Demonstration of laser-frequency upshift by electron-density modulations in a plasma wakefield

In a plasma wake wave generated by a high power laser, modulations of the electron density take the shape of paraboloidal dense shells, moving almost at the speed of light. A counterpropagating laser pulse is partially reflected from the shells, acting as relativistic flying mirrors, producing a tim...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPhysical review letters Vol. 99; no. 13; p. 135001
Main Authors Kando, M, Fukuda, Y, Pirozhkov, A S, Ma, J, Daito, I, Chen, L-M, Esirkepov, T Zh, Ogura, K, Homma, T, Hayashi, Y, Kotaki, H, Sagisaka, A, Mori, M, Koga, J K, Daido, H, Bulanov, S V, Kimura, T, Kato, Y, Tajima, T
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 28.09.2007
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Summary:In a plasma wake wave generated by a high power laser, modulations of the electron density take the shape of paraboloidal dense shells, moving almost at the speed of light. A counterpropagating laser pulse is partially reflected from the shells, acting as relativistic flying mirrors, producing a time-compressed frequency-multiplied pulse due to the double Doppler effect. The counterpropagating laser pulse reflection from the plasma wake wave accompanied by its frequency multiplication (with a factor from 50 to 114) was detected in our experiment.
ISSN:0031-9007
DOI:10.1103/physrevlett.99.135001