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Abstract

This work consists of two fields of study involving the interaction of light with matter and light with light. The frst part explores the interaction of a superintense laser pulse with an ultrathin solid density foil. The radiation pressure exerted by the laser pulse can be so strong that, in principle, the whole foil is accelerated. This results in the generation of dense, high-flux and collimated and quasimonoenergetic ion beams. However, the onset of transverse instabilities damages the foil, thus resulting in ion spectral broadening. Simple analytical modeling is supported by particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations to strategize methods for instability suppression and ion-beam quality improvement. The second part puts forward a method for detecting the purely quantum electrodynamic process of elastic scattering of real photons in vacuum. Monte-Carlo simulations are used to study the feasibility of detection of this yet undetected process. An experimental setup comprising of a high energy gamma-ray beam colliding with an extreme ultraviolet (XUV) pulse or a free-electron laser (FEL) is utilized. This clean and controllable setup exploits the high gamma photon energies and large laser photon flux for enhancing the probability of scattering events.