Kinetic Simulations of Intense Laser-Dielectric Interactions

We present a novel three-dimensional framework for simulating intense short-pulse lasers interacting with dielectric materials. Our work modifies the open-source Particle-In-Cell (PIC) code EPOCH to include new models for molecular photoionization, dielectric optical response, and impact ionization. We use this framework to model the laser-induced damage of dielectric materials by few-cycle laser pulses. A sequence of simulations with varying laser fluence allow us to better understand the laser damage process by providing new insight into energy absorption, excited particle dynamics, and nonthermal excited particle distributions.  Additional applications of this framework include laser damage of multilayer interference coatings to improve next-generation optics and modeling of the extreme conditions created from laser-microstructure interactions.