News

  1. May 2025
    Our structured-light review paper is out on Optica.
    P2 team member JV is a co-author of a review article about structured light in laser-plasma interactions at ultra-high intensity, and its various applications from plasma-based accelerators, their light sources and magnetic field generation to strong field quantum-electro-dynamics (QED).

    Construction of an OAM beam from a minimalistic definition of structured light. (a) Interference of three plane waves with differ- ent k wave vectors and phases leading to a lattice with a vortex phase. (b) Extension to the case of 20 plane waves, resulting in a well-defined donut beam carrying OAM. Taken from our paper here.

  2. May 2025
    Jorge Vieira gave a Seminar at the Center of Physics and Engineering of Advanced Materials (CeFEMA).
    The talk was an overview of plasma-based accelerators and their light sources, the challenges for high energy physics, and also new oportunities using structured light pulses (e.g., with orbital angular momentum and with a flying focus), and our recent work on radiation from quasiparticles.

  3. May 2025
    Our paper on propagation-invariant optical pulses is out on Optics Letters.
    Propagation-invariant optical pulses have a peak intensity that travels at an arbitrary, tunable velocity while maintaining their spatiotemporal profile. We have shown that their structure is universal, thereby combining a plethora of previously disconnected descriptions. These pulses may be used in processes where phase-locking and an accurate control of the velocity of radiation intensity is key.

    Even though the whole envelope of the electromagnetic field travels at c, the focus, i.e., the peak intensity moves at a constant velocity vf that can be arbitrarily chosen.

  4. May 2025
    Jorge Vieira gave a Seminar at the EuPRAXIA Virtual Seminar Series.
    The seminar focused on the recent quasiparticle light source concept (which may bring temporal coherence and superradiance to plasma accelerator-based light sources). This was the first seminar of the EuPRAXIA Virtual Seminar Series and is available on youtube

  5. March 2025
    Mariana Moreira recieved the John Dawson best PhD thesis award.
    Mariana Moreira, who did her PhD thesis at our team, received the John Dawson best PhD thesis award at the Laser Plasma Accelerator Workshop 2025. Congratulations Mariana!

    (left to right) Carolina, Jorge, Mariana, Ricardo, Rafael, Chiara, Bhushan, Edda

  6. March 2025
    Bhushan Thakhur is on a leave at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory!
    Bhushan Thakhur is on a leave at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory!

  7. January 2025
    Our paper on proton acceleration using azimuthal pulses is out JPP
    Our paper on proton acceleration using azimuthal pulses is out JPP