Study of laser-plasma interaction with particle-in-cell simulations: attosecond pulse generation and proton acceleration

Abstract

The advancement of lasers over the last decades has allowed researchers to explore new regimes of physics and their applications. High power lasers interacting with plasmas have provided with the tools to create high frequency ultrashort pulsed radiation, near the X-ray regime and with temporal lengths on the attosecond scale, and has allowed to create compact and cheap particle accelerators. Numerical simulations are a fundamental tool in the advancement of this scientific area, since they provide with insights into the physical processes involved and they can be used to design experiments. In this thesis we present the results of numerical simulations for ultrashort pulse production, ion acceleration and other laser-plasma applications.