Asymmetric self-phase modulation and compression of short laser pulses in plasma channels.
A relativistically intense femtosecond laser pulse propagating in a plasma channel undergoes dramatic photon deceleration while propagating a distance on the order of a dephasing length. The deceleration of photons is localized to the back of the pulse and is accompanied by compression and explosive growth of the ponderomotive potential. Fully explicit particle-in-cell simulations are applied to the problem and are compared with ponderomotive guiding center simulations. A numerical Wigner transform is used to examine local frequency shifts within the pulse and to suggest an experimental diagnostic of plasma waves inside a capillary.
Gordon
D F
DF
Icarus Research, Inc, PO Box 30780, Bethesda, Maryland 20824-0780, USA.
Hafizi
B
B
Hubbard
R F
RF
Peñano
J R
JR
Sprangle
P
P
Ting
A
A