Spectroscopic Study of the Interaction of an Ultrashort High-Intensity Laser with Underdense Plasma
Abstract
The interaction of high intensity lasers with plasma is both of fundamental interest and is essential to technological applications such as electron accelerators, x-ray lasers and fast-ignition thermonuclear fusion footnote[1]D. Umstadter, "Relativistic Laser-Plasma Interactions," J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 36, R151¡VR165 (2003). . We report the results of spectroscopic experiments that were conducted by focusing an intense 400-fs laser pulse into a He gas jet. The scattered light from the interaction region is measured spectrally and spatially from various directions as a function of laser intensity and plasma density and correlated with the accelerated electron beam. The forward spectrum indicates that forward Stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS) and Self-Phase Modulation (SPM) are competing processes. The spatial profile of the forward SRS spectrum, imaged with a CCD camera, indicates that SRS is anti-correlated with the onset of filamentation. This project was supported by the National Science Foundation.
- Publication:
-
APS Division of Plasma Physics Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- October 2003
- Bibcode:
- 2003APS..DPPCP1091C