons, polarised muons, neutrinos, neutrons and radioactive ions. New research opportunities in a wide domain of fundamental and applied physics can be opened by the Gamma Factory scientific programme based on the above primary and secondary beams.

The hyperfine splitting of the ground state of selected B-like ions within the range of nuclear charge numbers Z=49–83 is investigated in detail. The rigorous QED approach together with the large-scale configuration-interaction Dirac-Fock-Sturm method are employed for the evaluation of the interelectronic-interaction contributions of first and higher orders in 1/Z. The screened QED corrections are evaluated to all orders in αZ by using an effective potential. The influence of nuclear magnetization distribution is taken into account within the single-particle nuclear model.

Large-scale relativistic calculations are performed for the transition energy and line strength of the 1s22s2p 1P1− 1s22s2 1S0 transition in Be-like carbon. Based on the multiconfiguration Dirac-Hartree-Fock~(MCDHF) approach, different correlation models are developed to account for all major electron-electron correlation contributions. These correlation models are tested with various sets of the initial and the final state wave functions. The uncertainty of the predicted line strength due to missing correlation effects is estimated from the differences between the results obtained with those models. The finite nuclear mass effect is accurately calculated taking into account the energy, wave functions as well as operator contributions. As a result, a reliable theoretical benchmark of the E1 line strength is provided to support high precision lifetime measurement of the 1s22s2p 1P1 state in Be-like carbon.

We analyze fermionic criticality in relativistic 2 + 1 dimensional fermion systems using the functional renormalization group (FRG), concentrating on the Gross-Neveu (chiral Ising) and the Thirring model. While a variety of methods, including the FRG, appear to reach quantitative consensus for the critical regime of the Gross-Neveu model, the situation seems more diverse for the Thirring model with different methods yielding vastly different results. We present a first exploratory FRG study of such fermion systems including momentum-dependent couplings using pseudo-spectral methods. Our results corroborate the stability of results in Gross-Neveu-type universality classes, but indicate that momentum dependencies become more important in Thirring-type models for small flavor numbers. For larger flavor numbers, we confirm the existence of a non-Gaussian fixed point and thus a physical continuum limit. In the large-N limit, we obtain an analytic solution for the momentum dependence of the fixed-point vertex.

In this work we measure the frequency dependent transfer function of the amplitude noise for both the seed and pump power in an Yb3+-doped fiber amplifier chain. In particular, the relative intensity noise transfer function of this amplifier chain in the frequency range of 10 Hz – 100 kHz has been investigated. It is shown that the pump power noise of the pre-amplifier stages is transformed into seed power noise for the next amplification stage. Crucially, the seed power noise in the frequency range of interest is strongly damped by the main-amplifier. This, however, does not happen for the pump power noise. Thus, the noise of the pump of the last amplifier stage is the factor with the strongest impact on the overall noise level of the system. Finally, useful guidelines to minimize the output amplitude noise of an Yb3+-doped fiber amplifier chain are given.

Recent studies have provided evidence for the existence of new asymptotically free trajectories in non-Abelian particle models without asymptotic symmetry in the high-energy limit. We extend these results to a general SU(N-L) x SU(N-c) Higgs-Yukawa model that includes the non-Abelian sector of the standard model, finding further confirmation for such scenarios for a wide class of regularizations that account for threshold behavior persisting to highest energies. We construct these asymptotically free trajectories within conventional (MS) over bar schemes and systematic weak coupling expansions. The existence of these solutions is argued to be a scheme-independent phenomenon, as demonstrated for mass-dependent schemes based on general momentum-space infrared regularizations. A change of scheme induces a map of the theory's coupling space onto itself, which in the present case also translates into a reparametrization of the space of asymptotically free solutions.

We provide an explicit expression for the strong magnetic field limit of the Heisenberg-Euler effective Lagrangian for both scalar and spinor quantum electrodynamics. To this end, we show that the strong magnetic field behavior is fully determined by one-particle reducible contributions discovered only recently. The latter can efficiently be constructed in an essentially algebraic procedure from lower-order one-particle reducible diagrams. Remarkably, the leading strong magnetic field behavior of the all-loop Heisenberg-Euler effective Lagrangian only requires input from the one-loop Lagrangian. Our result revises previous findings based exclusively on one-particle irreducible contributions. In addition, we briefly discuss the strong electric field limit and comment on external field QED in the large N limit.

Hyperfine-structure parameters and isotope shifts for the 795-nm atomic transitions in 217, 218, 219At have been measured at CERN-ISOLDE, using the in-source resonance-ionization spectroscopy technique. Magnetic dipole and electric quadrupole moments, and changes in the nuclear mean-square charge radii, have been deduced. A large inverse odd-even staggering in radii, which may be associated with the presence of octupole collectivity, has been observed. Namely, the radius of the odd-odd isotope 218At has been found to be larger than the average of its even-N neighbors, 217, 219At. The discrepancy between the additivity-rule prediction and experimental data for the magnetic moment of 218At also supports the possible presence of octupole collectivity in the considered nuclei.