Designing zettawatt-equivalent experiments for ZEUS
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The Zettawatt-Equivalent Ultrashort pulse laser System (ZEUS) at the University of Michigan is a user facility supported by the National Science Foundation. The name ZEUS refers to the collision of a petawatt (PW) laser pulse with a GeV energy electron beam, producing the equivalent of a “Zettawatt” power laser interaction (1021 W) in the rest frame of the electron beam. The facility aims to enable systematic exploration of strong-field quantum electrodynamics processes by producing synchronized 2.5 PW and 0.5 PW pulses. The ZEUS target area has been designed to enable two collision geometries: one in which the 2.5 PW pulse drives laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) to generate high-energy electron beams that collide with the 0.5 PW pulse, and another in which the 0.5 PW pulse drives LWFA and electrons collide with the 2.5 PW pulse focused to ultrahigh intensity. This paper describes initial designs and preparations for zettawatt-equivalent experiments at ZEUS.
Source: Physics of Plasmas
DOI: 10.1063/5.0283118
Authors: Paul T. Campbell, Anatoly Maksimchuk, Yong Ma, Qian Qian, John Nees, Tanner Nutting, Brandon K. Russell, Richard Anthony, Andre Antoine, Franko Bayer, Milos Burger, Jason Cardarelli, Nicholas Ernst, Rebecca Fitzgarrald, Bixue Hou, Galina Kalinchenko, Gregg Sucha, Richard Van Camp, Grant Young, Qing Zhang, Carolyn Kuranz, Igor Jovanovic, Louise Willingale, Alexander G. R. Thomas, Karl Krushelnick
Institution: University of Michigan
Language: English
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Awards: Probing Super-Critical Electromagnetic Fields with Petawatt Lasers, Mid-scale RI-1 (M1:IP): Zettawatt-Equivalent Ultrashort Pulse Laser System (ZEUS), SI2-SSI: Particle-In-Cell and Kinetic Simulation Center, NSF ZEUS Multi-Petawatt Laser Facility: Operations, NSF-GACR: Strong Field QED Plasma Physics at PetaWatt-Class Laser Facilities, G8732394843
OpenAlex ID: W4413986172