Relativistic laser channeling in plasmas for fast ignition

• Published in: Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics Vol. 76; no. 6 Pt 2; p. 066403
• Main Authors: Lei, A L, Pukhov, A, Kodama, R, Yabuuchi, T, Adumi, K, Endo, K, Freeman, R R, Habara, H, Kitagawa, Y, Kondo, K, Kumar, G R, Matsuoka, T, Mima, K, Nagatomo, H, Norimatsu, T, Shorokhov, O, Snavely, R, Yang, X Q, Zheng, J, Tanaka, K A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01-12-2007
• Subjects: CHANNELING; CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS; ELECTRON BEAMS; FOCUSING; HEATING; LASERS; PLASMA DENSITY; PULSES; RELATIVISTIC PLASMA; RELATIVISTIC RANGE; SIMULATION; THERMONUCLEAR IGNITION; THREE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS; VISIBLE RADIATION
• ISSN: 1539-3755; 1550-2376
• DOI: 10.1103/physreve.76.066403

We report an experimental observation suggesting plasma channel formation by focusing a relativistic laser pulse into a long-scale-length preformed plasma. The channel direction coincides with the laser axis. Laser light transmittance measurement indicates laser channeling into the high-density plasma with relativistic self-focusing. A three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation reproduces the plasma channel and reveals that the collimated hot-electron beam is generated along the laser axis in the laser channeling. These findings hold the promising possibility of fast heating a dense fuel plasma with a relativistic laser pulse.