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) |
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Hauptverfasser: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
Format: | Artikel |
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. |
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ISSN: | 1070-664X 1089-7674 |
DOI: | 10.1063/5.0229166 |