Current University of Texas at Austin — Center for High Energy Density Physics

Industry Tau Systems Inc — Laser-plasma accelerator ML/AI development

National Laboratories Los Alamos National Laboratory — Theory Division (T-2), SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Jefferson Laboratory

International Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany; Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), Republic of Korea; Institut de Physique Nucléaire, Orsay, France; University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil; National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan; Peking University, Beijing, China

Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Program

 Title: Sensitivity Study of Compact laser-plasma accelerator, September 2025 --August 2028, 

 Role: Principal Investigator, Award amount: $450,000

US Department of Energy, National Nuclear Administration Security Program

 Title: Observing Quantum Effects in Hole-Boring and Photon Jet Production in Petawatt Laser-Solid Target    Interaction, August 2024 --July 2027, Award amount: $596,618

Thesis and Dissertation Tuition Scholarship

 Graduate College, University of Arizona, 2013

1st-year Teaching Encouragement Award

 Department of Physics, University of Arizona, 2011

Outstanding Graduates

 Peking University, 2010

Chenhuxiong Scholarship

 School of Physics, Peking University, 2009

Outstanding Academic Performance Scholarship

 School of Physics, Peking University, 2009

Laser Wakefield Acceleration and Electron Beams

O. Z. Labun, C. Aniculaesei, A. Gottfredson, R. van Mourik, D. Phan, M. Hegelich, and S. Milton, "Statistical method for reconstructing electron beam transverse phase space from a magnetic spectrometer," to appear in arXiv.

C. Aniculaesei et al., "Acceleration of electron bunches beyond 10 GeV using a nanoparticle-assisted hybrid wakefield accelerator," Matter and Radiation at Extremes 9.1 (2024).

L. Labun, M. Gracia-Linares, O. Z. Labun, S. V. Milton, "Performance envelope of laser wakefield accelerators," arXiv 2412.14311.

B. M. Hegelich, C. Hojbota, L. Labun, O. Z. Labun, D. Phan, "Luminosity for laser-electron colliders," arXiv 2307.10453.

B. M. Hegelich, L. A. Labun, O. Z. Labun, "Reconciling vacuum laser acceleration theory and experiment," Photonics 2023, 10(2), 226. arXiv:2009.00659

Strong-Field QED and Photon Production

S. V. Luedtke, L. Yin, L. A. Labun, Ou Z. Labun, B. J. Albright, D. J. Stark, R. F. Bird, W. D. Nystrom, B. M. Hegelich, "Creating QED Photon Jets with Present-Day Lasers," Phys. Rev. Research 3 (2021) L032061.

S. V. Luedtke, L. A. Labun, Ou Z. Labun, K.-U. Bamberg, H. Ruhl, B. M. Hegelich, "Jet Observable for Photons from High-Intensity Laser-Plasma Interactions," arXiv:1808.07067, submitted to Phys. Rev. E.

B. M. Hegelich, L. Labun, O. Z. Labun, G. Torrieri, H. Truran, "Electron response to radiation under linear acceleration: Classical, QED, and accelerated frame predictions," Phys. Rev. D 105 (2022) 096034.

B. M. Hegelich, L. Labun, O. Z. Labun, "Finding quantum effects in strong classical potentials," J. Plasma Phys. 83 (2017) 035901. arXiv:1704.05034

Laser-Driven Fusion, Neutrons, and Ions

E. McCary, O. Z. Labun, L. Labun, T. Ditmire, T. Mehlhorn, D. Voss, "Investigations of advanced fusion and alpha particle detection from Petawatt scale laser driven particle beams," to appear in arXiv.

B. M. Hegelich, L. Labun, O. Z. Labun, E. McCary, T. Mehlhorn, "Photon and neutron production as in-situ diagnostics of proton-boron fusion," Laser and Particle Beams, vol. 2023, Article ID 6924841. 

X. Jiao et al., "Laser-driven neutron source from high temperature D-D fusion reactions," Frontiers in Physics 10 (2023): 1361.

