Intense laser pulse amplification using Raman backscatter in plasma channels

Abstract

It has been proposed that the Raman backscatter interaction in a plasma can be used to amplify ultra-intense laser pulses. To accomplish this, energy is transferred from a long drive pulse at frequency ω pump to an intense seed pulse at frequency ω seed, with a Langmuir plasma wave at frequency w p mediating the transfer; the frequencies are chosen to satisfy the resonant condition ω p= ω pump− ω seed. Diffraction of the pulses limits the interaction length in a uniform plasma, and hence the energy transfer between the pulses. However in a parabolic plasma density channel it is shown, through two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, that such a plasma channel can be used to guide both the amplified and drive pulses over an interaction distance much greater than a diffraction length. The seed pulse is amplified by a factor of more than 200 in energy for pulses whose widths are matched to the channel size, and achieve a peak intensity of more than 6×10 17 W/cm 2. Unmatched pump pulses are seen to generate much smaller gain.