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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 first 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.