arXiv subjects

Zheng-Ming Sheng

Publications and source records attributed to Zheng-Ming Sheng.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Chirped-Pulse Forward Raman Amplification in Nonuniform Plasmas

Light amplification via Raman scattering in plasma has been severely constrained by stringent phase matching conditions and the need for plasma uniformity. To overcome these limitations, we propose a forward Raman amplification scheme that employs a positively chirped seed pulse co-propagating with a pump pulse in a nonuniform plasma with an upramp density profile. We demonstrate that the phase detuning induced by plasma nonuniformity can be dynamically compensated, enabling broadband amplification across the entire spectral bandwidth of the seed pulse. Concurrently, the chirped pulse duration undergoes continuous compression as a result of the spatially varying dispersion of the plasma. Our theoretical model, incorporating the detuning term and supported by particle-in-cell simulations, elucidates the compensation mechanism. It is shown that a chirped seed pulse with an initial bandwidth ~10% can be directly amplified by a factor of 1e7 to an intensity exceeding 1e17W/cm2 within a picosecond timescale in a steep density ramp. This scheme establishes a new foundation for advancing plasma-based light amplification toward practical applications.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2025

Generation of high power spatially-structured laser pulses via forward Raman amplification in plasma

Spatially-structured light with tunable intensity, wavelength, and spatiotemporal profiles has demonstrated significant potentials for fundamental and applied science, including the ultrafast and high-field physics. Nevertheless, the generation or amplification of such light towards extremely high power remains challenging due to the limitations of conventional gain media. Building upon our recently proposed forward Raman amplification (FRA) mechanism [Lei et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 255001 (2025)], here we develop a universal plasma-based amplification scheme that is capable of generating high-power structured laser beams, including vortex, Bessel, and Airy beams. Through theoretical modeling and multi-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, we demonstrate that a near-infrared structured seed laser with an initial intensity of 1e12 W/cm2 can achieve 1e4~1e5-fold intensity amplification via FRA, and subsequently be self-compressed to sub-cycle duration with petawatt-level peak power. Benefiting from its exceptionally high amplification growth rate, the FRA process requires only femtosecond-scale interaction time and submillimeter propagation distance in plasma, effectively suppressing concomitant plasma instabilities. The high output intensity 1e17 W/cm2, compactness (<500 um), high temporal contrast, universal applicability to diverse structured beams, and relatively easy implementation with the co-propagating configuration combine to make the FRA a disruptive approach to the generation of petawatt-class spatially-structured light, enabling unprecedented applications in high-field physics and ultrafast science.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2025

Towards the generation of petawatt near-infrared few-cycle light pulses via forward Raman amplification in plasma

Light amplification towards extremely high power in the infrared regime remains a significant challenge due to the lack of suitable gain media. Here we propose a new scheme to amplify a laser pulse with tunable wavelengths towards extremely high power via forward Raman amplification in plasma. Different from those previously proposed schemes based upon backward Raman or Brillouin amplification, our scheme involves a pump pulse and a seed pulse co-propagating in moderate density plasma, with the phase matching conditions for forward Raman scattering fulfilled. Due to their group velocity difference in plasma, the pump with a shorter wavelength and longer duration will chase the seed and transfer energy to the latter efficiently. Analytical models both for linear and nonlinear stages of amplification as well as particle-in-cell simulation show that by employing a 1.0 $\mathrm{μm}$ pump laser, a 1.8 $\mathrm{μm}$ seed pulse can be amplified $10^4$ times in its intensity, and then self-compressed to near-single-cycle. Our scheme shows the merits of high efficiency, high compactness, and relatively easy implementation with the co-propagating configuration, which may provide a unique route towards the petawatt few-cycle infrared laser pulses.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2025

Photon-polarization-resolved linear Breit-Wheeler pair production in a laser-plasma system

The linear Breit-Wheeler (LBW) process, mediated by photon-photon collisions, can emerge as the dominant pair production mechanism in the ultraintense laser-plasma interaction for laser intensities below $10^{23}~\rm W/cm^2$. Here, we explore the role of photon polarization in LBW pair production for a 10 PW-class, linearly polarized laser interacting with a solid-density plasma. The motivation for this investigation lies in two main aspects: photons emitted via nonlinear Compton scattering are inherently linearly polarized, and the LBW process exhibits a distinct sensitivity to photon polarization. By leveraging particle-in-cell simulations that self-consistently incorporate photon-polarization-resolved LBW pair production, our results reveal that photon polarization leads to a 5\% to 10\% reduction in the total LBW positron yield. This suppression arises because the polarization directions of the colliding photons are primarily parallel to each other, resulting in a diminished LBW cross section compared to the unpolarized case. The influence of photon polarization weakens as the laser intensity increases.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2025

