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A Comprehensive Review on Amplification of Laser Pulses via Stimulated Raman Scattering and Stimulated Brillouin Scattering in Plasmas. PLASMA 2022. [DOI: 10.3390/plasma5040037] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022] Open
Abstract
The demand for high-intensity lasers has grown ever since the invention of lasers in 1960, owing to their applications in the fields of inertial confinement fusion, plasma-based relativistic particle accelerators, complex X-ray and gamma-ray sources, and laboratory astrophysics. To create such high-intensity lasers, free-running lasers were either Q-switched or mode-locked to increase the peak power to the gigawatt range. Later, chirped pulse amplification was developed, allowing the generation of peak power up to 1012 W. However, the next generation of high-intensity lasers might not be able to be driven by the solid-state technology alone as they are already operating close to their damage thresholds. In this scenario, concepts of amplification based on plasmas has the potential to revolutionize the laser industry, as plasma is already a broken-down medium, and hence does not pose any problems related to the damage thresholds. On the other hand, there are many other aspects that need to be addressed before developing technologies based on plasma-based amplification, and they are being investigated via theoretical and numerical methods and supported by several experiments. In this report, we review the prospects of employing plasma as the medium of amplification by utilising stimulated scattering techniques, such as the stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) and stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) techniques, to modulate high-power laser pulses, which would possibly be the key to the next generation of high-power lasers. The 1980s saw the commencement of research in this field, and possibilities of obtaining high peak powers were verified theoretically with the help of numerical calculations and simulations. The extent of amplification by these stimulated scattering schemes are limited by a number of instabilities such as forward Raman scattering (FRS), filamentation, etc., and here, magnetised plasma played an important role in counteracting these parasitic effects. The current research combines all these factors to experimentally realise a large-scale plasma-based amplifier, which can impact the high-energy laser industry in the near future.
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Abstract
In its usual implementation, the Raman amplifier features only one pump carrier frequency. However, pulses with well-separated frequencies can also be Raman amplified while compressed in time. Amplification with frequency-separated pumps is shown to hold even in the highly nonlinear, pump-depletion regime, as derived through a fluid model, and demonstrated via particle-in-cell simulations. The resulting efficiency is similar to single-frequency amplifiers, but, due to the beat-wave waveform of both the pump lasers and the amplified seed pulses, these amplifiers feature higher seed intensities with a shorter spike duration. Advantageously, these amplifiers also suffer less noise backscattering, because the total fluence is split between the different spectral components.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ido Barth
- Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel
- Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA
| | - Nathaniel J Fisch
- Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA
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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] [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] [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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