Work

A simple graphics processing unit-accelerated propagation routine for laser pulses in the strong-field regime

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: We present a simple and easy-to-implement Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)-accelerated routine to numerically simulate the propagation of ultrashort and intense laser pulses as they interact with a medium. The routine is based on the solution of Maxwell's wave equation in the frequency domain with an extended Crank-Nicolson algorithm implemented in the Nvidia CUDA C++ programming language. The main advantages of our method are its significant speed-up factor and its ease of implementation, requiring only basic knowledge of CUDA and C++. In this article, we review the strong-field wave equations to be solved and their discretization and demonstrate how to implement a numerical solver for them on an Nvidia GPU. We show the results of the simulation of a near-infrared laser pulse propagating through a partially ionized atomic gas and discuss the performance of our GPU-accelerated scheme. Compared to a naïve central processing unit implementation of the same routine, our GPU-accelerated version is up to 198 times faster in standard regimes.

Source: Review of Scientific Instruments

DOI: 10.1063/5.0220970

Authors: A. Martínez de Velasco, K. S. E. Eikema

Institution: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Language: English

Topic: Laser-Matter Interactions and Applications

Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Funder: Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek

Award: G293481665