Detecting Linear Breit-Wheeler Signals with a Laser-Foil Setup

As a fundamental QED process, linear Breit-Wheeler (LBW) pair production predicted 90 years ago has not yet been demonstrated in experiments with real photons. Here, we propose an experimentally advantageous scheme to detect the LBW signal by irradiating a foil target with a single 10 PW-level laser. Our integrated QED particle-in-cell simulations demonstrate that the LBW signal can be explicitly distinguished from the Bethe-Heitler (BH) signal by comparing positron energy spectra behind the target at varying target thicknesses. The LBW positrons are created at the front of the target and subsequently experience both laser vacuum acceleration and sheath field acceleration to gain high energies, while BH positrons, originating within the target bulk, are only subjected to sheath field acceleration. As a result, the invariance of the high-energy tail of positron spectra with respect to the target thickness serves as a distinct signature of the LBW process. Notably, this scheme remains viable even when the BH yield dominates over the LBW yield.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2024

High-efficiency fast pinching radiation of electron beams in nonuniform plasma

The continuous development of bright x/gamma-ray sources has opened up new frontiers of science and advanced applications. Currently, there is still a lack of efficient approaches to produce gamma-rays with photon energies up to GeV and with high peak brilliance comparable to modern free-electron lasers. Here we report a novel mechanism called beam fast pinching radiation burst to generate such gamma-ray sources. It is achieved by injecting a GeV electron beam into a submillimeter plasma with an upramp density profile, enabling violent beam pinching to occur rapidly. During this process, a burst of collimated gamma-rays is efficiently produced with photon energy up to GeV, energy conversion efficiency exceeding $30\%$, and peak brilliance exceeding $10^{28}$ photons s$^{-1}$ mm$^{-2}$ mrad$^{-2}$ per $0.1\%$ bandwidth. All of these are several orders of magnitude higher than existing gamma-ray sources. This opens a novel avenue for the development of extremely bright gamma-ray sources for both fundamental research and cutting-edge applications.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2024

Generation of relativistic polarized electron beams via collective beam-target interactions

Relativistic polarized electron beams can find applications in broad areas of fundamental physics. Here, we propose for the first time that electron spin polarization can be realized efficiently via collective beam-target interactions. When a relativistic unpolarized electron beam is incident onto the surface of a solid target with a grazing angle, strong magnetic fields are induced at the target surface due to the formation of a high reflux of target electrons. This results in violent beam self-focusing and corresponding beam density increase via magnetic pinching. The pinched dense beam in turn further enhances the magnetic fields to the level of a few Giga-Gauss, which is high enough to trigger strong synchrotron radiation of ultrarelativistic electrons. During the interaction, electron spin polarization develops along the magnetic field direction, which is achieved via radiative spin flips in the quantum radiation-dominated regime. As a consequence, the incident electron beam can be effectively polarized via the spin-dependent radiation reaction, for example, the mean polarization of electrons with energy less than 2 GeV can reach above 50% for an initial 5GeV beam. This provides a robust way for the development of polarized electron sources.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2024

Dense polarized positrons from beam-solid interactions

Relativistic positron sources with high spin polarization have important applications in nuclear and particle physics and many frontier fields. However, it is challenging to produce dense polarized positrons. Here we present a simple and effective method to achieve such a positron source by directly impinging a relativistic high-density electron beam on the surface of a solid target. During the interaction, a strong return current of plasma electrons is induced and subsequently asymmetric quasistatic magnetic fields as high as megatesla are generated along the target surface. This gives rise to strong radiative spin flips and multiphoton processes, thus leading to efficient generation of copious polarized positrons. With three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, we demonstrate the production of a dense highly-polarized multi-GeV positron beam with an average spin polarization above 40% and nC-scale charge per shot. This offers a novel route for the studies of laserless strong-field quantum electrodynamics physics and for the development of high-energy polarized positron sources.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2023

From linear to nonlinear Breit-Wheeler pair production in laser-solid interactions

