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Vieux G, Cipiccia S, Grant DW, Lemos N, Grant P, Ciocarlan C, Ersfeld B, Hur MS, Lepipas P, Manahan GG, Raj G, Reboredo Gil D, Subiel A, Welsh GH, Wiggins SM, Yoffe SR, Farmer JP, Aniculaesei C, Brunetti E, Yang X, Heathcote R, Nersisyan G, Lewis CLS, Pukhov A, Dias JM, Jaroszynski DA. An ultra-high gain and efficient amplifier based on Raman amplification in plasma. Sci Rep 2017; 7:2399. [PMID: 28546551 PMCID: PMC5445100 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-01783-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/08/2017] [Accepted: 03/31/2017] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Raman amplification arising from the excitation of a density echelon in plasma could lead to amplifiers that significantly exceed current power limits of conventional laser media. Here we show that 1-100 J pump pulses can amplify picojoule seed pulses to nearly joule level. The extremely high gain also leads to significant amplification of backscattered radiation from "noise", arising from stochastic plasma fluctuations that competes with externally injected seed pulses, which are amplified to similar levels at the highest pump energies. The pump energy is scattered into the seed at an oblique angle with 14 J sr-1, and net gains of more than eight orders of magnitude. The maximum gain coefficient, of 180 cm-1, exceeds high-power solid-state amplifying media by orders of magnitude. The observation of a minimum of 640 J sr-1 directly backscattered from noise, corresponding to ≈10% of the pump energy in the observation solid angle, implies potential overall efficiencies greater than 10%.
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Affiliation(s)
- G Vieux
- Department of Physics, Scottish Universities Physics Alliance and University of Strathclyde, Department of Physics, Glasgow, G4 0NG, United Kingdom.
- Institute of Physics of the ASCR, ELI-Beamlines, Na Slovance 2, 182 21, Prague, Czech Republic.
| | - S Cipiccia
- Department of Physics, Scottish Universities Physics Alliance and University of Strathclyde, Department of Physics, Glasgow, G4 0NG, United Kingdom
- Diamond Light Source, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Fermi Ave, Didcot, OX11 0DE, UK
| | - D W Grant
- Department of Physics, Scottish Universities Physics Alliance and University of Strathclyde, Department of Physics, Glasgow, G4 0NG, United Kingdom
| | - N Lemos
- GoLP/Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
- Lawrence Livermore National laboratory, NIF and photon Sciences, 7000, East avenue, Livermore, CA, 94550, USA
| | - P Grant
- Department of Physics, Scottish Universities Physics Alliance and University of Strathclyde, Department of Physics, Glasgow, G4 0NG, United Kingdom
| | - C Ciocarlan
- Department of Physics, Scottish Universities Physics Alliance and University of Strathclyde, Department of Physics, Glasgow, G4 0NG, United Kingdom
- IFIN-HH, National Institute for Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Bucharest, Romania
| | - B Ersfeld
- Department of Physics, Scottish Universities Physics Alliance and University of Strathclyde, Department of Physics, Glasgow, G4 0NG, United Kingdom
| | - M S Hur
- UNIST, Banyeon-ri 100. Ulju-gun, Ulsan, 689-798, South Korea
| | - P Lepipas
- Department of Physics, Scottish Universities Physics Alliance and University of Strathclyde, Department of Physics, Glasgow, G4 0NG, United Kingdom
| | - G G Manahan
- Department of Physics, Scottish Universities Physics Alliance and University of Strathclyde, Department of Physics, Glasgow, G4 0NG, United Kingdom
| | - G Raj
- Department of Physics, Scottish Universities Physics Alliance and University of Strathclyde, Department of Physics, Glasgow, G4 0NG, United Kingdom
- Centre de Physique Théorique, École Polytechnique, 91128, Palaiseau cedex, France
| | - D Reboredo Gil
- Department of Physics, Scottish Universities Physics Alliance and University of Strathclyde, Department of Physics, Glasgow, G4 0NG, United Kingdom
| | - A Subiel
- Department of Physics, Scottish Universities Physics Alliance and University of Strathclyde, Department of Physics, Glasgow, G4 0NG, United Kingdom
- Medical Radiation Science, National Physical Laboratory, Medical Radiation Science, Hampton Road, Teddington, Middlesex, TW11 0LW, UK
| | - G H Welsh
- Department of Physics, Scottish Universities Physics Alliance and University of Strathclyde, Department of Physics, Glasgow, G4 0NG, United Kingdom
| | - S M Wiggins
- Department of Physics, Scottish Universities Physics Alliance and University of Strathclyde, Department of Physics, Glasgow, G4 0NG, United Kingdom
| | - S R Yoffe
- Department of Physics, Scottish Universities Physics Alliance and University of Strathclyde, Department of Physics, Glasgow, G4 0NG, United Kingdom
| | - J P Farmer
- Theoretische Physik I, Heinrich Heine Universität, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - C Aniculaesei
