Related papers: Optical guiding in meter-scale plasma waveguides
We demonstrate that an ultrashort high intensity laser pulse can propagate for hundreds of Rayleigh ranges in a prepared neutral hydrogen channel by generating its own plasma waveguide as it propagates; the front of the pulse generates a…
Fundamental to many applications of laser pulses in science and technology is an extended interaction length with matter that significantly exceeds the distance over which the pulse would normally diffract and transversely spread. At low…
The simultaneous laser-driven acceleration and angular manipulation of the fast electron beam is experimentally demonstrated. The bunch of multi-MeV energy charged particles is generated during the propagation of the femtosecond laser pulse…
We propose a novel scheme for controlling the injection of a high-quality electron bunch into a channel-guided laser plasma accelerator. This all-optical technique, constricted waveguide injection, creates a highly tunable controlled…
New techniques for the optical generation of plasma waveguides -- optical fibres for ultra-intense light pulses -- have become vital to the advancement of multi-GeV laser wakefield acceleration. Here, we demonstrate the fabrication and…
Hydrodynamic plasma waveguides initiated by optical field ionization (OFI) have recently become a key component of multi-GeV laser wakefield accelerators. Here, we present the most complete and accurate experimental and simulation-based…
A method of creating plasma channels with controllable depth and transverse profile for the guiding of short, high power laser pulses for efficient electron acceleration is proposed. The plasma channel produced by the hydrogen-filled…
Laser-plasma accelerators offer a compact means of producing high-energy electron beams, but their performance is fundamentally limited by dephasing between the accelerated electrons and the plasma wave. To overcome this limitation, we…
We demonstrate through experiments and numerical simulations that low-density, low-loss, meter-scale plasma channels can be generated by employing a conditioning laser pulse to ionize the neutral gas collar surrounding a hydrodynamic…
We present the first demonstration of multi-GeV laser wakefield acceleration in a fully optically formed plasma waveguide, with an acceleration gradient as high as 25 GeV/m. The guide was formed via self-waveguiding of <15 J, 45 fs (<~300…
We show that laser wakefield electron accelerators in meter-scale, low density hydrodynamic plasma waveguides operate in a new nonlinear propagation regime where sustained beating of lowest order modes of the ponderomotively modified…
Hydrodynamic optically-field-ionized (HOFI) plasma channels up to 100mm long are investigated. Optical guiding is demonstrated of laser pulses with a peak input intensity of $6\times10^{17}$ W cm$^{-2}$ through 100mm long plasma channels…
The discovery of laser wakefield acceleration in gaseous plasma was a major milestone that could lead to a significant reduction of size and cost of large electron accelerators. For higher-energy laser-driven electron acceleration guiding…
Self-guided femtosecond laser pulses propagating in low-pressure gas can generate plasma filaments, establishing a new framework for plasma wakefield acceleration. Unlike conventional schemes relying on mechanically confined or preformed…
Laser-plasma accelerators present a promising alternative to conventional accelerators. To fully exploit the extreme amplitudes of the plasma fields and produce high-quality beams, precise control over electron injection into the…
We present a study of the highly nonlinear optical excitation of noble gases in tapered hollow waveguides using few-femtosecond laser pulses. The local plasmonic field enhancement induces the generation of a nanometric plasma, resulting in…
We demonstrate optical guiding of high-intensity laser pulses in long, low density hydrodynamic optical-field-ionized (HOFI) plasma channels. An axicon lens is used to generate HOFI plasma channels with on-axis electron densities as low as…
We demonstrate that femtosecond filaments can set up an extended and robust thermal waveguide structure in air with a lifetime of several milliseconds, making possible the very long range guiding and distant projection of high energy laser…
The diffraction broadening of the intense laser radiation restricts its efficient use in many applications. Proposed in the present work is a method for laser radiation guiding in a density channel formed in plasma by a relativistic…
An experiment for studying laser self-guiding has been carried out for the high power ultrashort pulse laser interaction with an underdense plasma slab. Formation of an extremely long plasma channel and its bending are observed when the…