Plasma acceleration and new acceleration techniques constitute a research area focused on generating high-gradient particle acceleration using collective electromagnetic fields in plasmas and other nonconventional media, surpassing the gradient limits of radio-frequency cavity accelerators. This includes plasma wakefield acceleration driven by intense laser pulses or charged particle beams, beam-driven and laser-driven dielectric structures, and novel concepts such as structure-based wakefields and micro-accelerators. Research emphasizes understanding nonlinear plasma dynamics, beam loading, stability, staging, and emittance preservation, as well as developing advanced diagnostics and control schemes, with applications in compact high-energy accelerators, ultrafast radiation sources, and future collider concepts.
Harnessing the power of the sun holds the promise of providing future societies with energy abundance. To make this a reality, fusion researchers need to address many technological challenges. For example, fusion reactions ...
General Physics
Feb 13, 2026
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41
In high-intensity laser–matter interactions, including laser-induced particle acceleration, physicists generally want to work with the highest possible focused laser peak power, which is the ratio of energy per unit area ...
Optics & Photonics
Jan 9, 2026
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141
Researchers from the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), have designed innovative technology that can generate both high-energy and high-brightness ...
General Physics
Jan 6, 2026
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142
Envision a time when hundreds of spacecraft are exploring the solar system and beyond. That's the future that NASA's ESCAPADE, or escape and plasma acceleration and dynamics explorers, mission will help unleash: one where ...
Space Exploration
Nov 13, 2025
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43
Muon beams can now be created in a device that is the length of a ruler.
Space has a trash problem, with defunct satellites, rockets, and smaller broken bits orbiting Earth at high speeds. The amount of space junk is only increasing, raising the risk of collision with active satellites and spacecraft, ...
Space Exploration
Sep 8, 2025
2
250
Scientists have used ultracold atoms to successfully demonstrate a novel method of particle acceleration that could unlock a new understanding of how cosmic rays behave, a new study reveals.
General Physics
Jul 9, 2025
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112
Proton beams with giga-electron-volt (GeV) energies—once thought to be achievable only with massive particle accelerators—may soon be generated in compact setups thanks to a breakthrough by researchers at The University of ...
Optics & Photonics
Jun 2, 2025
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312
Laser ion acceleration uses intense laser flashes to heat electrons of a solid to enormous temperatures and propel these charged particles to extreme speeds. These have recently gained traction for applications in selectively ...
General Physics
May 19, 2025
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83
Researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) achieved the first direct laboratory observation of ion acceleration through reflection off laser-generated magnetized collisionless shocks. This observation ...
General Physics
Apr 23, 2025
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145
