This paper presents theoretical investigation of effect of relativistic self-focusing of cosh-Gaussian (ChG) laser beam on second-harmonic generation in an underdense plasma. Steep transverse density gradients are produced in the plasma by the electron plasma wave excited by relativistic self-focusing of ChG laser beam. The generated plasma wave interacts with the pump beam to produce its second harmonics. Following Jeffrey Wentzel Kramers Brillouin (J.W.K.B) approximation and moment theory the differential equation governing the evolution of spot size of laser beam with distance of propagation has been derived. The differential equation so obtained has been solved numerically by the Runge–Kutta method to investigate the effect of decentered parameter, intensity of laser beam as well as density of plasma on self-focusing of the ChG laser beam, and generation of its second harmonics. It has been observed that the peak intensity of the laser beam shifts in the transverse direction by changing the decentered parameter and a noticeable change is observed on focusing of the laser beam as well as on conversion efficiency of second harmonics.

Nanostructuring can be either spontaneously appearing (such as laser-induced periodic surface structures, and diffraction patterns – for example, in windows of grid proximity-standing at the ablated target-surface) or artificially created (like – as we hoped – interference patterns) that can be in some extend controlled. Due to that a new interferometer (belonging to wave-front division category) with two aspheric mirrors has been developed. Each of these mirrors reflects approximately one half of incoming laser beam and focuses it into a point image. Both focused beams have to intersect each other, and in the intersection region an interference pattern was expected. However, the first tests showed that some other spontaneously appearing interference pattern with substantially larger fringe-pitch is generated. The origin of this idle interference pattern is discussed.

In the paper, we study the conditions for the generation of backward runaway electrons through a grounded grid cathode in atmospheric pressure air at high-voltage pulses with a full width at half maximum of 1 ns and risetime of 0.3 ns applied to the gap from a SLEP-150 pulser. The study confirms that backward runaway electrons and X-rays do arise near grid cathodes in atmospheric pressure air. It is shown that the current of the backward beam and the X-rays from the gas diode depend differently on the interelectrode distance. The average X-ray exposure dose in a pulse is more than 3.5 mR.

The efficient transfer of angular orbital momentum from circularly polarized laser pulses into ions of solid density targets is investigated with different geometries using particle-in-cell simulations. The detailed electron and ion dynamics presented focus upon the energy and momentum conversion efficiency. It is found that the momentum transfer is more efficient for spiral targets and the maximum value is obtained when the spiral step is equal to twice the laser wavelength. This study reveals that the angular momentum distribution of ions strongly depends up on the initial target shape and density.

Nanosecond pulse discharges can provide high reduced electric field for exciting high-energy electrons, and the ultrafast rising time of the applied pulse can effectively suppress the generation of spark streamer and produce homogeneous discharges preionized by runaway electrons in atmospheric-pressure air. In this paper, the electrostatic field in a tube-plate electrodes gap is calculated using a calculation software. Furthermore, a simple physical model of nanosecond pulse discharges is established to investigate the behavior of the runaway electrons during the nanosecond pulse discharges with a rise time of 1.6 ns and a full-width at half-maximum of 3–5 ns in air. The physical model is coded by a numerical software, and then the runaway electrons and electron avalanche are investigated under different conditions. The simulated results show that the applied voltage, voltage polarity, and gas pressure can significantly affect the formation of the avalanche and the behavior of the runaway electrons. The inception time of runaway breakdown decreases when the applied voltage increases. In addition, the threshold voltage of runaway breakdown has a minimum value (10 kPa) with the variation of gas pressure.

PACS: 52.80.-s

A self-guided Gaussian laser pulse propagating in a non-uniform plasma channel is unstable to a plasma wave perturbation co-moving with the laser with its group velocity. The plasma wave amplitude has a maximum radial profile along the laser propagation axis. As the plasma wave propagates through a non-uniform plasma channel, the plasma wave perturbation causes focusing in the part of the laser that propagates with the electron density trough and defocusing in the part moving with the crest. This yields an axial gradient in the intensity of the laser and produces a ponderomotive force on the electrons. The ponderomotive force drives the plasma wave, which in turn makes the modulational instability grow. The growth rate of the modulational instability becomes larger with the increase in non-uniformity of a shallow plasma channel. In a deep cavitated plasma channel the growth rate of the modulational instability increases with the laser pulse amplitude.

