Raman amplification of ultrashort laser pulses in microcapillary plasmas

Ping, Yuan; Geltner, I.; Morozov, A.; Fisch, N. J.; Suckewer, S.

doi:10.1103/physreve.66.046401

Cited by 41 publications

(26 citation statements)

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“…Recently, backscattered amplification was reported in a Li-F recombining plasma, 43 as well as in copper microcapillaries. 44 Resonant amplification appears to be observed as well in recent gas jet experiments. 45,46 However, a -pulse solution, or even any compression solution, has yet to be demonstrated in plasma.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Generation of ultrahigh intensity laser pulses

Fisch

Malkin

2003

Physics of Plasmas

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Mainly due to the method of chirped pulse amplification, laser intensities have grown remarkably during recent years. However, the attaining of very much higher powers is limited by the material properties of gratings. These limitations might be overcome through the use of plasma, which is an ideal medium for processing very high power and very high total energy. A plasma can be irradiated by a long pump laser pulse, carrying significant energy, which is then quickly depleted in the plasma by a short counterpropagating pulse. This counterpropagating wave effect has already been employed in Raman amplifiers using gases or plasmas at low laser power. Of particular interest here are the new effects which enter in high power regimes. These new effects can be employed so that one high-energy optical system can be used like a flashlamp in what amounts to pumping the plasma, and a second low-power optical system can be used to extract quickly the energy from the plasma and focus it precisely. The combined system can be very compact. Thus, focused intensities more than 10 25 W/cm 2 can be contemplated using existing optical elements. These intensities are several orders of magnitude higher than what is currently available through chirped pump amplifiers.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Generation of ultrahigh intensity laser pulses

Fisch

Malkin

2003

Physics of Plasmas

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“…For some time the main results obtained were an amplification by a factor 8 demonstrated for a plasma density of 3 × 10 20 cm −3 . Ping et al 18,19 observed gains of more than three orders of magnitude. However, they observed gain bandwidths, δλ/λ, less than 0.3% in the linear regime.…”

Section: Experimental Set-upmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chirped pulse Raman amplification in plasma: high gain measurements

et al. 2009

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This version is available at https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/30198/ Strathprints is designed to allow users to access the research output of the University of Strathclyde. Unless otherwise explicitly stated on the manuscript, Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Please check the manuscript for details of any other licences that may have been applied. You may not engage in further distribution of the material for any profitmaking activities or any commercial gain. You may freely distribute both the url (https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/) and the content of this paper for research or private study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge.Any correspondence concerning this service should be sent to the ABSTRACTHigh power short pulse lasers are usually based on chirped pulse amplification (CPA), where a frequency chirped and temporarily stretched "seed" pulse is amplified by a broad-bandwidth solid state medium, which is usually pumped by a monochromatic "pump" laser. Here, we demonstrate the feasibility of using chirped pulse Raman amplification (CPRA) as a means of amplifying short pulses in plasma. In this scheme, a short seed pulse is amplified by a stretched and chirped pump pulse through Raman backscattering in a plasma channel. Unlike conventional CPA, each spectral component of the seed is amplified at different longitudinal positions determined by the resonance of the seed, pump and plasma wave, which excites a density echelon that acts as a "chirped" mirror and simultaneously backscatters and compresses the pump. Experimental evidence shows that it has potential as an ultra-broad bandwidth linear amplifier which dispenses with the need for large compressor gratings.

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“…Previous experiments demonstrated low amplifications in a short microcapillary [13] and gas jet plasmas [14]. Recently, energy amplification of close to 100 was demonstrated in a plasma created in a 2 mm long gas jet with effective (i.e., with proper density) plasma length 1-1:5 mm.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…In this regime, the Raman amplification and compression of ultrashort pulses in a plasma allow intensities to reach 10 20 -10 21 W=cm 2 in a compact universityscale device, and unprecedented high intensity on the order of 10 25 W=cm 2 in a larger system [9]. Such intensities open new frontiers in physics and should also lead to practical applications such as fast ignition for inertial fusion [10], x-ray lasers [11], or laser wake field accelerators [12].Previous experiments demonstrated low amplifications in a short microcapillary [13] and gas jet plasmas [14]. Recently, energy amplification of close to 100 was demonstrated in a plasma created in a 2 mm long gas jet with effective (i.e., with proper density) plasma length 1-1:5 mm.…”

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Reaching the Nonlinear Regime of Raman Amplification of Ultrashort Laser Pulses

et al. 2005

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The intensity of a subpicosecond laser pulse was amplified by a factor of up to 1000 using the Raman backscatter interaction in a 2 mm long gas jet plasma. The process of Raman amplification reached the nonlinear regime, with the intensity of the amplified pulse exceeding that of the pump pulse by more than an order of magnitude. Features unique to the nonlinear regime such as gain saturation, bandwidth broadening, and pulse shortening were observed. Simulation and theory are in qualitative agreement with the measurements. The invention of chirped pulse amplification (CPA) [1,2] led to a tremendous increase of ultrashort laser pulse intensities to above 10 20 W=cm 2 [3,4]. However, such an ultrahigh intensity laser system was achieved using very large (on the order of 1 m 2 ) and expensive compressor gratings [4]. A further increase of the pulse intensity using the CPA technique would require even larger gratings in order not to exceed the material damage threshold. Such a system would be very difficult to implement in universityscale laboratories.In order to overcome the CPA material limit at ultrahigh intensities, different backscattering coupling techniques were proposed in plasma, including Compton scattering [5], resonant Raman backscattering [6], and Raman backscattering at an ionization front [7]. The experiments reported here utilize the resonant Raman mechanism [6], where a short seed laser pulse is amplified by a counterpropagating long pump pulse, with their frequencies satisfying the resonance relation, ! pump ! seed ! pe where ! pump , ! seed , and ! pe are frequencies of pump, seed, and plasma, respectively; ! pe 4 e 2 n e =m e p , n e is the plasma electron density, and m e and e are mass and charge of an electron. The energy transfer from pump to seed is in proportion to their frequencies, so for ! pump 10! pe , the efficiency can be as high as 90%. What makes the resonant Raman backscatter regime attractive is that it is a simple resonant interaction, with the seed amplification strong enough to outrun other deleterious competing instabilities (such as modulational instability that can lead to the filamentation of the laser beam) [6] or to avoid superluminous precursor solutions [8], and with realizable highly compressed ultrashort pulse solutions [9].The Raman backscattering (RBS) amplification can be divided into linear and nonlinear regimes. In the linear regime the pump depletion is negligible and the gain is independent of the seed intensity. The seed pulse is amplified and increased in duration due to the narrow bandwidth of the linear amplification. The nonlinear regime, the socalled -pulse regime, is characterized by pump depletion and the simultaneous temporal compression of the amplified pulse. In this regime, the Raman amplification and compression of ultrashort pulses in a plasma allow intensities to reach 10 20 -10 21 W=cm 2 in a compact universityscale device, and unprecedented high intensity on the order of 10 25 W=cm 2 in a larger system [9]. Such intensities open new frontiers i...

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Raman amplification of ultrashort laser pulses in microcapillary plasmas

Cited by 41 publications

References 14 publications

Generation of ultrahigh intensity laser pulses

Generation of ultrahigh intensity laser pulses

Chirped pulse Raman amplification in plasma: high gain measurements

Reaching the Nonlinear Regime of Raman Amplification of Ultrashort Laser Pulses

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