| I study extreme light-matter interactions using ultraintense, ultrashort pulse lasers and supercomputing. Most of this work is done locally in collaboration with my colleagues in the OSU High Energy Density Physics Group using our 400 TW laser, Scarlet, and the Ohio Supercomputer Center. I also use facilities around the country and in Europe. |
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Contact information 614-292-7035 (phone) 614-292-7557 (fax) dws@mps.ohio-state.edu 4180 Physics Research Building |
Mailing address The Ohio State University 191 West Woodruff Ave Columbus, OH 43210 |
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Classes Ultrafast Optics (Autumn, 2017) Modern Optics Quantum Optics Intro to Lasers High Energy Density Physics Physics 1250 Physics 1260 Physics 1261 Physics 131 Physics 132 Physics 133 Class resources Virtual Demos |
Member of OSU Department Of Physics OSU HEDP Group The American Physical Society The Optical Society of America |
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I study the interaction of intense light with matter.
For the lowest intensities I explore, this is the domain of nonlinear optics including
such spectacular phenomena as white light continuum generation and filamentation.
At somewhat higher intensities this becomes laser damage,
known in other contexts as laser surgery or laser machining.
At the highest intensities this is the domain of relativistic laser plasma physics.
In this regime electrons are accelerated close to the speed of light in a fraction of
an optical cycle, lasers becomes sources of x-rays, gamma rays, electron and ion beams, antimatter,
and unusal states of matter that can only be found naturally in the cores of planets or the interiors of stars.
Below is a picture of the Scarlet laser bay and one of an early set of liquid crystal films. The films are different thicknesses giving rise to different colors from thin film interference. We use these films as novel targets and optics. |
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Ginevra Cochran | Grad |  |
Anthony Zingale | Grad | |
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Jeremy Karst | Undergrad |  |
Jordan Purcell | Undergrad | |
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Alex Russell | Grad |  |
Alexander Klepinger | Grad |
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Randall Hanna | BS |  |
Matthew McMahon | Ph.D | |
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Robert Mitchell | Ph.D |  |
Patrick Poole | Ph.D | |
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Kevin Pytel | MS |  |
Frank King | Ph.D | |
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Kasandara Sullivan | MS |  |
Kevin George | Ph.D | |
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Joseph Snyder | Ph.D |
| Camelia Vasilescu | Grad |
| Jennifer Tate | Grad |
| Kenn Bates | Grad |
| Becky Weber | Undergrad |
| David Sproles | Undergrad |
| Andrew Parkes | |
| Corey Casto | |
| Owen Marshal | Undergrad |
| John Stankiewicz | Undergrad |
| Tracy Moore | REU |
| Jumpei Masae | Grad |
| Michael Ackerman | REU |
| Jenn Holt | Undergrad |
| Jason Neiser | REU |
| Elaine Savageau | Undergrad |
A full (and almost up-to-date) list is given in my CV.
| 2017 |
| "Targets for high repetition rate laser facilities: needs, challenges and perspectives," I. Prencipe, et al., accepted for publication in High Power Laser Science and Engineering (2017). |
| "Liquid Crystal Targets and Plasma Mirrors For Laser Based Ion Acceleration," D.W. Schumacher, P.L. Poole, C. Willis, G.E. Cochran, R. Daskalova, J. Purcell and R. Heery, Journal of Instrumentation 12, 1748 (2017). DOI:10.1088/1748-0221/12/04/C04023. |
| 2016 |
| "Moderate repetition rate ultra-intense laser targets and optics using variable thickness liquid crystal films," P. L. Poole, C. Willis, G. E. Cochran, R. T. Hanna, C. D. Andereck, and D. W. Schumacher, Applied Physics Letters 109, 151109 (2016). DOI: 10.1063/1.4964841. |
| "Experiment and simulation of novel liquid crystal plasma mirrors for high contrast, intense laser pulses," P. L. Poole, A. Krygier, G. E. Cochran, P. S. Foster, G. G. Scott, L. A. Wilson, J. Bailey, N. Bourgeois, C. Hernandez-Gomez, D. Neely, P. P. Rajeev, R. R. Freeman, and D. W. Schumacher, Scientific Reports 6, 32041 (2016). DOI:10.1038/srep32041. |
| "Experimental capabilities of 0.4 petawatt, 1 shot/min Scarlet laser facility for high energy density science," P. L. Poole, C. Willis, R. L. Daskalova, K. M. George, S. Feister, S. Jiang, J. Snyder, J. Marketon, D. W. Schumacher, K. U. Akli, L. Van Woerkom, R. R. Freeman, And E. A. Chowdhury, Applied Optics 55, 4713 (2016). |
| "Micro-engineering laser plasma interactions at relativistic intensities," S. Jiang, L. L. Ji, H. Audesirk, K. M. George, J. Snyder, A. Krygier, P. Poole, C. Willis, R. Daskalova, E. Chowdhury, N. S. Lewis, D. W. Schumacher, A. Pukhov, R. R. Freeman, and K. U. Akli, Physical Review Letters 116, 085002 (2016). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.085002. |
I've kept this section for nostalgia from an old web page. Following are just some pictures from my first lab located in Smith Lab.
The main laser system in my lab was based on Ti:Sapphire and produced 60 fs pulses with 1 mJ/pulse at a 1 kHz repetition rate. The pulses could be shaped using a LCD based pulse shaper. Below are two pictures of the laser system. It occupied a single 10' x 4' table. We also had numerous dye lasers for atomic excitation.
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Here is what continuum generation looks like. Shown below is the result of sending our laser pulses through 1 mm of pure sapphire at a pulse energy around 2 uJ. The pulse energy increases slightly from left to right.
Here is continuum generation from a microstructure fiber using 1 nJ pump pulses (but lots of them).
