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Zgadzaj R, Welch J, Cao Y, Amorim LD, Cheng A, Gaikwad A, Iapozzutto P, Kumar P, Litvinenko VN, Petrushina I, Samulyak R, Vafaei-Najafabadi N, Joshi C, Zhang C, Babzien M, Fedurin M, Kupfer R, Kusche K, Palmer MA, Pogorelsky IV, Polyanskiy MN, Swinson C, Downer MC. Plasma electron acceleration driven by a long-wave-infrared laser. Nat Commun 2024; 15:4037. [PMID: 38740793 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-48413-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2023] [Accepted: 04/29/2024] [Indexed: 05/16/2024] Open
Abstract
Laser-driven plasma accelerators provide tabletop sources of relativistic electron bunches and femtosecond x-ray pulses, but usually require petawatt-class solid-state-laser pulses of wavelength λL ~ 1 μm. Longer-λL lasers can potentially accelerate higher-quality bunches, since they require less power to drive larger wakes in less dense plasma. Here, we report on a self-injecting plasma accelerator driven by a long-wave-infrared laser: a chirped-pulse-amplified CO2 laser (λL ≈ 10 μm). Through optical scattering experiments, we observed wakes that 4-ps CO2 pulses with < 1/2 terawatt (TW) peak power drove in hydrogen plasma of electron density down to 4 × 1017 cm-3 (1/100 atmospheric density) via a self-modulation (SM) instability. Shorter, more powerful CO2 pulses drove wakes in plasma down to 3 × 1016 cm-3 that captured and accelerated plasma electrons to relativistic energy. Collimated quasi-monoenergetic features in the electron output marked the onset of a transition from SM to bubble-regime acceleration, portending future higher-quality accelerators driven by yet shorter, more powerful pulses.
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Affiliation(s)
- R Zgadzaj
- University of Texas at Austin, 2515 Speedway C1600, Austin, TX, 78712, USA
| | - J Welch
- University of Texas at Austin, 2515 Speedway C1600, Austin, TX, 78712, USA
| | - Y Cao
- University of Texas at Austin, 2515 Speedway C1600, Austin, TX, 78712, USA
| | - L D Amorim
- Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, 11794, USA
| | - A Cheng
- Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, 11794, USA
| | - A Gaikwad
- Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, 11794, USA
| | - P Iapozzutto
- Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, 11794, USA
| | - P Kumar
- Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, 11794, USA
| | | | - I Petrushina
- Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, 11794, USA
| | - R Samulyak
- Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, 11794, USA
| | | | - C Joshi
- University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, 90024, USA
| | - C Zhang
- University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, 90024, USA
| | - M Babzien
- Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, 11973, USA
| | - M Fedurin
- Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, 11973, USA
| | - R Kupfer
- Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, 11973, USA
| | - K Kusche
- Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, 11973, USA
| | - M A Palmer
- Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, 11973, USA
| | | | | | - C Swinson
- Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, 11973, USA
| | - M C Downer
- University of Texas at Austin, 2515 Speedway C1600, Austin, TX, 78712, USA.
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Grün A, Austin DR, Cousin SL, Biegert J. Three-wave mixing mediated femtosecond pulse compression in β-barium borate. OPTICS LETTERS 2015; 40:4679-4682. [PMID: 26469593 DOI: 10.1364/ol.40.004679] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
Abstract
Nonlinear pulse compression mediated by three-wave mixing is demonstrated for ultrashort Ti:sapphire pulses in a type II phase-matched β-barium borate (BBO) crystal using noncollinear geometry. 170 μJ pulses at 800 nm with a pulse duration of 74 fs are compressed at their sum frequency to 32 fs with 55 μJ of pulse energy. Experiments and computer simulations demonstrate the potential of sum-frequency pulse compression to match the group velocities of the interacting waves to crystals that were initially not considered in the context of nonlinear pulse compression.
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Ruth AA, Dixneuf S, Orphal J. Laser-induced plasmas in ambient air for incoherent broadband cavity-enhanced absorption spectroscopy. OPTICS EXPRESS 2015; 23:6092-6101. [PMID: 25836833 DOI: 10.1364/oe.23.006092] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/04/2023]
Abstract
The emission from a laser-induced plasma in ambient air, generated by a high power femtosecond laser, was utilized as pulsed incoherent broadband light source in the center of a quasi-confocal high finesse cavity. The time dependent spectra of the light leaking from the cavity was compared with those of the laser-induced plasma emission without the cavity. It was found that the light emission was sustained by the cavity despite the initially large optical losses of the laser-induced plasma in the cavity. The light sustained by the cavity was used to measure part of the S(1) ← S(0) absorption spectrum of gaseous azulene at its vapour pressure at room temperature in ambient air as well as the strongly forbidden γ-band in molecular oxygen: b(1)Σ(g)(+)(ν'=2)←X(3)Σ(g)(-)(ν''=0).
