UMD to Lead Research on Shaping Intense Laser Light to Control Matter

An intense laser pulse from a 300-terawatt laser is injected into a plasma waveguide created by a Bessel beam to accelerate electrons to multi-GeV energies. The new UMD-led MURI project will explore how shaping laser pulses in space and time can advance p

A University of Maryland–led team has won a Department of Defense 2026 Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) award to investigate how shaping intense laser pulses in space and time can open new ways to control matter. Led by Distinguished University Professor Howard Milchberg and supported through the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the project brings together researchers from six universities with expertise spanning laser physics, nonlinear optics, plasma science, and the generation and control of structured light..

The team will work with pulses lasting only femtoseconds—millionths of a billionth of a second. Within these brief flashes, researchers can arrange where the light is strongest, how its waves line up and the direction in which its electric field oscillates. Such “structured light” gives them new ways to direct the forces that laser pulses exert on electrons and other charged particles.

At high intensity, the interaction becomes a two-way process: light changes the material it passes through, and the altered material reshapes the light. Understanding and controlling that exchange is central to the project, titled “Physics and Applications of Intense, Spatiotemporally Structured Light Fields.”

The team will explore several forms of structured light. Spatiotemporal optical vortices contain a circulation of optical phase in space and time and can form smoke-ring-like structures that govern energy flow within a pulse. In “flying focus” pulses, the point of highest intensity follows a chosen trajectory. Other pulses carry a twist around their direction of travel or have electric fields whose orientation varies across the beam. Each offers a different way to control how light transfers energy and momentum to matter.

One goal is to improve compact particle accelerators. Intense laser pulses can drive powerful electric fields in plasma, a gas of free electrons and ions, and accelerate particles over much shorter distances than conventional accelerator technology. The team will investigate how structured pulses can improve electron and ion beams, tailoring their energy, direction and spatial distribution. Experiments will also examine how these interactions can produce enhanced neutron sources, with potential uses in imaging and materials analysis.

The project will also explore new sources of radiation and strong magnetic fields. Shaping the driving laser pulses could allow researchers to control the structure of extreme-ultraviolet light, generate intense radiofrequency and terahertz pulses, and drive electric currents that produce powerful magnetic fields. These studies could expand the tools available for probing matter and investigating its behavior under extreme conditions.

Another goal is to use light to create temporary optical structures in the atmosphere. Carefully arranged laser pulses can heat air to form channels that guide a subsequent beam, much as an optical fiber guides light. The researchers will explore how to extend and sustain these air waveguides, and how arrays of laser-generated plasma filaments might steer microwave and terahertz radiation. Such capabilities could eventually support remote sensing, communications and energy delivery.

To make these experiments possible, the team will develop optical components that shape powerful pulses while resisting laser damage. These include spiral mirrors that impart a twist to light, optics that control the electric field’s orientation, and dielectric metasurfaces: surfaces patterned with features smaller than a wavelength of light that can combine several beam-shaping functions in a compact element. Experiments at advanced laser facilities will be closely linked with theory and computer simulations to understand how the shaped pulses evolve and interact with matter.

Milchberg holds joint appointments in UMD’s Department of Physics, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics. He leads the Laboratory for Intense Laser-Matter Interactions, a member of the LaserNetUS network.

The project’s co-principal investigators are Jorge Rocca of Colorado State University, Chip Durfee of the Colorado School of Mines, Natalia Litchinitser of Duke University, Karl Krushelnick of the University of Michigan, and John Palastro of the University of Rochester. The collaboration also includes affiliated researchers at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Air Force Research Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The MURI program supports multidisciplinary basic research addressing scientific questions relevant to national defense. By bringing together expertise across institutions and fields, it enables teams to tackle problems beyond the scope of a single research group.

Published October 23, 2026