High field terahertz emission from relativistic laser-driven plasma wakefields

Journal Article · Thu Oct 15 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4933130· OSTI ID:22486453

Chen, Zi-Yu ^[1]; Pukhov, Alexander ^[1]

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1. Institut für Theoretische Physik I, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf 40225 (Germany)

We propose a method to generate high field terahertz (THz) radiation with peak strength of GV/cm level in the THz frequency gap range of 1–10 THz using a relativistic laser interaction with a gaseous plasma target. Due to the effect of local pump depletion, an initially Gaussian laser pulse undergoes leading edge erosion and eventually evolves to a state with leading edge being step function. Interacting with such a pulse, electrons gain transverse residual momentum and excite net transverse currents modulated by the relativistic plasma frequency. These currents give rise to the low frequency THz emission. We demonstrate this process with one and two dimensional particle-in-cell simulations.

• OSTI ID: 22486453
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 22, Issue 10; Other Information: (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
ELECTRONS
EMISSION
LASER-PRODUCED PLASMA
PULSES
RELATIVISTIC PLASMA
RELATIVISTIC RANGE
THZ RANGE
TWO-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS