Relativistic laser channeling in plasmas for fast ignition.
We report an experimental observation suggesting plasma channel formation by focusing a relativistic laser pulse into a long-scale-length preformed plasma. The channel direction coincides with the laser axis. Laser light transmittance measurement indicates laser channeling into the high-density plasma with relativistic self-focusing. A three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation reproduces the plasma channel and reveals that the collimated hot-electron beam is generated along the laser axis in the laser channeling. These findings hold the promising possibility of fast heating a dense fuel plasma with a relativistic laser pulse.
Lei
A L
AL
Institute of Laser Engineering, Osaka University, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan. lal@siom.ac.cn
Pukhov
A
A
Kodama
R
R
Yabuuchi
T
T
Adumi
K
K
Endo
K
K
Freeman
R R
RR
Habara
H
H
Kitagawa
Y
Y
Kondo
K
K
Kumar
G R
GR
Matsuoka
T
T
Mima
K
K
Nagatomo
H
H
Norimatsu
T
T
Shorokhov
O
O
Snavely
R
R
Yang
X Q
XQ
Zheng
J
J
Tanaka
K A
KA