Multimillijoule terahertz radiation from laser interactions with microplasma waveguides
Journal article, 2021

When a relativistic, femtosecond laser pulse enters a waveguide, the pulse energy is coupled into waveguide optical modes. The longitudinal laser field effectively accelerates electrons along the axis of the channel, while the asymmetric transverse electromagnetic fields tend to expel fast electrons radially outwards. At the exit of the waveguide, the similar to nC, similar to 10 MeV electron bunch converts its energy to a similar to 10 mJ terahertz (THz) laser pulse through coherent diffraction radiation. In this paper, we present 3D particle-in-cell simulations and theoretical analyses of the aforementioned interaction process. We investigate the process of longitudinal acceleration and radial expulsion of fast electrons, as well as the dependence of the properties of the resulting THz radiation on laser and plasma parameters and the effects of the preplasma. The simulation results indicate that the conversion efficiency of energy can be over 5% if the waveguide length is optimal and a high contrast pump laser is used. These results guide the design of more intense and powerful THz sources.

multimillijoule terahertz radiation

laser-plasma interaction

microplasma waveguide

electron acceleration

Author

Ke Hu

Chalmers, Physics, Subatomic, High Energy and Plasma Physics

Longqing Yi

Chalmers, Physics, Subatomic, High Energy and Plasma Physics

Tünde Fülöp

Chalmers, Physics, Subatomic, High Energy and Plasma Physics

Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion

0741-3335 (ISSN) 1361-6587 (eISSN)

Vol. 63 3 035028

Subject Categories

Accelerator Physics and Instrumentation

Atom and Molecular Physics and Optics

Other Physics Topics

DOI

10.1088/1361-6587/abdcdc

More information

Latest update

3/15/2021