Bursts of terahertz radiation from large-scale plasmas irradiated by relativistic picosecond laser pulses

Liao, G. Q. and Li, Y. T. and Li, C. and Su, L. N. and Zheng, Y. and Liu, M. and Wang, W. M. and Hu, Z. D. and Yan, W. C. and Dunn, J. and Nilsen, J. and Hunter, J. and Liu, Y. and Wang, X. and Chen, L. M. and Ma, J. L. and Lu, X. and Jin, Z. and Kodama, R. and Sheng, Z. M. and Zhang, J. (2015) Bursts of terahertz radiation from large-scale plasmas irradiated by relativistic picosecond laser pulses. Physical Review Letters, 114 (25). 255001. ISSN 1079-7114 (https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.255001)

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Abstract

Powerful terahertz (THz) radiation is observed from large-scale underdense preplasmas in front of a solid target irradiated obliquely with picosecond relativistic intense laser pulses. The radiation covers an extremely broad spectrum with about 70% of its energy located in the high frequency regime over 10 THz. The pulse energy of the radiation is found to be above 100  μJ per steradian in the laser specular direction at an optimal preplasma scale length around 40–50  μm. Particle-in-cell simulations indicate that the radiation is mainly produced by linear mode conversion from electron plasma waves, which are excited successively via stimulated Raman scattering instability and self-modulated laser wakefields during the laser propagation in the preplasma. This radiation can be used not only as a powerful source for applications, but also as a unique diagnostic of parametric instabilities of laser propagation in plasmas.

ORCID iDs

Liao, G. Q., Li, Y. T., Li, C., Su, L. N., Zheng, Y., Liu, M., Wang, W. M., Hu, Z. D., Yan, W. C., Dunn, J., Nilsen, J., Hunter, J., Liu, Y., Wang, X., Chen, L. M., Ma, J. L., Lu, X., Jin, Z., Kodama, R., Sheng, Z. M. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8823-9993 and Zhang, J.;
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