Application of Laser-Fabricated Plasma Structures in X-Ray Lasers and Plasma Nonlinear Optics

Jyhpyng Wang1,2,3, Szu-yuan Chen1,3, Jiunn-Yuan Lin4, and Hsu-Hsin Chu3

Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan 2 Department of Physics, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan 3 Department of Physics, National Central University, Jhongli, Taiwan 4 Department of Physics, National Chung-Cheng University, Min-Hsiung, Taiwan corresponding author: jwang@ltl.iams.sinica.edu.tw
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For the development of soft x-ray lasers and plasma nonlinear optics using femtosecond high-intensity lasers, we fabricated real-time programmable transient plasma structures to gain fine control on laser-plasma interaction. Single-shot fabrication of arbitrary gas/plasma structures was demonstrated, which makes possible on-line adaptive feedback optimization of high-field plasma devices [1]. The transient plasma structures are created by heating the plasma locally with machining pulses using the ignitor-heater scheme. The locally heated plasma expands to produce a transient density profile controlled by the intensity profiles of the machining beams. Plasma gratings with variable period and duty cycle were fabricated by modulating the intensity profile of a transverse machining beam with a liquid-crystal spatial light modulator, and plasma waveguides were fabricated by reducing the on-axis plasma density and increasing the off-axis plasma density in a long line-focus produced by an axicon lens. In soft x-ray lasers we fabricated a 1-cm long transient plasma waveguide in a gas jet to enhance soft x-ray lasing of Ni-like Kr at 32.8 nm. By suppressing the diffraction of the x-ray laser pump pulse, the plasma waveguide increases the output energy by 400 folds to 480 nJ and decreases the divergence angle by 3 folds to 5.6 mrad. Both the dependences on atom density and on pump energy indicate that the laser has reached saturation [2]. Since the x-ray lasing is pumped by optical field ionization, the pump pulse will increase the on-axis plasma density significantly. Thus a major concern was how to prevent the pump pulse from erasing the waveguide. We found that although the pump pulse increases the on-axis plasma density, it also produces about the same increase of off-axis plasma density because the atom density is much higher in the off-axis region. As a result the plasma waveguide is not compromised by the pump pulse. This is how a dramatic enhancement of x-ray lasing efficiency is achieved. In plasma nonlinear optics we fabricated periodic plasma structures to achieve quasi-phase matching for relativistic harmonic generation. Relativistic third harmonic generation was enhanced by 50 folds. Resonant dependence of harmonic intensity on plasma density and density modulation parameters shows the distinct characteristic of quasi-phase matching [3]. We have also fabricated plasma waveguides to serve as a platform for Raman backward amplification of femtosecond pulses. Through the interaction with plasma waves, Raman backward amplification can transfer energy from a long pulse to a short pulse, thereby holds the promise of circumventing the fundamental limitation imposed by material breakdown in femtosecond solid-state laser amplifiers. By using the plasma waveguide to greatly increase the interaction length, we have achieved a gain of 910 in such plasma amplifiers. The series of experiments we carried out shows that by controlling the plasma structure with optical fabrication methods, laser-plasma interaction can be engineered to greatly enrich the frontier of high-field physics. References [1] M.-W. Lin et al., Phys. Plasmas 13, 110701 (2006). [2] M.-C. Chou et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 063904 (2007). [3] C.-C. Kuo et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 033901 (2007).