Laser shaping of a relativistic circularly polarized pulse by laser foil interaction

Abstract

Laser shaping of a relativistic circularly polarized laser pulse in ultra-intense laser thin-foil interaction is investigated by theoretical analysis and particle-in-cell simulations. It is found that the plasma foil as a nonlinear optical shutter has an obvious cut-out effect on the laser temporal and spatial profiles. Two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations show that the high intensity part of a Gaussian laser pulse can be well extracted from the whole pulse. The transmitted pulse with longitudinal steep rise front and transverse super-Gaussian profile is thus obtained which would be beneficial for the radiation pressure acceleration regime. The Rayleigh-Taylor-like instability is observed in the simulations, which destroys the foil and results in the cut-out effect of the pulse in the rise front of a circularly polarized laser.