Experimental study of relativistic self-focusing andself-channeling of an intense laser pulse in an underdense plasma

This paper reports on experimental investigations on relativistic self-focusing and self-channeling of a terawatt laser pulse (0.7 TW⩽P⩽15 TW) in an underdense plasma. We present results obtained with picosecond (τ=1 ps) and subpicosecond (τ=0.4 ps) pulses. In the “long pulse” regime, modifications in the laser propagation are observed for Pc, the critical power for self-focusing. By contrast, self-guiding of subpicosecond pulses is observed for P≈P_c. Using a paraxial envelope model describing the laser propagation and taking into account the plasma response to the ponderomotive force, it is shown that a maximum laser intensity of 5-15 times that reached in vacuum may be achieved when P is in the (1.25-4)×P_c range. It is also demonstrated that ion motion may significantly reduce the effective P_c     

Non‐linear absorption of an intense laser pulse propagating in wiggler‐assisted underdense collisional plasma

In this article, the propagation of an intense laser pulse through underdense collisional plasma in the presence of planar magnetostatic wiggler is studied. It is shown that the electron density distribution, in the presence of planar wiggler with increasing of the normalized plasma length, increases initially and then reaches a peak for different values of wiggler amplitudes. In addition, it is found that the existence of wiggler field leads to an increase in the electron density distribution and subsequently enhancement of electric field. Moreover, it is observed that by increasing the wiggler field, as a result of the increase of the electron density distribution, the dielectric permittivity constant is reduced. It is seen that while wiggler magnetic field was applied appropriately, the total absorption coefficient in the underdense collisional isothermal magnetized plasma improves. In fact, increase of wiggler magnetic field causes the enhancement of the total absorption coefficient of plasma medium.     

Nonlinear interaction of an intense laser beam with millimeter sized underdense plasmas

Experimental results are reported on the nonlinear interaction of a 0.5 μm laser light with long scalelength preformed plasmas. Spectra from stimulated Brillouin and Raman scattering, as well as measurements of the transmitted laser light clearly indicate the occurence of strong nonlinearities driven by filamentation of the laser beam.     

Modulation instability of intense laser beam in an electron-positron plasma

Modulation instability of an intense right-hand elliptically polarized laser beam propagating through an electron-positron plasma is investigated by a new method. The nonlinear dispersion relation, in which the relativistic and ponderomotive nonlinearities are taken into account, is obtained for the laser radiation in electron-positron plasma by the Lorentz transformation. The Karpman equation is generalized to the case of three dimensions with three field components. When the nonlinear frequency shift of the electromagnetic field in plasma is involved, the nonlinear evolution equation for the slowly varying envelope of the laser field is obtained. Thus, modulation instability of the intense laser beam in electron-positron plasma is studied and the temporal growth rate of the instability is derived. The analysis shows that the growth rate of modulation instability is increased significantly near the critical surface in a laser-plasma.     

Compton散射对短脉冲强激光在次临界等离子体中自聚焦的影响

应用相对论理论和多光子非线性Compton散射模型,研究了Compton散射对短脉冲强激光在次临界等离子体中自聚焦的影响,提出了将入射光和Compton散射光作为形成激光自聚焦的新机制,给出了三级电流密度满足的修正方程,并进行了数值模拟。结果表明,相对论效应使等离子体中的短脉冲强激光自聚焦趋势减缓,而散射则加速了自聚焦的发展,总自聚焦趋势比无相对论时来得快一些,主要原因是由于散射光和入射光形成的耦合光频率较入射光频率增大,散射效应补偿了因相对论效应引起的自聚焦减缓效应的缘故。     

Reduction of the coherence time of an intense laser pulse propagating through a plasma

We present direct measurements of the coherence time of a laser beam after propagation through an underdense plasma. At an intensity of 10(14) W/cm(2), a large decrease of the coherence time is observed, from 300 ps to a few picoseconds. This decrease is larger as the plasma density is increased or as the light is scattered at larger angles. The amount of temporal decorrelation as well as the effect of the plasma density, laser intensity, and scattering angle all coincide with trends observed in recent numerical simulations.     