High Energy Density Plasma Modeling

R. Sain, L. Labun, O. Z. Labun, B. M. Hegelich, "Unified Model of Heated Plasma Expansion," arXiv 2511.02028

Hadron Spectroscopy

Ou Zhang, C. Meng, H. Q. Zheng, "Ambiversion of X(3872)," Phys. Lett. B 680 (2009) 453–458. arXiv:0901.1553

Y. Mao, X. G. Wang, Ou Zhang, H. Q. Zheng, Z. Y. Zhou, "A Dispersive Analysis on the f₀(600) and f₀(980) Resonances in γγ → ππ," Phys. Rev. D 79 (2009) 116008. arXiv:0904.1445

X. G. Wang, Ou Zhang, L. C. Jin, H. Q. Zheng, Z. Y. Zhou, "Investigations of the Property of f₀(600) and f₀(980) Resonances in γγ → ππ Process," PoS CD09:084, 2009. arXiv:0910.0341

Z. H. Guo, Ou Zhang, H. Q. Zheng, "Positivity Constraints on LECs of ChiPT Lagrangian at O(p⁶) Level," AIP Conf. Proc. 1343:259–261, 2011. arXiv:0911.4447

Available

Ragatini — A Generalizable Topical Expert Agent AWS-enabled Large Language Model chatbot that retrieves and synthesizes answers to domain-specific questions using a user-built corpus. Useful for research groups looking to build searchable knowledge bases from their own literature, simulation documentation, or experimental logs.

Inverse-Compton-Scattering-Particle Solver Analytical and numerical trajectories for electrons counter-propagating against focused high-intensity lasers. Supports design and analysis of laser-electron collision experiments for high-energy photon production.

Two-Screen Electron Spectrometer Devolution Electron beam reconstruction for five-dimensional phase space and differentiated spectrum from two-screen magnetic spectrometer data. Designed for laser wakefield accelerator diagnostics.

In Development

Colliding Liquid Jets — OpenFOAM Case Liquid target design using interFoam to simulate interface formation and transient evolution of the liquid sheet formed where two jets meet in near-vacuum. Supports high-repetition-rate laser target development.

LWFA-PIC-GNS Graph-Neural-Network Simulator as a non-blackbox surrogate model for particle-in-cell simulations of laser wakefield acceleration. Aims to accelerate parameter space exploration while preserving physical interpretability.

2026 Stewardship Science Academic Program Symposium, Washington D.C. February 2026. "Observing Quantum Effects in Hole-Boring and Photon Jet Production in Petawatt Laser-Solid Target Interaction"

WorldQuant Foundry Frontiers 2025, Florence, TX. November 2025.

Mini-Conference on Nuclear Physics in Plasmas - III, 67th Annual Meeting of APS Division of Plasma Physics, Long Beach, CA. November 2025. "Plasma-induced correction to nuclear reaction rates in laser-driven non-equilibrium plasma on Texas PetaWatt facility experiments"

2025 Stewardship Science Academic Program Symposium, Chicago, IL. June 2025. "Observing Quantum Effects in Hole-Boring and Photon Jet Production in Petawatt Laser-Solid Target Interaction"

Physics Colloquium, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA. January 2025. "Exploring applications of laser-driven particle beams and secondary radiation"

Defense TechConnect Fall Summit and Expo, Austin, TX. December 2024. Poster: "Sensitivity Studies on Laser Wakefield Driven Accelerators"

University of Campinas (UNICAMP) Physics Seminars, Campinas, Brazil. February 2018. "Effective Field Theory and High-intensity Laser Experiments"

Theory Seminar, Jefferson Laboratory, Newport News, VA. January 2017. "Effective Field Theory for Heavy Hadrons"

AMO Physics Seminar, University of Texas at Austin. April 2016. "Effective Field Theory for Quantum Processes in High Intensity Laser"

Joint Seminar, Institut de Physique Nucléaire – Orsay and École Polytechnique, France. April 2015. "Rapidity divergences in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering and Drell-Yan processes"

T-2 Division Seminar, Los Alamos National Laboratory. May 2014. "Extracting Parton Distribution Function from Deep Inelastic Scattering in the Non-perturbative Region"

PHYS 303L, Introduction to Electromagnetism, Optics and Nuclear Physics for pre-medical school students

Guest Lecturer, Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin, 2024-2025, 2018-2020

PHYS 302K, Introduction to Electromagnetism for engineering students

Primary Lecturer, Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin, 2021