Subcritical-density Plasma Research Articles

Linear Breit-Wheeler process driven by compact lasers.

We report a proposal to observe the two-photon Breit-Wheeler process in plasma driven by compact lasers. A high-charge electron bunch can be generated from laser plasma wakefield acceleration when a tightly focused laser pulse propagates in a subcritical density plasma. The electron bunch scatters with the laser pulse coming from the opposite direction and resulting in the emission of high brilliance x-ray pulses. In a three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation with a laser pulse of ∼10J, one could produce an x-ray pulse with a photon number higher than 3×10^{11} and brilliance above 1.6×10^{23} photons/s/mm^{2}/mrad^{2}/0.1%BW at 1 MeV. The x-ray pulses collide in the plasma and create more than 1.1×10^{5} electron-positron pairs per shot. It is also found that the positrons can be accelerated transversely by a transverse electric field generated in the plasma, which enables the safe detection in the direction away from the laser pulses. This proposal enables the observation of the linear Breit-Wheeler process in a compact device with a single shot.

Generating a tunable narrow electron beam comb via laser-driven plasma grating

We propose a novel approach for generating a high-density, spatially periodic narrow electron beam comb (EBC) from a plasma grating induced by the interference of two intense laser pulses in subcritical-density plasma. We employ particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations to investigate the effects of cross-propagating laser pulses with specific angles overlapping in a subcritical plasma. This overlap results in the formation of a transverse standing wave, leading to a spatially periodic high-density modulation known as a plasma grating. The electron density peak within the grating can reach several times the background plasma density. The charge imbalance between electrons and ions in the electron density peaks causes mutual repulsion among the electrons, resulting in Coulomb expansion and acceleration of the electrons. As a result, some electrons expand into vacuum, forming a periodic narrow EBC with an individual beam width in the nanoscale range. To further explore the formation of the nanoscale EBC, we conduct additional PIC simulations to study the dependence on various laser parameters. Overall, our proposed method offers a promising and controlled approach to generate tunable narrow EBCs with high density.

High-flux and bright betatron X-ray source generated from femtosecond laser pulse interaction with sub-critical density plasma.

Recent progress on betatron X-ray source enables the exploration of new physics in fundamental science; however, the application range is still limited by the source flux and brightness. In this Letter, we show the generation of more than 1 × 1012 photons (energy > 1 keV) with a peak brightness of 7.8 × 1022 photons/(s mm2 mrad2) at 0.1% bandwidth (BW) at 10 keV, driven by a femtosecond laser pulse of ≈5.5 J and a sub-critical density plasma (SCDP). The source flux is more than two orders of magnitude higher than that from typical laser wakefield electron acceleration. This method to produce high-flux and bright X-ray source would open a wide range of applications.

Dense tunable attosecond electron bunch from laser interaction with magnetized plasma

The generation of an isolated relativistic attosecond electron bunch (RAEB) from the interaction of a laser with magnetized subcritical-density plasma is proposed. Particle-in-cell simulations show that a relativistic-intensity right-hand circularly polarized laser pulse can be much shortened and amplified if the magnetic field is along the laser propagation direction and the electron cyclotron frequency is appropriately larger than the laser frequency. In this case the plasma electrons are trapped in and propagate with the laser pulse like a solitary wave. The resulting charge separation field eventually causes the pulse to split into a forward propagating and a backward propagating pulse. Thus, the electrons in the latter are strongly pulled backwards by the ponderomotive force of the tail of the original laser pulse as well as the charge separation force, and eventually acquire the form of a RAEB of several attoseconds duration with a density of more than 5 times the critical density of the pristine plasma. The properties of the RAEB can be controlled by tailoring the initial laser and plasma parameters.

Generation of high-charge electron beam in a subcritical-density plasma through laser pulse self-trapping

To maximize the charge of a high-energy electron beam accelerated by an ultra-intense laser pulse propagating in a subcritical plasma, the pulse length should be longer than both the plasma wavelength and the laser pulse width, which is quite different from the standard bubble regime. In addition, the laser-plasma parameters should be chosen to produce the self-trapping regime of relativistic channeling, where the diffraction divergence is balanced by the relativistic nonlinearity such that the laser beam radius is unchanged during pulse propagation in a plasma over many Rayleigh lengths. The condition for such a self-trapping regime is the same as what was empirically found in several previous simulation studies in the form of the pulse width matching condition. Here, we prove these findings for a subcritical plasma, where the total charge of high-energy electrons reaches the multi-nC level, by optimization in a 3D PIC simulation study and compare the results with an analytic theory of relativistic self-focusing. A very efficient explicitly demonstrated generation of high-charge electron beams opens a way to a high-yield production of gammas, positrons, and photonuclear particles.

