Characteristics of argon plasma waveguide produced by alumina capillary discharge for short wavelength laser application

Abstract

We have reported the argon (Ar) plasma waveguide produced in an alumina (Al2O3) capillary discharge and used to guide ultrashort laser pulses at intensities of the order of 1016 W/cm2. The electron density in the plasma waveguide was measured to be 1×1018 cm−3, in agreement with one-dimensional magnetrohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations. The MHD code was also used to evaluate the degree of ionization of argon (Ar) in the preformed plasma waveguide. The maximum ion charge state of Ar3+ in capillary discharge was measured and obtained in the MHD simulations. The spectrum of the propagated laser pulse in the Ar plasma waveguide was not modified and was well reproduced by a particle-in-cell simulations under initial ion charge state of Ar3+ in the preformed plasma waveguide. The optimum timing for the laser pulse injection was around 150 ns after initiation of a discharge with a peak current of 200 A.