Formation of optical bullets in laser-driven plasma bubble accelerators.
Phys Rev Lett
; 104(13): 134801, 2010 Apr 02.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-20481887
ABSTRACT
Electron density bubbles--wake structures generated in plasma of density n(e) approximately 10(19) cm(-3) by the light pressure of intense ultrashort laser pulses--are shown to reshape weak copropagating probe pulses into optical "bullets." The bullets are reconstructed using frequency-domain interferometric techniques in order to visualize bubble formation. Bullets are confined in three dimensions to plasma-wavelength size, and exhibit higher intensity, broader spectrum and flatter temporal phase than surrounding probe light, evidence of their compression by the bubble. Bullets observed at 0.8 approximately < n(e) approximately < 1.2x10(19) cm(-3) provide the first observation of bubble formation below the electron capture threshold. At higher n(e), bullets appear with high shot-to-shot stability together with relativistic electrons that vary widely in spectrum, and help relate bubble formation to fast electron generation.
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Colección:
01-internacional
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Phys Rev Lett
Año:
2010
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Estados Unidos