Plasma photonics for laser pulse control at ultrahigh intensities

Control of the spatial-temporal and polarisation properties of high power laser pulses are central to the development of compact laser-plasma-based particle accelerators and radiation sources, which have wide-ranging potential applications. Plasma can withstand extremely high energy densities and its optical properties can be varied on the ultra fast timescale of a high power laser pulse, enabling dynamic manipulation of intense light. This project will investigate routes to controlling intense laser pulses through the use of plasma undergoing the process of so-called relativistic induced transparency. Recent studies have shown that the laser interaction with the dense plasma in this regime can result in range of changes to the drive laser pulse including polarisation rotation and spatial mode conversion. This study will make use of experiments conducted using national and international high power laser facilities and numerical studies conducted using high performance computing clusters.