Second harmonic generation of stimulated raman scattered light in underdense plasmas

A Comprehensive Review on Amplification of Laser Pulses via Stimulated Raman Scattering and Stimulated Brillouin Scattering in Plasmas

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.

Electro-optic shocks from ultraintense laser-plasma interactions

Second harmonic radiation in the form of an electro-optic shock is produced in the blowout regime of a laser wakefield in a plasma. The shock is produced by the interaction between the laser field and the electron sheath surrounding the electron cavitation region. Because the sheath is thin, phase matching is unimportant, and the radiated energy grows secularly with the interaction length. The angle of emission is given by the Cherenkov angle associated with the ratio of the second harmonic phase velocity to the fundamental phase velocity. The shock formation is investigated in three dimensions via analysis and particle-in-cell simulations.

Observation of the second-harmonic generation from relativistically quivering electrons in exciting laser wakefield

The second-harmonic emission generated by the spatially asymmetric quivering electrons caused by the ponderomotive force was studied. The intensity of the second harmonic was proportional to the focused intensity of the pump pulse with the power of 1.8. This intensity dependence can be explained by the relativistic effect of the quivering electrons.

Observation of phase-matched relativistic harmonic generation

Phase-matched relativistic harmonic generation in plasmas is observed for the first time. Third-harmonic light is detected and discriminated spectrally and angularly from the harmonics generated from competing processes. Its angular pattern is a narrow forward-directed cone, which is consistent with phase matching of a high-order transverse mode in a plasma. The signal level is found to be on the same order of magnitude for a circularly polarized pump pulse as for a linearly polarized pump pulse.

Backscattered supercontinuum emission from high-intensity laser-plasma interactions

We performed high-intensity subpicosecond laser-plasma interaction experiments to examine nonlinear scattering mechanisms in underdense plasmas. At incident laser intensities of 2 x 10(18) W/cm(2) the stimulated-Raman-backscattered spectrum exhibited an extremely broad, supercontinuumlike structure (Deltaomega/omega(0) > 1) extending from ~500 to >1200 nm (limited only by detector sensitivity). Large-amplitude modulations in the spectrum of the backscattered light were measured and are attributed to an interaction of the stimulated-Raman-scattered radiation with ion plasma waves.