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Trines RMGM, Alves EP, Webb E, Vieira J, Fiúza F, Fonseca RA, Silva LO, Cairns RA, Bingham R. New criteria for efficient Raman and Brillouin amplification of laser beams in plasma. Sci Rep 2020; 10:19875. [PMID: 33199788 PMCID: PMC7670465 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-76801-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/27/2020] [Accepted: 10/28/2020] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Raman or Brillouin amplification of a laser beam in plasma has long been seen as a way to reach multi-PW powers in compact laser systems. However, no significant plasma-based Raman amplification of a laser pulse beyond 0.1 TW has been achieved in nearly 20 years, and only one report of Brillouin amplification beyond 1 TW. In this paper, we reveal novel non-linear criteria for the initial seed pulse that will finally open the door to efficient Raman and Brillouin amplification to petawatt powers and Joule-level energies. We show that the triple product of the coupling constant [Formula: see text], seed pulse duration [Formula: see text] and seed pulse amplitude a for the Raman seed pulse (or [Formula: see text] for Brillouin) must exceed a specific minimum threshold for efficient amplification. We also analyze the plasma-based Raman and Brillouin amplification experiments to date, and show that the seed pulses used in nearly all experiments are well below our new threshold, which explains the poor efficiency obtained in them. Finally, we analyze a recent Brillouin amplification experiment that used increased seed pulse power to obtain Joule-level amplification, and find excellent agreement with our theory.
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Affiliation(s)
- R M G M Trines
- Central Laser Facility, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, OX11 0QX, UK.
| | - E P Alves
- GoLP/IPFN, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, 1049-001, Lisbon, Portugal
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA, 94025, USA
| | - E Webb
- Central Laser Facility, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, OX11 0QX, UK
| | - J Vieira
- GoLP/IPFN, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, 1049-001, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - F Fiúza
- GoLP/IPFN, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, 1049-001, Lisbon, Portugal
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA, 94025, USA
| | - R A Fonseca
- GoLP/IPFN, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, 1049-001, Lisbon, Portugal
- ISCTE, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, 1649-026, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - L O Silva
- GoLP/IPFN, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, 1049-001, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - R A Cairns
- University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9SS, UK
| | - R Bingham
- Central Laser Facility, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, OX11 0QX, UK
- SUPA, Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, G4 0NG, UK
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Trines RMGM, Fiúza F, Bingham R, Fonseca RA, Silva LO, Cairns RA, Norreys PA. Production of picosecond, kilojoule, and petawatt laser pulses via Raman amplification of nanosecond pulses. Phys Rev Lett 2011; 107:105002. [PMID: 21981507 DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.107.105002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2011] [Indexed: 05/31/2023]
Abstract
Raman amplification in plasma has been promoted as a means of compressing picosecond optical laser pulses to femtosecond duration to explore the intensity frontier. Here we show for the first time that it can be used, with equal success, to compress laser pulses from nanosecond to picosecond duration. Simulations show up to 60% energy transfer from pump pulse to probe pulse, implying that multikilojoule ultraviolet petawatt laser pulses can be produced using this scheme. This has important consequences for the demonstration of fast-ignition inertial confinement fusion.
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Affiliation(s)
- R M G M Trines
- Central Laser Facility, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, Oxon, OX11 0QX, United Kingdom
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