Upper limit power for self-guided propagation of intense lasers in plasma
- Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, CAS, Beijing 100190 (China)
- Key Laboratory for Laser Plasmas (Ministry of Education) and Department of Physics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240 (China)
- Graduate School of Engineering, Utsunomiya University, 7-1-2 Yohtoh, Utsunomiya 321-8585 (Japan)
- Institute of Applied Physics and Computational Mathematics, Beijing 100094 (China)
- Departments of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095 (United States)
It is shown that there is an upper-limit laser power for self-focusing of a laser pulse in plasma in addition to the well-known lower-limit critical power set by the relativistic effect. This upper limit is caused by the transverse ponderomotive force of the laser, which tends to expel plasma electrons from the laser propagating area. Furthermore, there is a lower-limit plasma density for a given laser spot size, below which self-focusing does not occur for any laser power. Both the lower-limit density and the upper-limit power are derived theoretically and verified by two-dimensional and three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. It is also found that plasma channels may be unfavorable for stable guiding of lasers above the upper-limit power.
- OSTI ID:
- 22080514
- Journal Information:
- Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 101, Issue 18; Other Information: (c) 2012 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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