We survey the present status and potentialities of diagnostics for arbitrary magnetized plasmas of inertial confinement fusion concern. These diagnostics include: Faraday rotation, inverse Faraday effect, Thomson scattering, Stark–Zeeman line broadening as well as proton stopping for any ratio, of the particles plasma frequency to cyclotron frequency. This presentation is timely motivated by recent experiments highlighting laser-produced kilo Teslas and nearly steady magnetic fields in inertial fusion plasmas. Positive synergies due to diagnostics combinations are also addressed.

Most of the high-energy laser systems deliver temporally super-Gaussian-shaped laser pulses. The propagation properties of this kind of pulses in a nonlinear medium are studied in this paper. There is Stokes component in the sideband spectrum of super-Gaussian-shaped pulses, and the frequency difference between the Stokes component and the center frequency is equals to the Brillouin frequency of the nonlinear medium. When the laser is reflected by optical elements in the light path, Stokes component in the reflected light can be amplified by the subsequent part of the laser pulse and excite stimulated Brillouin scattering (self-pumped SBS). The self-pumped SBS is studied theoretically and experimentally, and the experimental results agreed well with the calculated results. The simulation results show that lower-order super-Gaussian-shaped pulses are more suitable for suppressing the self-pumped SBS and of great benefit to the energy delivering of the high-power laser pulses. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time to experimentally demonstrate the self-pumped SBS of high-power super-Gaussian-shaped laser pulses.

Stimulated Raman backward scattering of an X-mode laser beam propagating in a homogenous plasma is studied in the presence of a transverse magnetic field. As the laser propagates in its X-mode in plasma, it decays into an upper hybrid wave and a down-shifted sideband wave. Beating the incident laser with the sideband exerts a nonlinear ponderomotive force acting on plasma electrons driving the excited upper hybrid wave. The incident wave then parametrically couples with the upper hybrid wave to drive the sideband. Using the fluid model and nonlinear current density, the nonlinear ponderomotive force is obtained to find the dispersion relation of the scattered sideband wave and the growth rate of the instability in the weakly relativistic regime. It is shown that the growth rate decreases and the cut-off points in the normalized wave number of the upper-hybrid wave become smaller by increasing the static magnetic field.

The present paper proposes a model for the generation of Terahertz (THz) radiation by self-focused hollow Gaussian beam (HGB) in collisionless magnetized rippled density plasma. At high intensities, the change in the electron mass occurs due to relativistic effect, introducing a nonlinearity in the plasma leading to the self-focusing of the HGB. The nonlinear interaction of this highly intense self-focused HGB with the electron plasma wave in the rippled density plasma, satisfying proper phase matching conditions, results in the resonant excitation of THz radiations at the beat frequency. We have studied the dependence of generated THz radiations on the order of the HGB as well as on the static background magnetic field. The results show that the intensity of the generated radiations is highly sensitive to both of these parameters. For the current scheme the power of the generated THz waves comes out to be of the order of Gigawatts.

The paper is a continuation of research carried out at Prague Asterix Laser System (PALS) related to the shock ignition (SI) approach in inertial fusion, which was carried out with use of 1ω main laser beam as the main beam generating a shock wave. Two-layer targets were used, consisting of Cu massive planar target coated with a thin polyethylene layer, which, in the case of two-beam irradiation geometry, simulate conditions related to the SI scenario. The investigations presented in this paper are related to the use of 3ω to create ablation pressure for high-power shock wave generation. The interferometric studies of the ablative plasma expansion, complemented by measurements of crater volumes and Kα emission, clearly demonstrate the effect of changing the incident laser intensity due to changing the focal radius on efficiency of laser energy transfer to a shock wave and fast electron emission. The efficiency of the energy transfer increases with the radius of the focused laser beam. The pre-plasma does not significantly change the character of this effect. However, it unambiguously results in the increasing temperature of fast electrons, the total energy of which remains very small (<0.1% of the laser energy). This study shows that the optimal radius from the point of view of 3ω radiation energy transfer to the shock wave is the maximal one used in these experiments and equal to 200 µm that corresponds to the minimal effect of two-dimensional (2D)-expansion. Such a result is typical for the ablation process determined by electron conductivity energy transfer under the conditions of one-dimensional or 2D matter expansion without any appreciable effect due to energy transfer by fast electrons. The 2D simulations based on application of the ALANT-HE code and an analytical model that includes generation and transport of hot electrons has been used to support of experimental data.

