A robust plasma-based laser amplifier via stimulated Brillouin scattering
Abstract
Brillouin amplification in plasma is more resilient to fluctuations in the laser and plasma param- eters than Raman amplification, making it an attractive alternative to Raman amplification. In this work, we focus on high plasma densities, n0 > ncr/4, where stimulated Raman scattering is not possible and laser beam filamentation is the dominant competing process. Through analytic theory and multi-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, we identify a parameter regime for which Brillouin amplification can be efficient while maintaining filamentation of the probe at a controlled level. We demonstrate pump-to-probe compression ratios of up to 72 and peak amplified probe fluences over 1 kJ/cm2 with ≃ 50% efficiency. High pulse quality is maintained through control of parasitic filamentation, enabling operation at large beam diameters. Provided the pump and probe pulse diameters can be increased to 1 mm, our results suggest that Brillouin amplification can be used to produce sub-picosecond pulses of petawatt power.
Citation
Alves , E , Trines , R , Humphrey , K , Bingham , R , Cairns , R A , Fiuza , F , Fonseca , R & Silva , L 2021 , ' A robust plasma-based laser amplifier via stimulated Brillouin scattering ' , Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion , vol. 63 , no. 11 , 114004 . https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6587/ac2613
Publication
Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0741-3335Type
Journal article
Description
This work was supported financially by STFC and EPSRC, by the European Research Council (ERC-2010-AdG Grant No. 167841), by the EUROfusion project and by FCT (Portugal) Grant No. SFRH/BD/75 558/2010. LOS acknowledges the support of the European Research Council (ERC-2015-AdG Grant No. 695088).Collections
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