- Department of Physics, Scottish Universities Physics Alliance and University of Strathclyde, Department of Physics, Glasgow, G4 0NG, United Kingdom
- Center for Relativistic Laser Science, Institute for Basic Science, Gwangju, 61005, Republic of Korea
| | - E Brunetti
- Department of Physics, Scottish Universities Physics Alliance and University of Strathclyde, Department of Physics, Glasgow, G4 0NG, United Kingdom
| | - X Yang
- Department of Physics, Scottish Universities Physics Alliance and University of Strathclyde, Department of Physics, Glasgow, G4 0NG, United Kingdom
- Department of Physics, Capital Normal University, Key Lab of Terahertz Optoelectronics, Ministry of Education, and Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Imaging Technology, Beijing, 100048, China
| | - R Heathcote
- Central Laser Facility, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, OX11 0QX, United Kingdom
| | - G Nersisyan
- Centre for Plasma Physics, School of Mathematics and Physics, Queens University Belfast, Belfast, BT7 1NN, United Kingdom
| | - C L S Lewis
- Centre for Plasma Physics, School of Mathematics and Physics, Queens University Belfast, Belfast, BT7 1NN, United Kingdom
| | - A Pukhov
- Theoretische Physik I, Heinrich Heine Universität, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - J M Dias
- GoLP/Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - D A Jaroszynski
- Department of Physics, Scottish Universities Physics Alliance and University of Strathclyde, Department of Physics, Glasgow, G4 0NG, United Kingdom.
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Sadler JD, Trines RMGM, Tabak M, Haberberger D, Froula DH, Davies AS, Bucht S, Silva LO, Alves EP, Fiúza F, Ceurvorst L, Ratan N, Kasim MF, Bingham R, Norreys PA. Optimization of plasma amplifiers. Phys Rev E 2017; 95:053211. [PMID: 28618468 DOI: 10.1103/physreve.95.053211] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/16/2016] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
Plasma amplifiers offer a route to side-step limitations on chirped pulse amplification and generate laser pulses at the power frontier. They compress long pulses by transferring energy to a shorter pulse via the Raman or Brillouin instabilities. We present an extensive kinetic numerical study of the three-dimensional parameter space for the Raman case. Further particle-in-cell simulations find the optimal seed pulse parameters for experimentally relevant constraints. The high-efficiency self-similar behavior is observed only for seeds shorter than the linear Raman growth time. A test case similar to an upcoming experiment at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics is found to maintain good transverse coherence and high-energy efficiency. Effective compression of a 10kJ, nanosecond-long driver pulse is also demonstrated in a 15-cm-long amplifier.
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Affiliation(s)
- James D Sadler
- Clarendon Laboratory, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PU, United Kingdom
| | - Raoul M G M Trines
- Central Laser Facility, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, Oxon OX11 0QX, United Kingdom
| | - Max Tabak
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 7000 East Ave., Livermore, California 94550-9234, USA
| | - Dan Haberberger
- Laboratory for Laser Energetics, 250 East River Road, Rochester, NY 14623-1299, USA
| | - Dustin H Froula
- Laboratory for Laser Energetics, 250 East River Road, Rochester, NY 14623-1299, USA
| | - Andrew S Davies
- Laboratory for Laser Energetics, 250 East River Road, Rochester, NY 14623-1299, USA
| | - Sara Bucht
- Laboratory for Laser Energetics, 250 East River Road, Rochester, NY 14623-1299, USA
| | - Luís O Silva
- GoLP/IPFN, Instituto Superior Tecnico, Universidade de Lisboa, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal
| | - E Paulo Alves
- HED Science Division, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA
| | - Frederico Fiúza
- HED Science Division, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA
| | - Luke Ceurvorst
- Clarendon Laboratory, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PU, United Kingdom
| | - Naren Ratan
- Clarendon Laboratory, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PU, United Kingdom
| | - Muhammad F Kasim
- Clarendon Laboratory, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PU, United Kingdom
| | - Robert Bingham
- Central Laser Facility, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, Oxon OX11 0QX, United Kingdom.,Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, 107 Rottenrow East, Glasgow G4 0NG, United Kingdom
| | - Peter A Norreys
- Clarendon Laboratory, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PU, United Kingdom.,Central Laser Facility, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, Oxon OX11 0QX, United Kingdom
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