Two collinear laser pulses of finite spot size propagating through a capillary plasma, modeled as a hollow plasma cylinder, are shown to produce beat frequency terahertz (THz) surface plasmons at the inner surface. The evanescent laser fields in the plasma impart oscillatory velocity to electrons and exert a beat ponderomotive force on them. The static component of the ponderomotive force inhibits plasma from filling the vacuum region while the beat frequency component produces a nonlinear current (${\vec J^{{\;\rm NL}}}$) that drives the difference frequency THz surface plasma wave (SPW). Phase matching for the THz surface wave excitation is achieved when the group velocity of the lasers equals the phase velocity of the beat frequency SPW. At laser intensities of ~1014 W/cm2 at 10 μm wavelength, one may attain normalized surface wave amplitude ~ 0.03.

Generation of hot electrons at grazing incidence of a subpicosecond relativistic-intense laser pulse onto a plane solid target is analyzed for the parameters of petawatt class laser systems. We study preplasma formation on the surface of solid aluminum targets produced by laser prepulses with a different time structure. For modeling of the preplasma dynamics, we use a wide-range two-temperature hydrodynamic model. As a result of simulations, the preplasma expansion under the action of the laser prepulse and the plasma density profiles for different contrast ratios of the nanosecond pedestal are found. These density profiles are used as the initial density distributions in three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations of electron acceleration by the main P-polarized laser pulse. Results of modeling demonstrate a substantial increase of the characteristic energy and number of accelerated electrons for the grazing incidence of a subpicosecond intense laser pulse in comparison with the ponderomotive scaling of laser–target interaction.

In this experimental study, the ablative Richtmyer–Meshkov (RM) and the Rayleigh–Taylor (RT) instabilities were generated by the laser pulse of Gaussian-like power profile. The initial multi-modal perturbation, the inhomogeneous momentum transfer and different Atwood numbers generate different shapes of spikes and bubbles in the central region (CR) and the near-central region (NCR) of the spot. A one-dimensional Gaussian-like power profile causes the formation of the wavy-like rows of aperiodic spikes. The periodic spike segments inside the rows appear due to locally coherent flow. In the NCR, the mushroom-shape spikes tend to the organization on the isotropic square and the anisotropic rhombic lattices. The increase of the lattice periods two, three, or four times indicates formation of superstructures. The growth of sharp asymmetric RM/RT spikes in the CR is fast, uncorrelated and linear, while the growth of the symmetric mushroom-shape ones in the NCR is slow, correlated, and nonlinear.

Ti electrodes were directly deposited at different positions on diamond-like carbon (DLC) films to form horizontal and longitudinal electric fields on their surfaces. The ID/IG ratio increased with the sp3 content in the membrane when the DLC film was laser-irradiated and the electric field intensity was 0 V/cm. The bias electric field intensity increased from 0 to 1000 V/cm, and the corresponding laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) increased. The three-dimensional damage morphology of the DLC film with two different electrode structures was observed when the electric field intensity was 220 V/cm. Two types of electrode structures were observed in the Raman spectra under an electric field intensity of 110 V/cm and laser energy densities of 0 and 1.56 J/cm2. Results showed that the horizontal bias field had a more obvious influence than the longitudinal electric field on the decrease of the sp3–sp2 hybridization, preventing the formation of sp2 clusters, thereby slowing down the graphitization process of DLC. Applying the bias field to the DLC film could slow down the DLC film graphitization process and improve the LIDT of the DLC film.

