Plasma is a gas composed of a large number of free electrons and positively charged ions, formed when matter enters a high-energy state, and is often referred to as the "fourth state of matter." When a gas is energized—through high temperature, strong electric fields, or radiation—its atoms or molecules become partially or fully ionized, freeing electrons that move independently and create a plasma. Although it contains a large number of charged particles, the overall charge remains neutral due to the balance between positive and negative charges. Compared to ordinary gases, plasma exhibits distinct physical properties, such as high electrical conductivity, strong response to external electromagnetic fields, and complex collective behaviors including the excitation of electromagnetic and plasma waves. Typical examples of plasma in nature and technology include the Sun, lightning, auroras, as well as man-made systems like fusion devices and plasma thrusters
    Through the bombardment of targets with intense lasers or particle beams, we can create high-energy-density plasmas with energy density exceeding 10⁵ J/cm³ in laboratory settings. The study of this state of matter represents an internationally significant interdisciplinary frontier, holding crucial scientific importance and application value for fields including inertial confinement fusion, particle accelerators, radiation sources, astrophysics, and materials science. Transient particle dynamics plays a pivotal role in the spatiotemporal evolution of high-energy-density plasmas, directly affecting the realization of key scientific objectives such as high energy gain in inertial confinement fusion, high acceleration efficiency in plasma accelerators, high brightness in compact light sources, and high-fidelity laboratory astrophysics. Our research primarily employs theoretical analysis and numerical computation to investigate critical physical processes including acceleration, radiation, instabilities, and kinetic turbulence in these plasmas, providing guidance for practical applications. Specific applications fall into three categories:

1. Plasma Physics in Laser Inertial Confinement Fusion

    Laser Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) stands as one of the most important approaches in controlled nuclear fusion research. Its fundamental objective involves using high-energy lasers to instantaneously compress and heat microgram-scale deuterium-tritium fuel pellets, creating extreme high-temperature and high-pressure conditions to trigger self-sustaining fusion reactions and release enormous energy. The realization of stable net energy gain through this technology would unlock nearly limitless clean energy sources: its fuel can be extracted from seawater, produces zero carbon emissions, and generates no long-lived nuclear waste. Furthermore, ICF research holds significant value for national security, fundamental sciences (such as astrophysical process simulations), and studies of extreme matter states. The 2022 breakthrough achievement of net energy gain at the U.S. National Ignition Facility (NIF) marked a crucial step toward the "artificial sun" goal, offering new potential pathways for energy revolution. 

2. Laser-Plasma-Driven Accelerators and Radiation Sources 

    Laser-plasma-driven accelerators and radiation sources represent revolutionary directions in next-generation high-energy particle and light source technologies. Their core principle involves utilizing extremely high electric fields (three orders of magnitude stronger than traditional radiofrequency accelerators) generated through interactions between ultra-intense lasers and plasmas. This enables electron acceleration to GeV-level energies within centimeter scales while generating high-brightness, ultrashort-pulse X-ray and terahertz radiation. This technology could potentially reduce the scale of traditional accelerators and synchrotron radiation facilities by two orders of magnitude, significantly lowering construction and operational costs while providing femtosecond temporal resolution and nanometer spatial resolution detection capabilities. Applications span high-energy physics, material dynamics research, biological in vivo imaging, precision cancer radiotherapy, and provide novel research methods for laboratory astrophysics and quantum electrodynamics. Recent laboratory achievements in stable electron beam output and miniaturized radiation sources demonstrate its disruptive technological potential. 

3. Relativistic Astrophysical Plasma Physic 

    Relativistic astrophysical plasma physics serves as a key discipline for understanding extreme cosmic phenomena, primarily investigating plasma behavior near relativistic speeds in environments surrounding compact objects like black holes and neutron stars, as well as in gamma-ray burst jets and active galactic nucleus jets. In such environments, particle energies reach GeV levels, magnetic field intensities exceed extreme values, and spacetime curvature intertwines with quantum effects, creating interdisciplinary frontiers where classical physics intersects with relativity and quantum theory. Through numerical simulations and multi-messenger astronomical observations (electromagnetic waves, gravitational waves, neutrinos), this field not only provides physical explanations for astrophysical evolution challenges including black hole accretion, cosmic jet acceleration, and heavy element nucleosynthesis, but also enables laboratory verification of quantum electrodynamics and exploration of new physics beyond the Standard Model. These research achievements underpin major scientific propositions such as the origin of high-energy cosmic rays and the fundamental structure of spacetime, while providing cosmic-scale natural laboratory references for extreme plasma control in controlled fusion research.