During the ultraintense laser interaction with solids (overdense plasmas), the competition between two possible quantum electrodynamics (QED) mechanisms responsible for $e^\pm$ pair production, i.e., linear and nonlinear Breit-Wheeler (BW) processes, remains to be studied. Here, we have implemented the linear BW process via a Monte Carlo algorithm into the QED particle-in-cell (PIC) code YUNIC, enabling us to self-consistently investigate both pair production mechanisms in the plasma environment. By a series of 2D QED-PIC simulations, the transition from the linear to the nonlinear BW process is observed with the increase of laser intensities in the typical configuration of a linearly polarized laser interaction with solid targets. A critical normalized laser amplitude about $a_0\sim$ 400-500 is found under a large range of preplasma scale lengths, below which the linear BW process dominates over the nonlinear BW process. This work provides a practicable technique to model linear QED processes via integrated QED-PIC simulations. Moreover, it calls for more attention to be paid to linear BW pair production in near future 10-PW-class laser-solid interactions.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2022

Modeling of bound electron effects in particle-in-cell simulation

To include the bound electron effects in particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation, we propose a model in which the response of the dipole components of partially ionized ions to external electromagnetic fields can be included. Instead of treating the macro-ion particle as a single particle without an internal structure, the ions are considered to have a structure composed of a central nucleus and a bounded electron cloud in our model. The two parts experience the interactions of both the external electromagnetic fields and the internal Coulomb fields. In this way, the laser scattering effects by a partially ionized medium can be modeled properly in the PIC simulation. The laser propagation in a neutral medium and the Bragg scattering of the laser in crystal structure have been simulated with a PIC code modified based on our model as the benchmark. Our model may find applications to study some interesting problems, such as the x-ray laser-driven wakefield acceleration in crystals, the x-ray laser-driven high energy density physics, and intense laser propagation in partially ionized nonlinear optical materials, etc.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2022

Tail-wave-assisted Positron Acceleration in Nonlinear Laser Plasma Wakefields

Relativistic laser wakefield acceleration is characterized by an unsurpassed accelerating gradient, which is very suitable for electron acceleration over short distances and could be a promising candidate for next-generation compact accelerators. However, using this technique for positron acceleration is still challenging because positively charged particles are naturally defocused in nonlinear wakefields. Here we propose and numerically demonstrate a scheme to accelerate an externally injected positron beam in a nonlinear laser wakefield in a regime where a tail wave is formed behind density cusps of the wakefield. This tail wave can provide a focusing force in addition to longitudinal acceleration for the positrons. Three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations demonstrate that a trapping efficiency of positrons of nearly 100% in the nonlinear wakefield is possible. This scheme may open a simple way for compact positron acceleration to multi-100 MeV with terawatt-class laser systems at high repetition rates without the need for special laser modes and plasma structures.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2022

Bunched proton acceleration from a laser-irradiated cone target

Laser-driven ion acceleration is an attractive technique for compact high-energy ion sources. Currently, among various physical and technical issues to be solved, the boost of ion energy and the reduction of energy spread represent the key challenges with this technique. Here we present a scheme to tackle these challenges by using a hundred-terawatt-class laser pulse irradiating a cone target. Three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations show that a large number of electrons are dragged out of the cone walls and accelerated to hundreds of MeV by the laser fields inside the cone. When these energetic dense electron beams pass through the cone target tip into vacuum, a very high bunching acceleration field, up to tens of TV/m, quickly forms. Protons are accelerated and simultaneously bunched by this field, resulting in quasi-monoenergetic proton beams with hundred MeV energy and low energy spread of ~2%. Results exploring the scaling of the proton beam energy with laser and target parameters are presented, indicating that the scheme is robust. This opens a new route for compact high-energy proton sources from fundamental research to biomedical applications.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2021

Spin and polarization effects on the nonlinear Breit-Wheeler pair production in laser-plasma interaction

The spin effect of electrons/positrons ($e^-$/$e^+$) and polarization effect of $γ$ photons are investigated in the interaction of two counter-propagating linearly polarized 10-PW-class laser pulses with a thin foil target. The processes of nonlinear Compton scattering and nonlinear Breit-Wheeler pair production based on spin- and polarization-resolved probabilities are implemented into the particle-in-cell (PIC) algorithm by Monte Carlo methods. It is found from PIC simulations that the average degree of linear polarization of emitted $γ$ photons can exceed $50\%$. This polarization effect leads to reduced positron yield by about $10\%$. At some medium positron energies, the reduction can reach $20\%$. Furthermore, we also observe that the local spin polarization of $e^-$/$e^+$ leads to a slight decrease of the positron yield about $2\%$ and some anomalous phenomena about the positron spectrum and photon polarization at the high-energy range, due to spin-dependent photon emissions. Our results indicate that spin and polarization effects should be considered in calculating the pair production and laser-plasma interaction with the laser power of 10-PW class.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2020

