Pierre Michel- Laser-plasma interactions group leader at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Abstract:

Optics damage is a ubiquitous challenge for high-power lasers and largely dictates the size and cost of these facilities. Here, we are developing a new technology that uses gas as an optical medium instead of solids. Our method imprints density modulations as holograms in a gas, achieved via absorption of a spatially modulated “writing beam” by a small fraction of dopant introduced in the gas, followed by localized heating. We have experimentally demonstrated gaseous diffraction gratings and holographic lenses in the laboratory with very high efficiencies and shot-to-shot stability at high repetition rates. This technology could have multiple applications for high-power lasers and their applications, including inertial fusion energy.

Bio:

Pierre Michel is the group leader for Laser-Plasma Applications and a Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff at LLNL. Before joining LLNL in 2006, he was a postdoctoral fellow at LBNL, working on short-pulse laser-plasma interactions. He obtained his Ph.D. in Physics from École Polytechnique in Paris in 2003. Pierre’s research interests focus on laser-matter interactions, inertial confinement fusion, optics and plasma physics. Over the past decade, he has initiated and led new research projects on plasma and gas optics, resulting in novel concepts with applications to high-power lasers and inertial fusion energy, and recently authored a textbook on laser-plasma interactions (Springer, 2023).