Announcing a Special Issue of the
IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science
on Laser and Plasma Accelerators
(Scheduled for August 2008)

Ultra intense laser and particle beams are pushing particle acceleration using plasmas to regimes unconceivable just a few years ago: 1 GeV monoenergetic electron beams from a laser-plasma accelerator, energy doubling of the 42 GeV SLAC beam, controlled injection of monoenergetic relativistic electron beams, and quasi-monoenergetic MeV ion beams are just some of the groundbreaking experimental results in 2006. In the next couple of years, more exciting developments are to be expected: new PW- range laser systems and R&D programs in this field are spreading all over the World, and large-scale numerical simulations are providing information with unprecedented detail.

The IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science (TPS) will have a Special Issue of "Laser and Plasma Accelerators" to be published August 2008. This issue will present the most recent developments in the field covering both electron acceleration and ion acceleration, using intense laser and particle beams. Topics include, but are not restricted to: Plasma accelerators and the energy frontier, One to ten GeV laser-plasma accelerator technology, Computer modelling of laser and plasma accelerators, Physics and applications of laser/beam - plasma interactions (e.g, generation of energetic particles, attosecond X-ray pulses, THz radiation, and high-energy Gamma rays), Fundamental physics and relativistic astrophysics with intense laser and particle beams.

Examples of past special issues are: IEEE TPS Special Issue on Generation of Coherent Radiation Using Plasmas, February 1993 (Guest Editor: Prof. Warren B. Mori), IEEE TPS Special Issue on Second Generation Plasma Accelerators, April 1996 (Guest Editors: Profs. T. Katsouleas and R. Bingham), and IEEE TPS Special Issue on Laser and Plasma Accelerators, August 2000, (Guest Editors: Profs. P. Muggli and T. M. Antonsen, Jr.). These special issues have established the landmarks of the field, and it is now rather timely to have another special issue due to the groundbreaking results that have been achieved in the last few years.

The deadline for submissions is 15 November 2007.  Contributions must be submitted in electronic form through Manuscript CentralTM (http://tps-ieee.manuscriptcentral.com) as described in the submission instructions www.ieee.org/pubs/authors.html (also check http://cfp.ist.utl.pt/lpaw07/ for instructions).

Please direct questions to the Guest Editors: