scholarly journals Development of a 1 TW/35 fs Ti:sapphire Laser Amplifier and Generation of Intense THz Waves Using Two-Color Laser Filamentation

Photonics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (8) ◽  
pp. 316
Author(s):  
Vanessa Ling Jen Phung ◽  
Keekon Kang ◽  
Seongjin Jeon ◽  
Jinju Kim ◽  
Kyungmin Roh ◽  
...  

We developed a compact Ti:sapphire laser amplifier system in our laboratory, generating intense laser pulses with a peak power of >1 TW (terawatt), a pulse duration of 34 fs (femtosecond), a central wavelength of 800 nm, and a repetition rate of 10 Hz. The laser amplifier system consists of a mode-locked Ti:sapphire oscillator, a regenerative amplifier, and a single-side-pumped 4-pass amplifier. The chirped-pulse amplification (CPA)-based laser amplifier was found to provide an energy of 49.6 mJ after compression by gratings in air, where the pumping fluence of 1.88 J/cm2 was used. The amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) level was measured to be lower than 10−7, and ps-prepulses were in 10−4 or lower level. The developed laser amplifier system was used for the generation of intense THz (terahertz) waves by focusing the original (800 nm) and second harmonic (400 nm) laser pulses in air. The THz pulse energy was shown to be saturated in the high laser energy regime, and this phenomenon was confirmed by fully electromagnetic, relativistic, and self-consistent particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dong-Ning Yue ◽  
Min Chen ◽  
Yao Zhao ◽  
Pan-Fei Geng ◽  
Xiao-Hui Yuan ◽  
...  

Abstract Generation of nonlinear structures, such as stimulated Raman side scattering waves, post-solitons and electron vortices, during ultra-short intense laser pulse transportation in near-critical-density (NCD) plasmas are studied by using multi-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations. In two-dimensional geometries, both P- and S- polarized laser pulses are used to drive these nonlinear structures and to check the polarization effects on them. In the S-polarized case, the scattered waves can be captured by surrounding plasmas leading to the generation of post-solitons, while the main pulse excites convective electric currents leading to the formation of electron vortices through Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI). In the P-polarized case, the scattered waves dissipate their energy by heating surrounding plasmas. Electron vortices are excited due to the hosing instability of the drive laser. These polarization dependent physical processes are reproduced in two different planes perpendicular to the laser propagation direction in three-dimensional simulation with linearly polarized laser driver. The current work provides inspiration for future experiments of laser-NCD plasma interactions.


Author(s):  
Mahsa Mehrangiz

Abstract With persistent progress in ultra-intense laser pulses, Coulomb explosion (CE) of spherical nanoclusters can in principle produce high-quality-quasi-monoenergetic ions. Focusing on using CE framework, in this paper, we have proposed a target scheme to accelerate light/heavy ions’ beam. The scheme relies on encapsulating a hollow Gold nanocluster inside a hollow proton-Carbon (HC) nanosphere. The ability of this suggestion has been simulated by the two-dimensional particle-in-cell code (EPOCH). Simulation results exhibit that a hollow Gold cluster can positively increase the electrons’ extraction. This condition may improve the acceleration of low-divergence H+, C6+, and Au67+ ions. Our simulation shows that at the end of the interaction, for a Gold cluster with an optimal hollow radius of 91.3 nm, the cut-off energy of H+, C6+, and Au67+ are about 54.9 MeV/u, 51.5 MeV/u, and 54.9 MeV/u, respectively. In this case, an increase of about 52% for H+ and 61% for C6+ is obtained, contrast to bare HC hollow nanosphere (i.e., a hollow nanosphere with no cluster), while the relative divergence decreases to 1.38 and 1.86, respectively for H+ and C6+ ions. We have also compared our simulation results with another proposed target structure composed of a void area with an optimum diameter of 70.4 nm between the fully- Gold nanocluster and HC nanosphere. We have exhibited that the results are improved, contrast to bare nanosphere. However, the cut-off energy suppression and angular divergence increase are shown compared with encapsulated hollow Gold nanocluster structure.


