Advances in laser-based bremsstrahlung x-ray sources. II. Laser pulse propagation and guiding in nonuniform plasma media in the presence of self-focusing

An analytic Wentzel–Kramers–Brillouin model is presented of Gaussian laser pulse propagation through plasma with a quadratic transverse density profile and an arbitrarily varying, longitudinal density gradient under conditions of nonlinear self-focusing. From these solutions, it is shown that in the...

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Veröffentlicht in:Physics of plasmas 2024-12, Vol.31 (12)
Hauptverfasser: Albright, B. J., Yin, L., Palaniyappan, S., Bogale, A. S., Fernández, J. C., Bengoa, A. Figueroa, Fitzgarrald, R., Gautier, D. C., Huang, C.-K., Hunter, J., Luedtke, S. V., Medina, B. M., Mix, L. T., Sauppe, J. P., Seaton, A. G., Strehlow, J., Tomkins, C. D., Van Pelt, A.
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Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:An analytic Wentzel–Kramers–Brillouin model is presented of Gaussian laser pulse propagation through plasma with a quadratic transverse density profile and an arbitrarily varying, longitudinal density gradient under conditions of nonlinear self-focusing. From these solutions, it is shown that in the absence of nonlinear self-focusing and transverse nonuniformity, for exponential pre-plasma density profiles, the use of a low density coating of the laser target with electron density n0∼11 ncr (e.g., a CH foam of density 35 mg/cm3 for 1-micron laser light) maximizes laser intensity at best focus. Also, under laser and plasma conditions relevant to recent experiments on high-power laser systems, conditions are obtained for a Gaussian laser pulse to propagate stably through the pre-plasma medium. Such conditions would be expected to enhance the production of relativistic electrons from laser-target coupling, providing a possible explanation for the observed increase in MeV photon dose and enabling applications such as laser-based MeV X-ray radiography.
ISSN:1070-664X
1089-7674
DOI:10.1063/5.0229166