The role of the gas/plasma plume and self-focusing in a gas-filled capillary discharge waveguide for high-power laser-plasma applications

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Ciocarlan, Cristian and Wiggins, Mark and Islam, Mohammad and Ersfeld, Bernhard and Abu-Azoum, Salima Saleh and Wilson, Robbie and Aniculaesei, Constantin and Welsh, Gregor H. and Vieux, Gregory and Jaroszynski, Dino (2013) The role of the gas/plasma plume and self-focusing in a gas-filled capillary discharge waveguide for high-power laser-plasma applications. Physics of Plasmas, 20. 093108. ISSN 1070-664X (https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4822333)

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Abstract

The role of the gas/plasma plume at the entrance of a gas-filled capillary discharge plasma waveguide in increasing the laser intensity has been investigated. Distinction is made between neutral gas and hot plasma plumes that, respectively, develop before and after discharge breakdown. Time-averaged measurements show that the on-axis plasma density of a fully expanded plasma plume over this region is similar to that inside the waveguide. Above the critical power, relativistic and ponderomotive self-focusing lead to an increase in the intensity, which can be nearly a factor of 2 compared with the case without a plume. When used as a laser plasma wakefield accelerator, the enhancement of intensity can lead to prompt electron injection very close to the entrance of the waveguide. Self-focusing occurs within two Rayleigh lengths of the waveguide entrance plane in the region, where the laser beam is converging. Analytical theory and numerical simulations show that, for a density of 3.0 × 1018 cm−3, the peak normalized laser vector potential, a 0, increases from 1.0 to 1.85 close to the entrance plane of the capillary compared with a 0 = 1.41 when the plume is neglected.

ORCID iDs

Ciocarlan, Cristian ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8547-8104, Wiggins, Mark ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7804-6146, Islam, Mohammad, Ersfeld, Bernhard ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5597-9429, Abu-Azoum, Salima Saleh, Wilson, Robbie, Aniculaesei, Constantin, Welsh, Gregor H. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7933-4190, Vieux, Gregory ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4040-4117 and Jaroszynski, Dino ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3006-5492;
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