Enhanced laser-induced plasma channels in air***Project supported by the Development Foundation of the Chinese Academy of Engineering Physics (Grant Nos. 2012A0401019 and 2013A0401019).

Abstract

Plasma is a significant medium in high-energy density physics since it can hardly be damaged. For some applications such as plasma based backward Raman amplification (BRA), uniform high-density and large-scale plasma channels are required. In the previous experiment, the plasma transverse diameter and density are 50–200 μm and 1–2 × 1019 cm−3, here we enhance them to 0.8 mm and 8 × 1019 cm−3, respectively. Moreover, the gradient plasma is investigated in our experiment. A proper plasma gradient can be obtained with suitable pulse energy and delay. The experimental results are useful for plasma physics and nonlinear optics.