High-energy-density electron beam from interaction of two successive laser pulses with subcritical-density plasma

It is shown by particle-in-cell simulations that a narrow electron beam with high energy and charge density can be generated in a subcritical-density plasma by two consecutive laser pulses. Although the first laser pulse dissipates rapidly, the second pulse can propagate for a long distance in the thin wake channel created by the first pulse and can further accelerate the preaccelerated electrons therein. Given that the second pulse also self-focuses, the resulting electron beam has a narrow waist and high charge and energy densities. Such beams are useful for enhancing the target-back space-charge field in target normal sheath acceleration of ions and bremsstrahlung sources, among others.

Target normal sheath acceleration of foil ions by laser-trapped hot electrons from a long subcritical-density preplasma

In a long subcritical density plasma, an ultrashort ultraintense laser pulse can self-organize into a fast but sub-relativistic propagating structure consisting of the modulated laser light and a large number of trapped electrons from the plasma. Upon impact of the structure with a solid foil target placed in the latter, the remaining laser light is reflected, but the dense and hot trapped electrons pass through the foil, together with the impact-generated target-frontsurface electrons to form a dense hot electron cloud at the back of the target suitable for enhancing target normal sheath acceleration of the target-backsurface ions. The accelerated ions are well collimated and of high charge and energy densities, with peak energies a full order of magnitude higher than that from target normal sheath acceleration without the subcritical density plasma. In the latter case, the space-charge field accelerating the ions is limited since they are formed only by the target-frontsurface electrons during the very short instant of laser reflection.

Ion vortices in ion phase space in intense laser interaction with subcritical plasma

A novel stimulated trapped electron-acoustic wave scattering instability by a linearly polarized laser interacting with a subcritical density plasma layer is observed by particle simulation. Its spectrum in the early stage is well-explained by a resonant three-wave parametric decay process and it takes place whether the ion dynamics are taken into account or not. When ion dynamics are considered, the excitation of the ion electrostatic wave, the generation of the electromagnetic (EM) soliton and the formation of ion vortices due to the large EM soliton, etc., are studied.

Formation and development dynamics of femtosecond laser microplasma in gases

We report our experimental investigations of the formation and development dynamics of laser plasma produced in gas microvolumes (microplasma) upon multiple ionisation by tightly focused (to a spot 2—3 μm in diameter) high-intensity (up to ≈1017 W cm-2) femtosecond pulses of a Ti:sapphire laser (τp ⋍ 130 fs, λ = 800 nm). Precision interferometric measurements (with a spatial resolution of ≈1.5 μm) were made of the spatiotemporal distribution of the refractive index and electron density in the microplasmas of the air and helium immediately during the action of the exciting femtosecond laser pulse and at the initial stage of free plasma expansion. The microplasma formation was shown to occur as a result of almost complete (up to bare nuclei) ionisation of the initial gas. For the first time the spectral continuum and the dynamics of spectral line formation in the UV and visible spectral ranges were investigated with a picosecond time resolution for the femtosecond laser-produced microplasmas of the air, N2, Ar, and He at normal conditions. For the first time the generation of the second (even) laser radiation harmonic was recorded in a femtosecond subcritical-density plasma of gases.

Inverse bremsstrahlung stabilization of noise in the generation of ultrashort intense pulses by backward Raman amplification

Inverse bremsstrahlung absorption of the pump laser beam in a backward Raman amplifier over the round-trip light transit time through the subcritical density plasma can more than double the electron temperature of the plasma and produce time-varying axial temperature gradients. The resulting increased Landau damping of the plasma wave and detuning of the resonance can act to stabilize the pump against unwanted amplification of Langmuir noise without disrupting nonlinear amplification of the femtosecond seed pulse. Because the heating rate increases with the charge state Z, only low-Z plasmas (hydrogen, helium, or helium–hydrogen mixtures) will maintain a low enough temperature for efficient operation.

Angular scattering diagrams of linearly polarized relativistic-intensity electromagnetic radiation in a plasma

Instability of the propagation of nonlinear nonmonochromatic relativistic-intensity electromagnetic waves in a cold subcritical-density plasma is analyzed in three-dimensional geometry. Angular diagrams of their scattering are presented. The calculations show that forward and backward scattering may occur. The radiation in a specific direction is a set of harmonics, propagating against a continuum background, whose frequencies depend on the angle. Radiation at a specific frequency propagates in a set of scattering cones. The azimuthal cone angles depend on frequency.

Investigation of anomalous generation of ω0 and 2ω0 harmonics of heating radiation in laser plasma corona by means of holographic gratings

The problems concerning the development of high f-number spectrographs with high spectral and spatial resolution using holographic reflecting gratings, for the study of processes of harmonic generation in laser plasmas are considered. The concave holographic gratings and spectrograph schemes used in the “Delfin-1” installation are described. The anomalous generation of ω0 and 2ω0 harmonics from the subcritical density plasma region has been observed experimentally. Possible interpretations of the observed effect are given.