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Title: Saturation of the leading spike growth in backward Raman amplifiers

Journal Article · · Physics of Plasmas
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4896347· OSTI ID:22303443
;  [1];  [2]
  1. Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 (United States)
  2. Department of Electrical Engineering, Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000 (Israel)

Backward Raman amplification of laser pulses in plasmas can produce nearly relativistic unfocused output intensities and multi-exawatt powers in compact devices. The largest achievable intensity depends on which of major competitive processes set this limit. It is shown here that the relativistic electron nonlinearity can cause saturation of the leading amplified spike intensity before filamentation instabilities develop. A simple analytical model for the saturation, which supports numerical simulations, is suggested. The upper limit for the leading output spike unfocused intensity is calculated.

OSTI ID:
22303443
Journal Information:
Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 21, Issue 9; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-664X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English