Quick Shot

Tanner Simpson’s paper “Nonlinear Spatiotemporal Control of Laser Intensity” was accepted for publication in Optics Express. The manuscript presents the first technique for spatiotemporally controlling laser intensity using nonlinear optics, which the authors have named the “self-flying focus.”  The technique combines temporal pulse shaping with self-focusing to control the trajectory of an intensity peak over distances comparable to the focal length. Notably, the technique can take advantage of existing long-pulse, high-energy laser systems such as the National Ignition Facility or the OMEGA laser to create ultrashort intensity peaks. Among its applications, the self-flying focus can create a smooth, meter-scale plasma necessary for advanced accelerators, such as the LLE-developed Dephasingless Laser Wakefield Accelerator. Tanner is a University of Rochester graduate student in Physics and Astronomy and a Horton Fellow advised by John Palastro and Dustin Froula. This is his first published paper.