Optical guiding in meter-scale plasma waveguides

Journal article

We demonstrate a new highly tunable technique for generating meter-scale low density plasma waveguides. Such guides can enable laser-driven electron acceleration to tens of GeV in a single stage. Plasma waveguides are imprinted in hydrogen gas by optical field ionization induced by two time-separated Bessel beam pulses: The first pulse, a J 0 beam, generates the core of the waveguide, while the delayed second pulse, here a J 8 or J 16 beam, generates the waveguide cladding, enabling wide control of the guide’s density, depth, and mode confinement. We demonstrate guiding of intense laser pulses over hundreds of Rayleigh lengths with on-axis plasma densities as low as N e 0 ∼ 5 × 10 16     cm − 3 .

Authors: Miao, B; Feder, L; Shrock, JE; Goffin, A; Milchberg, HM

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Journal: Physical Review Letters
• Volume: 125
• Issue: 7
• Article number: 74801
• Publication date: 2020-08-14
• Acceptance date: 2020-07-20
• DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.125.074801
• EISSN: 1079-7114
• ISSN: 0031-9007
• Language: English
• Keywords: FFR