Speaker
Description
Astrophysically relevant super-critical quasi-perpendicular magnetized collisionless shocks can be produced and characterized in experiments using high power lasers irradiating solid targets, a background gas jet and a magnetic pulser. In this configuration the presence of both the external magnetic field and the background gas is crucial to observe the development of the collisionless shock structures and the associated particle energization. Results from recent experimental campaigns in this configuration will be presented as well as numerical simulations shedding light on these processes. The scaling of these results to higher energy laser facilities and to oblique magnetized collisionless shocks will also be discussed.
Higher intensity lasers can be used to accelerate protons to several tens of MeV. These protons can be sent on a secondary target to produce neutrons through nuclear reactions. Results from recent experimental campaigns on Apollon and PETAL will be presented characterizing the neutron sources produced. The perspectives of using these sources for studies on the rapid neutron capture process will be discussed.