Quasistatic magnetic fields generated by a nonrelativistic intense laser pulse in uniform underdense plasma

Quasistatic magnetic fields generated by nonrelativistic intense linearly polarized (LP) and circularly polarized (CP) laser pulses in an initially uniform underdense plasma in the collision-dominated limit are investigated analytically. Using a selfconsistent analytical model, we perform a detailed derivation of quasistatic magnetic fields in the laser pulse envelope in the collision-dominated limit to obtain exact analytical expressions for magnetic fields and discuss the dependence of magnetic fields on laser and plasma parameters. Equations for quasistatic magnetic fields including both axial component B_z and the azimuthal one B_θ are derived simultaneously from such a selfconsistent model. The dependence of quasistatic magnetic field on incident laser intensity, transverse focused radius of laser pulse, electron density and electron temperature is discussed.     

强激光在磁化等离子体中的调制不稳定性

采用洛伦兹变换推导出左旋椭圆偏振强激光在磁化等离子体中的非线性色散关系,根据Karpman方法推导出激光场包络的非线性控制方程,分析了在磁化等离子体中左旋椭圆偏振激光的调制不稳定性,得到了调制不稳定的时间增长率。分析结果表明,磁化等离子体中自调制不稳定的极大增长率较非磁化情况明显减小,且在激光等离子体临界面附近处调制不稳定性的时间增长率显著增大。     

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采用洛伦兹变换推导出左旋椭圆偏振强激光在磁化等离子体中的非线性色散关系,根据Karpman方法推导出激光场包络的非线性控制方程,分析了在磁化等离子体中左旋椭圆偏振激光的调制不稳定性,得到了调制不稳定的时间增长率。分析结果表明,磁化等离子体中自调制不稳定的极大增长率较非磁化情况明显减小,且在激光等离子体临界面附近处调制不稳定性的时间增长率显著增大。     

Compton散射对短脉冲强激光在次临界等离子体中自聚焦的影响

应用相对论理论和多光子非线性Compton散射模型,研究了Compton散射对短脉冲强激光在次临界等离子体中自聚焦的影响,提出了将入射光和Compton散射光作为形成激光自聚焦的新机制,给出了三级电流密度满足的修正方程,并进行了数值模拟。结果表明,相对论效应使等离子体中的短脉冲强激光自聚焦趋势减缓,而散射则加速了自聚焦的发展,总自聚焦趋势比无相对论时来得快一些,主要原因是由于散射光和入射光形成的耦合光频率较入射光频率增大,散射效应补偿了因相对论效应引起的自聚焦减缓效应的缘故。     

Modulation instability by intense laser beam in magnetized plasma

Modulation instability of an intense right-hand elliptically polarized laser beam propagating through magnetized plasma is investigated by a new method. The nonlinear dispersion relation, in which the relativistic and ponderomotive nonlinearities are taken into account, is obtained for the laser radiation in magnetized plasma by the Lorentz transformation. The Karpman equation is firstly generalized to the case of three dimensions with three field components. When the nonlinear frequency shift of the electromagnetic field in plasma is involved, the nonlinear evolution equation for the slowly varying envelope of the laser field is obtained. Thus, modulation instability of the intense laser beam in magnetized plasma is studied and the temporal growth rate of the instability is derived. The analysis shows that the peak growth rate of self-modulation instability is increased due to the axial magnetization of plasma. It is also shown that the growth rate of modulation instability is increased significantly near the critical surface in a laser-plasma.     

短脉冲强激光在稀薄等离子体中传播时的电磁类孤立子

 采用二维粒子模拟方法，研究了短脉冲强激光在稀薄等离子体中传播时电磁类孤立子的产生和时空演化过程。通过分析电磁场与等离子体波的非线性能量交换和激光场的频率谱结构等，给出了电磁类孤立子形成的基本物理图像，讨论了等离子体参数对电磁类孤立子形成的影响。模拟结果表明：类孤立子的形成是由于局部电磁波振荡频率减小至等离子体频率引起的，初始等离子体密度越高越容易形成空间局域结构。     

短脉冲强激光在稀薄等离子体中传播时的电磁类孤立子

采用二维粒子模拟方法,研究了短脉冲强激光在稀薄等离子体中传播时电磁类孤立子的产生和时空演化过程。通过分析电磁场与等离子体波的非线性能量交换和激光场的频率谱结构等,给出了电磁类孤立子形成的基本物理图像,讨论了等离子体参数对电磁类孤立子形成的影响。模拟结果表明：类孤立子的形成是由于局部电磁波振荡频率减小至等离子体频率引起的,初始等离子体密度越高越容易形成空间局域结构。     

Observation of postsoliton expansion following laser propagation through an underdense plasma

The expansion of electromagnetic postsolitons emerging from the interaction of a 30 ps, 3×101? W?cm?2 laser pulse with an underdense deuterium plasma has been observed up to 100 ps after the pulse propagation, when large numbers of postsolitons were seen to remain in the plasma. The temporal evolution of the postsolitons has been accurately characterized with a high spatial and temporal resolution. The observed expansion is compared to analytical models and three-dimensional particle-in-cell results, revealing a polarization dependence of the postsoliton dynamics.     

