Theory and simulation of short intense laser pulse propagation in capillary tubes with wall ablation

The theory and simulations of short intense laser pulses propagating in capillary tubes, whose properties are changed in time and space under the action of the laser field, are presented. A hybrid approach has been used in which the dynamics of fields inside the capillary tube is described analytically, whereas the ionization, heating, and expansion of the plasma created at the inner wall of the tube under the action of the transverse energy flux are calculated by numerical simulation. This hybrid method has allowed to determine the behavior of high laser fluxes guided over large distances. The threshold value for the incident intensity at which plasma creation plays a significant role has been estimated analytically and confirmed by numerical results. For intensities above the threshold, the transmission becomes highly sensitive to the energy of the laser pulse, being minimum at the intensity level for which the electron temperature of the capillary wall slightly exceeds the Fermi level and the electron collision frequency has a maximum.