Advances in laser-based bremsstrahlung x-ray sources. II. Laser pulse propagation and guiding in nonuniform plasma media in the presence of self-focusing
An analytic Wentzel–Kramers–Brillouin model is presented of Gaussian laser pulse propagation through plasma with a quadratic transverse density profile and an arbitrarily varying, longitudinal density gradient under conditions of nonlinear self-focusing. From these solutions, it is shown that in the absence of nonlinear self-focusing and transverse nonuniformity, for exponential pre-plasma density profiles, the use of a low density coating of the laser target with electron density n0∼11 ncr (e.g., a CH foam of density 35 mg/cm3 for 1-micron laser light) maximizes laser intensity at best focus. Also, under laser and plasma conditions relevant to recent experiments on high-power laser systems, conditions are obtained for a Gaussian laser pulse to propagate stably through the pre-plasma medium. Such conditions would be expected to enhance the production of relativistic electrons from laser-target coupling, providing a possible explanation for the observed increase in MeV photon dose and enabling applications such as laser-based MeV X-ray radiography.
Authors
- A. Van Pelt (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-0843-9943)
- James Hunter (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9673-0531)
- D. C. Gautier (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7778-311X)
- A. G. Seaton (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5032-8918)
- Alejandro Figueroa Bengoa (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9547-8135)
- J. Strehlow (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5576-0945)
- J. C. Fernández (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1438-1815)
- Christopher Tomkins (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0146-1082)
- A. Bogale (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0601-1512)
- Scott V. Luedtke (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1670-2835)
- S. Palaniyappan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6377-1206)
- Brandon Michael Medina (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1053-1772)
- Lin Yin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8978-5320)
- L. Tyler Mix (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8136-3457)
- B. J. Albright (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7789-6525)
- Rebecca Fitzgarrald (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1633-8113)
- Chengkun Huang
- Joshua Sauppe (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1507-1595)
Institutions
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (US)
- University of Michigan (US)
- University of California San Diego (US)
- Optical Sciences (United States) (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physics of Plasmas
- Published
- 2024-12-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0229166
- Citations
- 5
- Primary Topic
- Laser-Plasma Interactions and Diagnostics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 3.30
Funders
- Laboratory Directed Research and Development