title: Evidence of relativistic laser beam filamentation in back-reflected images
abstract: The back-reflected image of a 100 TW laser incident on a long scale length plasma is measured. The plasma is deliberately preformed on a solid planar target in a controlled way. Multiple highly intense spots are observed inside the original focal spot. These spots could be the experimental evidence for the laser beam relativistic filamentation in the plasma. Three-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations for parameters close to the experimental values are performed. The experimental observations and the filamentation dynamics obtained in the PIC simulations are in a good agreement.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Laser Engineering, Osaka University, Yamada-oka 2-6, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan.
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Allen
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pukhov
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kodama
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fujita
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kato
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kawasaki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kitagawa
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mima
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Morio
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shiraga
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Iwata
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Miyakoshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yamanaka