[PhD] Peking University, Nuclear Technology (2020)

[BS]   Peking University, Physics (2015)

Associate Professor @ Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (2024-)

Postdoctoral Researcher @ Stanford University (2023-2024)

Postdoctoral Researcher @ Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics (2020-2023)

1. Y. Shou, Z. Gong, K. H. Pae, J. W. Yoon, J. H. Sung, S. K. Lee, S. Y. Kim, S. H. Kim, X. Wu, X. Yan, I. W. Choi, C. H. Nam, “Proton Acceleration Associated with Sheet Crossing in Petawatt-Laser-Irradiated Nanometer Foils”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 215002 (2025)
2. L Reichwein, Z Gong, C Zheng, L L Ji, A Pukhov and M Büscher, “Plasma acceleration of polarized particle beams”, Rep. Prog. Phys. 88 117001 (2025)
3. Z. Gong, K. Z. Hatsagortsyan, C. H. Keitel, “Spin-Polarized Condensed Plasmoids in Radiation Reaction Dominated Magnetic Reconnection”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 045101 (2025)
4. Z. Gong, S. Cao, J. P. Palastro, M. R. Edwards, “Laser Wakefield Acceleration of Ions with a Transverse Flying Focus”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 133, 265002 (2024)
5. Z. Gong, X. Shen, K. Z. Hatsagortsyan, C. H. Keitel, “Electron slingshot acceleration in relativistic preturbulent shocks explored via emitted photon polarization”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 131, 225101 (2023)
6. Z. Gong, K. Z. Hatsagortsyan, C. H. Keitel, “Electron Polarization in Ultrarelativistic Plasma Current Filamentation Instabilities”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 130, 015101 (2023)
7. Z. Gong, K. Z. Hatsagortsyan, C. H. Keitel, “Retrieving Transient Magnetic Fields of Ultrarelativistic Laser Plasma via Ejected Electron Polarization”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 165002 (2021)
8. P. Wang, Z. Gong, S. Lee, Y. Shou, Y. Geng, C. Jeon, I. Kim, H. Lee, J. Yoon, J. Sung, S. Lee, D. Kong, J. Liu, Z. Mei, Z. Cao, Z. Pan, I. Choi, X. Yan, C. Nam, W. Ma, “Super-Heavy Ions Acceleration Driven by Ultrashort Laser Pulses at Ultrahigh Intensity”, Phys. Rev. X 11 (2), 021049, (2021)
9. Z. Gong, F. Mackenroth, T. Wang, X. Yan, T. Toncian, and A. Arefiev, “Direct laser acceleration of electrons assisted by strong laser-driven azimuthal plasma magnetic fields”, Phys. Rev. E 102,013206 (2020)
10. J. Bin, M. Yeung, Z. Gong, H. Wang, C. Kreuzer, M. Zhou, M. Streeter, P. Foster, S. Cousens, B. Dromey, et al., “Enhanced laser-driven ion acceleration by superponderomotive electrons generated from near-critical-density plasma”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 074801 (2018)

Theoretical and computational plasma physics with the focus on:  

laser plasma interaction; plasma-based accelerators and radition sources; quantum electrodynamics; ultrarelativistic radiative spin polarized plasma; kinetic instabilities; relativistic astrophysics.

1. Laser Wakefield Acceleration of Ions with a Transverse Flying Focus, 33th Annual International Laser Physics Workshop, Szeged, Hungary, June 2025 (Invited)
2. Retrieving transient relativistic plasma dynamics via spin-polarization signals, 8th Asia Pacific Conference on Plasma Physics, Malacca, Malaysia, Nov 2024 (Invited)
3. Ultrarelativistic spin-polarized plasma, The 1st workshop on New Opportunities of Strong-Field Quantum Electrodynamics, Beijing, China, August 2024 (Invited)
4. New regimes of charged particle dynamics in relativistic beam- and laser-driven plasmas, The 7th International Conference on Matter and Radiation at Extremes (ICMRE2024), Hangzhou, China. May 2024 (Invited)
5. Plasma microdynamics in relativistic current filamentation and collisionless shock precursors, Plasma Science and Technology Seminar Series, Stanford University, USA, Nov 2023 (Invited)
6. Ultrarelativistic spin-polarized plasma, 65th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics, Denver, Colorado, USA, Oct 2023 (Invited)
7. Electron polarization in plasma current filamentation instabilities, Kaffeepalaver at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics, Heidleberg, Germany, April, 2023 (Invited)
8. Deciphering in situ electron dynamics of ultrarelativistic plasma via polarization pattern of emitted gamma-photons, 6th Asia Pacific Conference on Plasma Physics, e-conference, October, 2022 (Invited)
9. Deciphering electron acceleration dynamics of ultrarelativistic plasma via polarization pattern of emitted gamma-photons, QED Laser Plasma International workshop 2022, Dresden, Germany, September 2022 (Invited)
10. Ultra-relativistic spin-polarized plasma driven by high-intensity laser pulses, 36th European Conference on Laser Interaction with Matter (ECLIM2022), Frascati, Italy, September 2022 (Invited)

1. Peking University (Prof. Xueqing Yan)

2. Max Plack Institute for Nuclear Physics (Prof. Christoph Keitel)

3. University of California, San Diego (Prof. Alexey Arefiev)

4. Stanford University (Prof. Matthew Edwards)