2006 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
TATSUFUMI NAKAMURA ◽  
HITOSHI SAKAGAMI ◽  
TOMOYUKI JOHZAKI ◽  
HIDEO NAGATOMO ◽  
KUNIOKI MIMA

Fast electrons are effectively generated from solid targets of cone-geometry by irradiating intense laser pulses, which is applied to fast ignition scheme. For realizing optimal core heating by those electrons, understanding the characteristics of electrons emitted from cone targets is crucial. In this paper, in order to understand the generation and transport processes of hot electrons inside the cone target, two-dimensional (2D) particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations were carried out. It is shown that hot electrons form current layers which are guided by self-generated surface magnetic field, which results in effective energy transfer from laser pulse to hot electrons. When the hot electrons propagate through the steep density gradient at the cone tip, electrostatic field is induced via Weibel instability. As a result, hot electrons are confined inside and emitted gradually from the target, as an electron beam of long duration. Energy spectrum and temporal profile of hot electrons are also evaluated at the rear side of the target, where the profile of rear side plasma is taken from the fluid code and the result is sent to Fokker-Planck code.


2012 ◽  
Vol 78 (4) ◽  
pp. 461-468 ◽  
Author(s):  
WEI-MIN WANG ◽  
ZHENG-MING SHENG ◽  
SHIGEO KAWATA ◽  
CHUN-YANG ZHENG ◽  
YU-TONG LI ◽  
...  

AbstractEnergetic electron beam generation from a thin foil target by the ponderomotive force of an ultra-intense circularly polarized laser pulse is investigated. Two-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations show that laser pulses with intensity of 1022–1023 Wcm−2 generate about 1–10 GeV electron beams, in agreement with the prediction of one-dimensional theory. When the laser intensity is at 1024–1025 Wcm−2, the beam energy obtained from PIC simulations is lower than the values predicted by the theory. The radiation damping effect is considered, which is found to become important for the laser intensity higher than 1025 Wcm−2. The effect of laser focus positions is also discussed.


2012 ◽  
Vol 78 (4) ◽  
pp. 491-496
Author(s):  
JUN ZHENG ◽  
ZHENG-MING SHENG ◽  
JIN-LU LIU ◽  
WEI-MIN ZHOU ◽  
HAN XU ◽  
...  

AbstractA double-slice-foil target is proposed for the generation of quasi-monoenergetic proton bunches by intense laser pulses. In this new target structure, two symmetrical solid slices are adjoined obliquely to the front side of a plane double-layer target. Two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations show that a large number of hot electrons are pulled out from solid slices and accelerated forward by direct laser acceleration, which lead to significant enhancement of the sheath field and the produced proton beam energy as compared with the normal plane double-layer target and some other modified targets. It appears that well-collimated proton bunches with energy larger than 200 MeV can be produced at the focused laser intensity of about 1021W/cm2 with the proposed target design.


2004 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 318 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ildar A. Begishev ◽  
Mikhail Kalashnikov ◽  
Vladimir Karpov ◽  
Peter Nickles ◽  
Horst Schönnagel ◽  
...  

2012 ◽  
Vol 78 (4) ◽  
pp. 333-337
Author(s):  
D.-P. CHEN ◽  
Y. YIN ◽  
Z.-Y. GE ◽  
H. XU ◽  
H.-B. ZHUO ◽  
...  

AbstractEnergetic divergent proton beams can be generated in the interaction of ultra-intense laser pulses with solid-density foil targets via target normal sheath acceleration (TNSA). In this paper, a scheme using a capillary to reduce the proton beam divergence is proposed. By two-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations, it is shown that strong transverse electric and magnetic fields rapidly grow at the inner surface of the capillary when the laser-driven hot electrons propagate through the target and into the capillary. The spontaneous magnetic field collimates the electron flow, and the ions dragged from the capillary wall by hot electrons neutralize the negative charge and thus restrain the transverse extension of the sheath field set up by electrons. The proton beam divergence, which is mainly determined by the accelerating sheath field, is therefore reduced by the transverse limitation of the sheath field in the capillary.


2009 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 629-634 ◽  
Author(s):  
X. Wang ◽  
W. Yu ◽  
M.Y. Yu ◽  
V.K. Senecha ◽  
H. Xu ◽  
...  

AbstractThe acceleration of a micrometer-sized plasma pellet at 100 critical densities (1023 cm−3) by consecutive application of ultra-short ultra-intense laser pulses is studied using two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation. It is shown that due to the repeated actions of the laser ponderomotive force, a small dense plasma pellet can be efficiently accelerated, with a considerable fraction of the plasma ions accelerated to high speeds. The proposed scheme can provide a high-density flux of energetic ions, which should be valuable in many practical applications.


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