Raman laser amplification in preformed and ionizing plasmas
The recently proposed backward Raman laser amplification scheme utilizes the stimulated Raman backscattering in plasma of a long pumping laser pulse to amplify a short, frequency downshifted seed pulse. The output intensity for this scheme is limited by the development of forward Raman scattering (FRS) or modulational instabilities of the highly amplified seed. Theoretically, focused output intensities as high as 1025 W/cm{sup 2} and pulse lengths of less than 100 fs could be accessible by this technique for 1 {micro}m lasers--an improvement of 10{sup 4}-10{sup 5} in focused intensity over current techniques. Simulations with the particle-in-cell (PIC) code Zohar are presented which investigate the effects of FRS and modulational instabilities and of Langmuir wave breaking on the output intensity for Raman amplification. Using the intense seed pulse to photoionize the plasma simultaneous with its amplification (and hence avoid plasmas-based instabilities of the pump) is also investigated by PIC simulations. It is shown that both approaches can access focused intensities in the 1025 W/cm{sup 2} range.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 15014561
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-CONF-206374; TRN: US0800867
- Resource Relation:
- Journal Volume: 23; Journal Issue: 01; Conference: Presented at: 28th European Conference on Laser Interaction with Matter, Rome, Italy, Sep 06 - Sep 10, 2004
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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