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Title: Spatiotemporal control of laser intensity

Abstract

The controlled coupling of a laser to a plasma has the potential to address grand scientific challenges including reaching the Schwinger limit, developing compact free electron lasers, extending linear colliders to TeV energies, and generating novel light sources for probing electron dynamics within molecules. Currently, many such applications have limited flexibility and poor control over the laser focal volume. Here we present an advanced focusing scheme called a “flying focus” where a chromatic focusing system combined with chirped laser pulses enables a small–diameter laser focus to propagate nearly 100 times its Rayleigh length, while decoupling the speed at which the peak intensity moves from its group velocity. This unprecedented spatiotemporal control over the laser focal volume allows the laser focus to co- or counter–propagate along its axis at any velocity. Experiments validating the concept measured subluminal (-0.09c) to superluminal (39c) focal spot velocities generating a nearly constant peak intensity over 4.5 mm.

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [1];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [1];  [2];  [2]
  1. Univ. of Rochester, NY (United States). Lab. for Laser Energetics; Univ. of Rochester, NY (United States). Dept. of Physics
  2. Univ. of Rochester, NY (United States). Lab. for Laser Energetics
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Univ. of Rochester, NY (United States). Lab. for Laser Energetics
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES)
OSTI Identifier:
1437582
Report Number(s):
2017-173; 13-98
Journal ID: ISSN 1749-4885; PII: 121; TRN: US1900343
Grant/Contract Number:  
NA0001944; SC0016253
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Nature Photonics
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 12; Journal Issue: 5; Journal ID: ISSN 1749-4885
Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY

Citation Formats

Froula, Dustin H., Turnbull, David, Davies, Andrew S., Kessler, Terrance J., Haberberger, Dan, Palastro, John P., Bahk, Seung-Whan, Begishev, Ildar A., Boni, Robert, Bucht, Sara, Katz, Joseph, and Shaw, Jessica L. Spatiotemporal control of laser intensity. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1038/s41566-018-0121-8.
Froula, Dustin H., Turnbull, David, Davies, Andrew S., Kessler, Terrance J., Haberberger, Dan, Palastro, John P., Bahk, Seung-Whan, Begishev, Ildar A., Boni, Robert, Bucht, Sara, Katz, Joseph, & Shaw, Jessica L. Spatiotemporal control of laser intensity. United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-018-0121-8
Froula, Dustin H., Turnbull, David, Davies, Andrew S., Kessler, Terrance J., Haberberger, Dan, Palastro, John P., Bahk, Seung-Whan, Begishev, Ildar A., Boni, Robert, Bucht, Sara, Katz, Joseph, and Shaw, Jessica L. Mon . "Spatiotemporal control of laser intensity". United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-018-0121-8. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1437582.
@article{osti_1437582,
title = {Spatiotemporal control of laser intensity},
author = {Froula, Dustin H. and Turnbull, David and Davies, Andrew S. and Kessler, Terrance J. and Haberberger, Dan and Palastro, John P. and Bahk, Seung-Whan and Begishev, Ildar A. and Boni, Robert and Bucht, Sara and Katz, Joseph and Shaw, Jessica L.},
abstractNote = {The controlled coupling of a laser to a plasma has the potential to address grand scientific challenges including reaching the Schwinger limit, developing compact free electron lasers, extending linear colliders to TeV energies, and generating novel light sources for probing electron dynamics within molecules. Currently, many such applications have limited flexibility and poor control over the laser focal volume. Here we present an advanced focusing scheme called a “flying focus” where a chromatic focusing system combined with chirped laser pulses enables a small–diameter laser focus to propagate nearly 100 times its Rayleigh length, while decoupling the speed at which the peak intensity moves from its group velocity. This unprecedented spatiotemporal control over the laser focal volume allows the laser focus to co- or counter–propagate along its axis at any velocity. Experiments validating the concept measured subluminal (-0.09c) to superluminal (39c) focal spot velocities generating a nearly constant peak intensity over 4.5 mm.},
doi = {10.1038/s41566-018-0121-8},
journal = {Nature Photonics},
number = 5,
volume = 12,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Mar 12 00:00:00 EDT 2018},
month = {Mon Mar 12 00:00:00 EDT 2018}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
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Cited by: 108 works
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Figures / Tables:

FIG. 1 FIG. 1: (a) A schematic of the chromatic focusing system coupled to a spectrally chirped laser pulse. Measurements of the temporal evolution of the intensity at various longitudinal locations along the focus are shown. A negatively chirped pulse is shown where the colors changing in time from blue to red.more » For a more complete visualization of the flying focus, see movies in the supplementary information.« less

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Figures/Tables have been extracted from DOE-funded journal article accepted manuscripts.