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Dragonmir A, McInerney JG, Nikogosyan DN. Femtosecond measurements of two-photon absorption coefficients at lambda = 264 nm in glasses, crystals, and liquids. APPLIED OPTICS 2002; 41:4365-4376. [PMID: 12148767 DOI: 10.1364/ao.41.004365] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/23/2023]
Abstract
Using ultraviolet femtosecond pulses with high irradiance stability, we measured the two-photon absorption (TPA) coefficients in a number of substances with a total accuracy of approximately 10%. Six commercial fused-silica samples (KU-1, Coming 7940, SQ, Suprasil, Herasil, and Infrasil) possess TPA coefficients (beta values) of approximately 2 x 10(-11) cm/W. For crystalline quartz and sapphire, the following beta values were obtained: (1.2 +/- 0.2) x 10(-11) and (9.4 +/- 1.2) x 10(-11) cm/W, respectively. In beta-barium borate crystal the TPA coefficient depends on crystal cut, beam polarization, or both and varies from (47 +/- 5) x 10(-11) to (68 +/- 6) x 10(-11) cm/W. For eight liquids that were studied (water, heavy water, ethanol, methanol, hexane, cyclohexane, 1,2-dichloroethane, and chloroform) the beta value lies from (34 +/- 3) x 10(-11) to (95 +/- 11) x 10(-11) cm/W.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adrian Dragonmir
- Department of Physics, National University of Ireland, University College Cork
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Kim DW, Xiao GY, Ma GB. Temporal properties of the second-harmonic generation of a short pulse. APPLIED OPTICS 1997; 36:6788-6793. [PMID: 18259545 DOI: 10.1364/ao.36.006788] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/25/2023]
Abstract
The time-dependent characteristics of the second-harmonic generation of a short pulse are investigated theoretically. Transient coupled-wave equations are necessary to describe the time-dependent process of the second-harmonic generation of a short pulse. It is found that the fundamental waves experience both pulse broadening and compression with different waveform distortion during the frequency-doubling process. The pulse width of a frequency-doubled wave broadens monotonically along the crystal length. There is no phase distortion in the case of exact phase matching. Phase modulation (i.e., chirp) occurs only when there is phase mismatch and chirp can be determined by the phase mismatch.
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Affiliation(s)
- D W Kim
- Research Institute of Industrial Science and Technology, P.O. Box 135, Pohang 790-600, Korea
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Dubietis A, Valiulis G, Tamosauskas G, Danielius R, Piskarskas A. Nonlinear second-harmonic pulse compression with tilted pulses. OPTICS LETTERS 1997; 22:1071-1073. [PMID: 18185754 DOI: 10.1364/ol.22.001071] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/25/2023]
Abstract
We demonstrate that the group velocities of interacting pulses can be adjusted by pulse tilting to optimize second-harmonic pulse compression for a variety of nonlinear crystals and wavelengths. As an experimental proof we present results of ninefold compression of 1.3-ps Nd:glass laser pulses in beta -barium borate crystal.
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Dubietis A, Valiulis G, Danielius R, Piskarskas A. Fundamental-frequency pulse compression through cascaded second-order processes in a type II phase-matched second-harmonic generator. OPTICS LETTERS 1996; 21:1262-1264. [PMID: 19876319 DOI: 10.1364/ol.21.001262] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/28/2023]
Abstract
We show that cascading of the second-order processes under large group-velocity mismatch can lead to the efficient compression of pulses at fundamental frequency in the type II phase-matched second-harmonicgeneration process. We demonstrate that any of three interacting pulses can be compressed if the proper ratio of intensities of the o- and e-polarized pump pulses is chosen on input. We experimentally achieved compression of o-polarized pulses from 1.3 ps down to 280 fs with energy conversion close to 50% when a conventional second-harmonic compressor with unbalanced intensities of the pump pulses was used.
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