Backscattering of an intense laser beam by an electron

We present a novel, simple asymptotic expansion for the spectrum of radiation that is backscattered from a laser by a counterpropagating (or copropagating) electron. The solutions are presented in such a way that they explicitly show the relative merit of using an intense laser and of an energetic electron beam in x-ray production in the single particle regime. Simple scaling laws are given.     

Propagation regimes of intense circularly polarized laser beam in magnetoactive plasma

This paper presents an analytical and numerical investigation of an intense circularly polarized wave propagating along the static magnetic field parallel to oscillating magnetic field in magnetoactive plasma. In the relativistic regime such a magnetic field is created by pulse itself. The authors have studied different regimes of propagation with relativistic electron mass effect for magnetized plasma. An appropriate expression for dielectric tensor in relativistic magnetoactive plasma has been evaluated under paraxial theory. Two modes of propagation as extraordinary and ordinary exist; because of the relativistic effect, ultra-strong magnetic fields are generated which significantly influence the propagation of laser beam in plasma. The nature of propagation is characterized through the critical-divider curves in the normalized beam width with power plane For given values of normalized density (ω_p/ω) and magnetic field (ω_c/ω) the regions are namely steady divergence (SD), oscillatory divergence (OD) and self-focusing (SF). Numerical computations are performed for typical parameters of relativistic laser-plasma interaction: magnetic field B = 10-100 MG; intensity I = 10¹⁶ to 10²⁰ W/cm²; laser frequency ω = 1.1 × 10¹⁵ s⁻¹; cyclotron frequency ω_c = 1.7 × 10¹³ s⁻¹; electron density n_e = 2.18 × 10²⁰ cm⁻³. From the calculations, we confirm that a circularly polarized wave can propagate in different regimes for both the modes, and explicitly indicating enhancement in wave propagation, beam focusing/self-guiding and penetration of E-mode in presence of magnetic field.     

Distribution regimes of intense laser beam in a self-consistent plasma channel

In the present work, we investigate the distributed regimes of an intense laser beam in a self-consistent plasma channel. As the intensity of the laser beam increases, the relativistic mass effect as well as the ponderomotive expulsion of electrons modifies the dielectric function of the medium due to which the medium exhibits nonlinearity. Based on Wentzel–Kramers–Brillouin and paraxial ray theory, the steady-state solution of an intense, Gaussian electromagnetic beam is studied. A differential equation of the beamwidth parameter with the distance of propagation is derived, including the effects of relativistic self-focusing (SF) and ponderomotive self-channeling. The nature of propagation and radial dynamics of the beam in plasma depend on the power, width of the beam, and Ω _p, the ratio of plasma to wave frequency. For a given value of Ω _p (<1), the distribution regimes have been obtained in beampower–beamwidth plane, characterizing the regimes of propagation as steady divergence, oscillatory divergence, and SF. The related focusing parameters are optimized introducing plasma density ramp function, and spot size of the laser beam is analyzed for inhomogeneous plasma. This results in overcoming the diffraction and guiding the laser beam over long distance. Numerical computations are performed for typical parameters of relativistic laser–plasma interaction studies.     

强激光与等离子体相互作用产生的超强太赫兹辐射

超短强激光脉冲在等离子体中传播时会激发大振幅的等离子体尾波场，它是一种电子等离子体波．由于这是一种静电波，它一般不能转换成电磁辐射．我们发现在不均匀等离子体中激发的尾波场在一定条件下可以通过线性模式转换产生电磁辐射．由于用超短强激光脉冲尾波场可以达到的电场振幅达100GV／m，其振动频率在太赫兹（10^12Hz）附近，用这种方法可以产生电场强度达到GV／m的太赫兹辐射．