Generation of one-cycle laser pulses by use of high-amplitude plasma waves
The dynamics of a short laser pulse located in the density trough of a background plasma wave is investigated and a scheme is proposed to compress the pulse duration by use of a high-amplitude plasma wave. The threshold amplitude of the plasma wave, at which the compressing effect just balances the dispersive spreading of the laser pulse, is estimated for certain pulse profiles. Numerical simulations are conducted with particle-in-cell codes, where a pump pulse is used to generate a high-amplitude plasma wave and a signal pulse copropagates behind. It is shown that the signal pulse can be compressed by the plasma wave from ten laser cycles to about one cycle within a millimeter in tenuous plasma only a few percent of the critical density.
Sheng
ZM
Institute of Laser Engineering, Osaka University, 2-6 Yamada-oka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan.
Sentoku
Y
Mima
K
Nishihara
K