{"id":236263,"date":"2026-04-30T22:25:50","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T03:25:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/laser-plasma-accelerators-can-preserve-polarization-of-helium-3-ions"},"modified":"2026-04-30T22:25:50","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T03:25:50","slug":"laser-plasma-accelerators-can-preserve-polarization-of-helium-3-ions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/laser-plasma-accelerators-can-preserve-polarization-of-helium-3-ions","title":{"rendered":"Laser-plasma accelerators can preserve polarization of Helium-3 ions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/laser-plasma-accelerators-can-preserve-polarization-of-helium-3-ions.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Particle accelerators such as those at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva are typically highly complex large-scale devices. In these ring-shaped facilities, which are often several kilometers in length, magnets and radio-frequency cavities are used to accelerate elementary particles. An alternative approach is now emerging: compact laser\u2013plasma accelerators that can be built and operated at a fraction of the cost. These accelerators can achieve acceleration gradients up to around 1,000 times higher than those of conventional accelerators. Researchers at HHU contributed significantly to this development.<\/p>\n<p>A research team led by Prof. Dr. Markus B\u00fcscher, a professor of physics at HHU and group leader at the Peter Gr\u00fcnberg Institute in J\u00fclich, presented the current state of research in a review article in <a href=\"https:\/\/iopscience.iop.org\/article\/10.1088\/1361-6633\/ae1988\" target=\"_blank\"><i>Reports on Progress in Physics<\/i><\/a>. In a separate study published in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/journals\/high-power-laser-science-and-engineering\/article\/preservation-of-3he-ion-polarization-after-laserdriven-acceleration-in-plasma\/E6FC7622A7130299AF43998AC5B48A31\" target=\"_blank\"><i>High Power Laser Science and Engineering<\/i><\/a>, they report on one specific aspect of laser\u2013plasma acceleration, namely whether the polarization\u2014that is to say, the collective spin alignment\u2014of accelerated particles is preserved in laser\u2013plasma accelerators.<\/p>\n<p>Why is this relevant? \u201cSpin alignment is crucial to a range of fundamental scientific questions as it influences the interaction between particles,\u201d explains Professor B\u00fcscher. \u201cIn <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2024-11-aligning-quantum-property-fusion-fuels.html?utm_source=embeddings&utm_medium=related&utm_campaign=internal\" rel=\"related\">controlled nuclear fusion<\/a>, the reaction probability\u2014and thus ultimately the energy produced in the reactor\u2014increases significantly when the spins of the fusing nuclei, the \u2018fusion fuel\u2019 so to speak, are aligned in parallel.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Particle accelerators such as those at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva are typically highly complex large-scale devices. In these ring-shaped facilities, which are often several kilometers in length, magnets and radio-frequency cavities are used to accelerate elementary particles. An alternative approach is now emerging: compact laser\u2013plasma accelerators that can be built [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,873,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-236263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-engineering","category-nuclear-energy","category-particle-physics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236263\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}