UMD-led team wins $7.5 million to shape intense laser light and control matter

A University of Maryland-led team has won a $7.5 million award from the Department of Defense to investigate how shaping intense laser pulses in space and time can open new ways to control matter. The project, funded through the Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) program and supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, is led by Distinguished University Professor Howard Milchberg and brings together researchers from six universities with expertise spanning laser physics, nonlinear optics, plasma science, and the generation and control of structured light.

At the heart of the effort are laser pulses lasting only femtoseconds — quadrillionths of a second. Within these brief flashes, researchers can arrange where the light is strongest, how its waves line up, and the direction in which its electric field oscillates. Such “structured light” gives them new ways to direct the forces that laser pulses exert on electrons and other charged particles. At high intensity, the interaction becomes a two-way process: light changes the material it passes through, and the altered material reshapes the light. Understanding and controlling that exchange is central to the project.

One goal is to improve compact particle accelerators, which are used in some forms of cancer treatment and medical imaging as well as for industrial and research purposes. Intense laser pulses can drive powerful electric fields in plasma — a gas of free electrons and ions — and accelerate particles over much shorter distances than conventional technology. The team will investigate how structured pulses can improve electron and ion beams, tailoring their energy, direction, and spatial distribution. Experiments will also examine how these interactions can produce enhanced neutron sources, with potential uses in imaging and materials analysis.

The project will additionally explore new sources of radiation and strong magnetic fields. Shaping the driving laser pulses could allow researchers to control the structure of extreme-ultraviolet light, generate intense radiofrequency and terahertz pulses, and drive electric currents that produce powerful magnetic fields. These studies could expand the tools available for probing matter and investigating its behavior under extreme conditions.

Another goal is to use light to create temporary optical structures in the atmosphere. Carefully arranged laser pulses can heat air to form channels that guide a subsequent beam, much as an optical fiber guides light. The researchers will explore how to extend and sustain these air waveguides, and how arrays of laser-generated plasma filaments might steer microwave and terahertz radiation. Such capabilities could eventually support remote sensing, communications, and energy delivery.

To make these experiments possible, the team will develop optical components that shape powerful pulses while resisting laser damage. These include spiral mirrors that impart a twist to light, optics that control the electric field’s orientation, and dielectric metasurfaces — surfaces patterned with features smaller than a wavelength of light that can combine several beam-shaping functions in a compact element. Experiments at advanced laser facilities will be closely linked with theory and computer simulations to understand how the shaped pulses evolve and interact with matter.

The collaboration includes co-principal investigators from Colorado State University, the Colorado School of Mines, Duke University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Rochester. It also includes affiliated researchers at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, the Air Force Research Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Milchberg holds joint appointments in UMD’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Department of Physics, and Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics, and leads the Laboratory for Intense Laser-Matter Interactions, a member of the LaserNetUS network. As a planned research program, the award funds exploration of new ways to accelerate particles, generate radiation, and guide light through air; the scientific and practical benefits described by the team remain goals to be demonstrated over the course of the project.

Subject of Research: Structured intense laser pulses for controlling matter, particle acceleration and light propagation

Article Title: UMD to lead research on shaping intense laser light to control matter

Article References: UMD to lead research on shaping intense laser light to control matter. Original publication (Bibliographic details unavailable.)

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Keywords: laser physics, structured light, femtosecond pulses, plasma acceleration, MURI award, University of Maryland, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, optical waveguides, terahertz radiation, metasurfaces, extreme ultraviolet, particle accelerators