A curious case of high absorption in moderately relativistic intensity laser interactions

Laser interactions at intensities where electron motion is only moderately relativistic typically involve lower absorption than other regimes because (1) the plasma is hot enough that collisional effects are minimal and (2) the intensity is not so high that relativistic absorption becomes important. Due to these effects, it is often the case that of order 80% of the laser light is reflected from near-solid-density targets in this regime. An interesting exception to this rule is when two laser pulses simultaneously irradiate a target from two different angles. In a recent paper from our group particle-in-cell simulations indicate that this configuration can potentially double the absorption. In this talk I will discuss physical reasons why this approach enhances absorption and whether it can be of any use in laser fusion.