Session Index

Proton-boron fusion is an interesting nuclear reaction because the reactants are non-radioactive and abundant on earth, and the reaction produces alpha particles without emitting neutrons. However, the activation energy of proton-boron fusion is 0.6 MeV, an order of magnitude larger than deuterium-tritium fusion. This large activation energymakes proton-boron fusion impractical in a thermal environment confined by magnetic field. Although it is not difficult to accelerate protons to 0.6 MeV by conventional accelerator or laser accelerator, because of the small ratio of fusion reaction cross section to proton-electron inelastic scattering cross section, most accelerated protons lose their kinetic energy to electrons instead of activating fusion reaction. In this talk, how high-field laser could hold the promise of mitigating these problems is discussed. The extremely large ponderomotive force and optical pressure of high-field laser not only can be utilized to accelerate protons, but also to expel electrons away from the path of laser beam and protons synchronously. Laser induced strong magnetic field may also be critical to confining the protons along the laser path against Rutherford scattering. Implementation of these ideas will meet great technical challenges which may be overcome by future development of high-field laser technology.

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In recent developments, cavity-enhanced optical chirality, represented by circular dichroism (CD), has been successfully demonstrated through the incorporation of special organic thin films within an optical cavity. This chiral amplification in CD-active cavities presents a promising pathway for constructing a chiral laser. In this paper, we explore the potential of constructing a chiral laser utilizing the dye POPOP as the laser gain medium, along with an optical cavity consisting of an output coupler and a high reflective (HR) coverslip mirror deposited with PTPO.

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Geometric modes with orthogonally polarized states are generated and explored in an off-axis pumped c-cut Nd:YVO4 laser with a symmetric concave-convex resonator. Due to the inherent birefringence of gain crystal, it is interesting to discover that the polarized state of the geometric modes under the same transverse-longitudinal coupling condition can be switched from s- to p-polarization when tuning from a shorter to a longer cavity.

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We demonstrated, to the best of our knowledge, the first electro-optically Q-switched LED-pumped Nd:YAG laser with the highest peak power on record. The measured output laser-pulse energy is 64.2 mJ within a 28-ns pulse width, corresponding to a peak power of 2.3 MW.

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We investigated the characteristics of VCSELs with varying structures, including different numbers of junctions and oxide apertures. We verified the performance of VCSELs under different short pulse. Throughout the study, we demonstrated the advantages of multi-junction VCSELs featuring a greater number of apertures are higher SE and lower threshold, attributed to their superior carrier confinement capabilities. Over 50W output can be achieved at 20A short pulse driving condition.

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This study introduces a novel digital laser setup with two adjustable phase boundaries to create orbital angular momentum (OAM) laser beams. Experiments confirm the effective generation of vortex beams, offering control over both OAM and intensity profiles. This innovative digital laser configuration represents a promising solution for customizable OAM beam generation, with wide-ranging applications.

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Intense 4.3-fs pulses at 1030 nm were focused into an Ar-filled gas cell, producing a 2-fs (sub-one-cycle) pulse, alongside isolated pulses lasting ~200 as, characterized by attosecond streaking. This study paves the way towards sub-one-cycle post-compression, advancing attosecond science.

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