Experimental study of magnetic reconnection using high-power lasers

The intership will take place in the frame of “laboratory astrophysics”, a young field of research that aims at taking advantage studying plasma processes with high-power lasers to help deciphering astrophysical phenomena. The project will be more precisely concerned with magnetic reconnection, a long standing problem in space plasmas. Most of our knowledge of collisionless reconnection comes from numerical studies and, to a smaller extent, from space observations where it is however difficult to measure all the relevant physical parameters and to follow their temporal evolution. Laboratory experiments, in particular laser experiments that offer small and versatile setups relevant for ICF, hence provide an interesting alternative to investigate reconnection. The intership will take advantage of an experiment planned in the frame of an LPP-LULI-CEA collaboration at the LULI2000 laser facility in June-July 2015 where strong magnetic field structures will be produced by such lasers and where their reconnection will be studied. The intern will participate to the experiment, take care of some diagnostics and analyze the data.

Experimental study of short pulse laser amplification using plasmas

The intership will take place in the frame of “plasma optics”, a young field of research that aims at taking advantage of the refractive and transmitting properties of a plasma medium to manipulate light at high intensities. Among the processes that belong to this regime, plasma amplification is one that recently drew much attention. In a plasma-based amplifier scheme the plasma medium provides a coupling in energy and momentum between two electromagnetic waves, making it possible to redirect energy from a long moderate-intensity pump pulse to a short less energetic seed pulse that is amplified. We have experimentally demonstrated that this mechanism is suited to amplify a 400 fs few mJ seed pulse. The intership will take advantage of an experiment planned at the LULI “ELFIE” facility in July-August 2015. The intern will participate to the experiment, take care of some diagnostics and analyze the data.