The evolution of ultra-intense, short-pulse lasers in underdense plasmas

Conference · Fri Nov 03 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:193909

Decker, C D ^[1]; Mori, W B; Tzeng, K C ^[2]

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1. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, CA (United States)
2. Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). Depts. of Physics and Electrical Engineering; and others

The propagation of short-pulse lasers through underdense plasmas at ultra-high intensities (I {>=}10{sup 19}W/cm) is examined. The pulse evolution is found to be significantly different than it is for moderate intensities. Rather than beam breakup from self-modulation, Raman forward scattering and laser hose instabilities the behavior is dominated by leading edge erosion. A differential equation which describes local pump depletion is derived and used to analyze the formation and evolution of the erosion. This pulse erosion is demonstrated with one dimensional particle in cell (PIC) simulations. In addition, two dimensional simulations are presented which show pulse erosion along with other effects such as channeling and diffraction.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States); University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). Dept. of Electrical Engineering
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: FG03-92ER40727; FG03-93ER40776
• OSTI ID: 193909
• Report Number(s): UCRL-JC--122408; CONF-951182--5; ON: DE96005376
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

66 PHYSICS
BEAM-PLASMA SYSTEMS
HOSE INSTABILITY
LASER RADIATION
PLASMA SIMULATION
PLASMA WAVES
RAMAN EFFECT
SCATTERING
WAVE EQUATIONS
WAVE PROPAGATION