Reaching extreme laser intensities using multi-petawatt lasers interacting with micro-cones

Abstract Micro-cones so far mainly used for high energy density physics research have been proven to have an effective control on the fast electrons in the context of fast ignition research. In this paper we demonstrate by performing three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations that an ultra-high intensity laser pulse can be intensified 28 times at the interaction with plastic micro-cones. The extreme intensities of the focused laser which are reached at the interaction with the plastic micro-cones are important in the plasma and nuclear physics investigations of dark matter, non-linear quantum electrodynamics, and fission–fusion experiments to study the N = 126 waiting point for better understanding of the Universe. Furthermore, we observe that micro-cones can shorten ultra-high intensity laser pulses both in time and space. The highest intensification of the incident laser pulse varies in time but not in position being localized very close to the rear side of the micro-cone tip. Therefore, the micro-cone can be a useful device in relativistic plasma optics.