Trapping and acceleration of spin-polarized positrons from $γ$ photon splitting in wakefields

Energetic spin-polarized positrons are extremely demanded for forefront researches, such as $e^- e^+$ collider physics, but making compact positron sources is still very challenging. Here we put forward an efficient scheme of trapping and acceleration of polarized positrons in plasma wakefields. Seed electrons colliding with a bichromatic laser create polarized $γ$ photons which then split into $e^- e^+$ pairs via nonlinear Breit-Wheeler process with an average (partial) positron polarization above 30\% (70\%). Over 70\% positrons are trapped and accelerated in recovered wakefields driven by a hollow electron beam, obtaining an energy gain of 3.5 GeV/cm with slight depolarization. This scheme provides a potential for constructing compact and economical positron sources for future applications.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2019

Guided propagation of extremely intense lasers in plasma via ion motion

The upcoming $10-100$ petawatt laser facilities may deliver laser pulses with unprecedented intensity of $10^{22}-10^{25}\rm~W cm^{-2}$, which can trigger various nonlinear quantum electrodynamic processes in plasma. For effective laser plasma interactions at such high intensity levels, guided laser propagation is critical. However, this becomes impossible via usual plasma electron response to laser fields due to electron cavitation by the laser ponderomotive force. Here, we find that ion response to the laser fields may effectively guide laser propagation at such high intensity levels. The corresponding conditions of the required ion density distribution and laser power are presented and verified by three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. Our theory shall serve as a guide for future experimental design involving ultrahigh intensity lasers.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2018

Collimated GeV attosecond electron-positron bunches from a plasma channel driven by 10 PW lasers

High-energy positrons and bright γ-ray sources are unique both for fundamental research and practical applications. However, GeV electron-positron pair jets and γ-ray flashes are still hardly produced in laboratories. Here we demonstrate that, by irradiating two 10 PW-scale laser pulses onto a near-critical density plasma channel, highly-directional GeV electron-positron pairs and bright γ-ray beams can be efficiently generated. Three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations show that GeV positron jets show high density (8*10^21/cm^3), attosecond duration (400 as) and a divergence angle of 14°. Additionally, ultrabright (2*10^25 photons/s/mm2/mrad2/0.1%BW) collimated attosecond (370 as) γ-ray flashes with a laser energy conversion efficiency of 5.6% are emitted. Once realized in experiment, it may open up new possibilities for a wide variety of applications.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2018

Generation of GeV positron and γ-photon beams with controllable angular momentum by intense lasers

Although several laser-plasma-based methods have been proposed for generating energetic electrons, positrons and γ-photons, manipulation of their microstructures is still challenging, and their angular momentum control has not yet been achieved. Here, we present and numerically demonstrate an all-optical scheme to generate bright GeV γ-photon and positron beams with controllable angular momentum by use of two counter-propagating circularly-polarized lasers in a near-critical-density plasma. The plasma acts as a "switching medium", where the trapped electrons first obtain angular momentum from the drive laser pulse and then transfer it to the γ-photons via nonlinear Compton scattering. Further through the multiphoton Breit-Wheeler process, dense energetic positron beams are efficiently generated, whose angular momentum can be well controlled by laser-plasma interactions. This opens up a promising and feasible way to produce ultra-bright GeV γ-photons and positron beams with desirable angular momentum for a wide range of scientific research and applications.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2018

Stable attosecond electron bunches from a nanofiber driven by Laguerre-Gaussian lasers

Generation of attosecond bunches of energetic electrons offers significant potential from ultrafast physics to novel radiation sources. However, it is still a great challenge to stably produce such electron beams with lasers, since the typical sub-femtosecond electron bunches from laser-plasma interactions either carry low beam charge, or propagate for only several tens of femtoseconds. Here we propose an all-optical scheme for generating dense attosecond electron bunches via the interaction of an intense Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) laser pulse with a nanofiber. The stable bunch train results from the unique field structure of a circularly polarized LG laser pulse, enabling each bunch to be phase-locked and accelerated forward with low divergence, high beam charge and large beam-angular-momentum. This paves the way for wide applications in various fields, e.g., ultrabrilliant attosecond x/$γ$-ray emission.

physics.plasm-ph↗