Generation of high-field narrowband terahertz radiation by counterpropagating plasma wakefields
Abstract
It is found that nonlinear interaction of plasma wakefields driven by counterpropagating laser or particle beams can efficiently generate high-power electromagnetic radiation at the second harmonic of the plasma frequency. Using a simple analytical theory and particle-in-cell simulations, we show that this phenomenon can be attractive for producing high-field ( ∼10 MV/cm) tunable terahertz radiation with a narrow line width. For laser drivers produced by existing petawatt-class systems, this nonlinear process opens the way to the generation of gigawatt, multi-millijoule terahertz pulses which are not presently available for any other generating schemes.
- Publication:
-
Physics of Plasmas
- Pub Date:
- October 2017
- DOI:
- 10.1063/1.4993100
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1611.00655
- Bibcode:
- 2017PhPl...24j3106T
- Keywords:
-
- Physics - Plasma Physics
- E-Print:
- doi:10.1063/1.4993100