Research Overview

My current research focuses on three distinct but related areas: inertial confinement fusion, plasma astrophysics, and high performance computing. Substantial collaboration has also been established with researchers and faculty at Laboratory for Laser Energetics and departments of mechanical engineering, physics and astronomy, electrical and computer engineering, and scientists at other institutions.

(Last updated January 2024)

Research Interests

• Inertial confinement fusion
• Plasma astrophysics
• High performance computing

Selected Publications

• H. Cao and C. Ren, “Evolution and hot electron generation of laser–plasma instabilities in direct-drive inertial confinement fusion,” Phys. Plasmas 30, 092701 (2023) [Editor’s Pick]
• H. Cao , D. Patel, A. Lees, C. Stoeck, M. J. Rosenberg, V. Gopalaswamy, H. Wen, H. Huang, A. Shvydky, R. Betti,1, and C. Ren, “Predicting hot electron generation in inertial confinement fusion with particle-in-cell simulations,” Phys. Rev. E 106, 055214 (2022)
• Zhang, J. R. Davies, P. V. Heuer, and C. Ren, “Kinetic Simulation Study of Magnetized Collisionless Shock Formation on a Terawatt Laser System.” Phys. Plasmas 28, 072111 (2021)