The UCLA Particle-in-Cell (PIC) and Kinetic Simulation Software Center (PICKSC) uses and develops simulation and data science tools to make fundamental discoveries in plasma based acceleration, plasma based light sources, plasma astrophysics, intense laser and plasma interactions, the nonlinear optics of plasmas, and high fidelity simulation. The Center is also committed to making its software available to others to accelerate the rate of scientific discovery and to provide unique educational tools. We are users and developers of OSIRIS, UPIC, QuickPIC, and QPAD and a set of Jupyter notebooks aimed at education. If you would like more information on this software please look at the software page.
PICKSC is housed within the UCLA Departments of Physics and Astronomy and of Electrical and Computer Engineering. It is co-led by Professors W.B. Mori and E. Paulo Alves. We are closely connected with thc UCLA Laser-Plasma Group led by Professor C. Joshi.
Latest news
"Arbitrarily structured laser pulses" published in Physical Review Research: A new mathematical formalism for describing laser fields with complex spatial and temporal structure has just been published in Physical Review Research. This work was lead by PICKSC team member Jacob Pierce. This new theoretical formalism offers a powerful tool for exploring how spatially and temporally structured laser pulses interact with plasmas, and how such pulses might be leveraged to enhance various laser-based applications, including laser wakefield acceleration, inertial confinement fusion, nanophotonics, and attosecond physics.
State-of-the-art PIC code OSIRIS is now open-source: The state-of-the-art particle-in-cell code OSIRIS which has been continuously developed by our team and close collaborators for more than two decades is now open-source! The code can be found here. The new website contains all the relevant information for new users to start using the code. We invite interested users and developers to join the OSIRIS Consortium in order to benefit from a close community of developers that working on advanced new features. Details and contact information for joining the Consortium can be found here.
Latest Publications
T. N. Dalichaouch, X. L Xu, A. Tableman, F. Li, F. S. Tsung, and W. B. Mori, "A multisheath model for highly nonlinear plasma wakefields", PHYSICS OF PLASMAS 28, 063103 (2021). 10.1063/5.0051282
F. Li, V. K. Decyk, K. G. Miller, A. Tableman, F. S. Tsung, M. Vranic, R. A. Fonseca and W. B. Mori, "Accurately simulating nine-dimensional phase space of relativistic particles in strong fields", JOURNAL OF COMPUTATIONAL PHYSICS 438, 110367 (2021). 10.1016/j.jcp.2021.110367
J. L. Shaw, M. A. Romo-Gonzalez, N. Lemos, P. M. King, G. Bruhaug, K. G. Miller, C. Dorrer, B. Kruschwitz, L. Waxer, G. J. Williams, M. Ambat, M. M. McKie, M. D. Sinclair, W. B. Mori, C. Joshi, H. Chen, J. P. Palastro, F. Albert and D. H. Froula, "Microcoulomb (0.7 +/- 0.4/0.2 mu C) laser plasma accelerator on OMEGA EP." SCIENTIFIC REPORTS 11, 7498 (2021). 10.1038/s41598-021-86523-5