Models and experiments were developed to study femtosecond laser ablation of silicon using 800 nm, 40 fs pulses with fluences ranging from 0.5 to 35 J/cm2. At low fluences, ablation was found to occur due to bubble formation and splashing within the melt layer. At higher fluences, it was found that the ablation depth exceeded the melt layer depth due to shockwave ablation. The variation in ion flux and ion velocity was also studied both experimentally and theoretically. It was found that the variation in ion flux is mainly dependent on the variation in the average charge state, with only a small variation in the total number of ions above $\sim \!\!1.5\; \,{\rm J/c}{{\rm m}^2}$. Comparisons between the theoretical and experimental ion flux showed that higher charge state ions received greater portion of the laser energy compared with lower charge state ions.

Usually, the high-power microwave (HPM) devices suffer from impedance collapse and cathode material degradation or even failure. When the intense electron beam bombards the anode (or named as collector in HPM device), an anode plasma could appear under certain conditions. In this case, the impedance collapse is caused by the expansions of the cathode and anode plasmas and diode current overshot caused by the bipolar flow. In this paper, characterization of a short-pulse high-power diode operated with anode effects with a dielectric fiber (velvet) cathode is discussed. The bipolar flow (or anode plasma) is indeed evident at beam power densities ~11 MW/cm2 and the pulse durations of ~50 ns. The analysis results of the deposit dose and thermal regime of the anode show that the electron stimulated desorption played an important role in the generation of anode plasma in this case. With the effect of anode plasma, the appearance of local cathode plasma flares (or nonuniform electron emission) is particularly detrimental for the diode closure. Micro-structure and elemental surface compositions of cathode are changed by the anode splashing, which is very harmful to the performance of cathode.

We developed a comprehensive model for simulating laser/target interaction in the presence of external axial magnetic fields. The model was integrated into the framework of the HEIGHTS-LPP computer simulation package and benchmarked with recent experimental results. The package was then used to study the angular distribution of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) photon output in plasmas produced in tin planar targets by a Nd:YAG laser. A moderate (0.5 T) permanent magnetic field does not affect EUV source evolution and output. More effective control of plasma plume expansion should be based on magnetic field gradients, that is, on the temporary varying magnetic fields as a magnetic pinch. Analysis of angular EUV output showed strong anisotropy of photon emissions. We found that the correct monitoring angle (i.e., at which the measured EUV flux corresponds to the averaged value after the correctly integrated angular distribution) does not depend on laser irradiance in the studied range and is equivalent to ~60°. We recommend arranging the EUV sensors accordingly in experiments with planar tin targets.

A model is presented for the resonant third harmonic generation of short pulse lasers in cluster plasma in the presence of density ripple. Because of ripple in cluster density and plasma electron density outside the cluster, the phase-matching condition for the third harmonic process is satisfied, leading to resonant enhancement of harmonic generation. We explore the impact of laser intensity, cluster size, and collisional frequency of electrons on the efficiency of third harmonic generation. Moreover, since the group velocity of the third harmonic wave is greater than that of the fundamental wave, it causes the slippage of the generated harmonic pulse out of the fundamental laser pulse and its amplitude increases with time.

The dispersion relation of electrostatic waves with phase velocities smaller than the electron thermal velocity is investigated in relativistic temperature plasmas. The model equations are the electron relativistic collisionless hydrodynamic equations and the ion non-relativistic Vlasov equation, coupled to the Poisson equation. The complex frequency of electrostatic modes are calculated numerically as a function of the relevant parameters kλDe and ZTe/Ti where k is the wavenumber, λDe, the electron Debye length, Te and Ti the electron and ion temperature, and Z, the ion charge number. Useful analytic expressions of the real and imaginary parts of frequency are also proposed. The non-relativistic results established in the literature from the kinetic theory are recovered and the role of the relativistic effects on the dispersion and the damping rate of electrostatic modes is discussed. In particular, it is shown that in highly relativistic regime the electrostatic waves are strongly damped.