output [15]. ELI-project is funded by the EU. Particle acceleration is mainly studied
at ELI-Beams in Czech, atto-second photon science will be developed by ELI-ALPS
in Hungary, and photonuclear physics is the main subject in ELI-NP in Romania.
Present status is reported in [16].
Most of the high- and ultra-high-power lasers are used for research as users’
facilities for the international community and most of recent experiments have been
carried out by international teams. The style of research is similar to that of the highenergy experiment with a large-scale facility, e.g., Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
The characteristics of high-power laser experiment are that a variety of experiments
from condensed matter physics to astrophysics are possible by changing laser and
target conditions. Precise nanotechnology has been used to fabricate complex
structured targets.
1.2 What Is Plasma?
1.2.1 Ionization
Any substance becomes plasma with the increase of its temperature to roughly more
than 1 eV, because any kind of neutral atom binds an outer electron with a binding
energy of order of eV. Note that in this book, the temperature T is given in the unit of
energy without showing Boltzmann constant k B . The T in eV has the relation:
Short pulse
Grating pair:
Pulse stretcher
Grating pair:
Pulse compressor
Amplified
shor pulse
Stretched pulse
Amplifier
Amplifier
stretched pulse
Fig. 1.9 A schematics of CPA method. Generated short pulse is stretched by a small grating to be
amplified. The amplified long pulse laser is compressed by a large grating by about 10
3 ~ 4 times. As
the result, the laser power increases orders of magnitude compared to the conventional high-power
lasers
1.2 What Is Plasma?
9
at ELI-Beams in Czech, atto-second photon science will be developed by ELI-ALPS
in Hungary, and photonuclear physics is the main subject in ELI-NP in Romania.
Present status is reported in [16].
Most of the high- and ultra-high-power lasers are used for research as users’
facilities for the international community and most of recent experiments have been
carried out by international teams. The style of research is similar to that of the highenergy experiment with a large-scale facility, e.g., Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
The characteristics of high-power laser experiment are that a variety of experiments
from condensed matter physics to astrophysics are possible by changing laser and
target conditions. Precise nanotechnology has been used to fabricate complex
structured targets.
1.2 What Is Plasma?
1.2.1 Ionization
Any substance becomes plasma with the increase of its temperature to roughly more
than 1 eV, because any kind of neutral atom binds an outer electron with a binding
energy of order of eV. Note that in this book, the temperature T is given in the unit of
energy without showing Boltzmann constant k B . The T in eV has the relation:
Short pulse
Grating pair:
Pulse stretcher
Grating pair:
Pulse compressor
Amplified
shor pulse
Stretched pulse
Amplifier
Amplifier
stretched pulse
Fig. 1.9 A schematics of CPA method. Generated short pulse is stretched by a small grating to be
amplified. The amplified long pulse laser is compressed by a large grating by about 10
3 ~ 4 times. As
the result, the laser power increases orders of magnitude compared to the conventional high-power
lasers
1.2 What Is Plasma?
9