Nanostructures that have dimensions commensurate with the wavelength of the electromagnetic radiation exhibit near-field effects and, as optical antennas, can couple laser radiation to the local environment. Laser-induced silicon microcolumn arrays behave as nanophotonic ion sources that can be modulated by rotating the plane of light polarization. However, the limited range of surface morpholo...

A fundamental limit to the stability of a single-ion optical frequency standard is set by quantum noise in the measurement of the internal state of the ion. We discuss how the interrogation sequence and the processing of the atomic resonance signal can be optimized in order to obtain the highest possible stability under realistic experimental conditions. A servo algorithm is presented that stab...

A Hohlraum-like configuration is proposed for realizing a simple compact source for neutrons. A laser pulse enters a tiny thin-shelled hollow-sphere target through a small opening and is self-consistently trapped in the cavity. The electrons in the inner shell-wall region are expelled by the light pressure. The resulting space-charge field compresses the local ions into a thin layer that become...

Laser ion source (LIS) already has about thirty years history, and has many variety of usages. Since 2000 we have focused on high brightness of induced laser plasma to provide intense highly charged ions efficiently. To take an advantage of the intrinsic density of the plasma, Direct Plasma Injection Scheme (DPIS) has been developed. The induced laser plasma has initial expanding velocity and c...

Tailored silicon nanopost arrays (NAPA) enable controlled and resonant ion production in laser desorption ionization experiments and have been termed nanophotonic ion sources (Walker et al., J. Phys. Chem. C, 2010, 114, 4835-4840). As the post dimensions are comparable to or smaller than the laser wavelength, near-field effects and localized electromagnetic fields are present in their vicinity....

Results from research on fusion fast ignition (FI) initiated by laser-driven ion beams is encouraging so far. FI based on a beam of quasi-monoenergetic ions (protons or heavier ions) has the advantage of a more localized energy deposition, which minimizes the required total beam energy, bringing it close to the theoretical minimum of ≈ 10 kJ. High-current, laser-driven ion beams are excellent f...

A time-of-flight mass spectrometer (TOF-MS) developed in our laboratory at Isfahan University of Technology is described here. The TOF-MS instrument uses laser as the ionization source which provides an opportunity to investigate the ions formed in laser ablation or desorption. The TOF-MS has an ionization chamber containing an accelerator and an ion lens to focus the ions into a one meter line...

Generation of highly collimated monoenergetic relativistic ion beams is one the most challenging and promising areas in ultra-intense laser-matter interactions because numerous scientific technological applications that require such beams. We address this challenge by introducing concept laser-ion lensing acceleration (LILA). Using a simple analogy with gradient-index lens, we demonstrate simul...