title: Optical properties of relativistic plasma mirrors.
abstract: The advent of ultrahigh-power femtosecond lasers creates a need for an entirely new class of optical components based on plasmas. The most promising of these are known as plasma mirrors, formed when an intense femtosecond laser ionizes a solid surface. These mirrors specularly reflect the main part of a laser pulse and can be used as active optical elements to manipulate its temporal and spatial properties. Unfortunately, the considerable pressures exerted by the laser can deform the mirror surface, unfavourably affecting the reflected beam and complicating, or even preventing, the use of plasma mirrors at ultrahigh intensities. Here we derive a simple analytical model of the basic physics involved in laser-induced deformation of a plasma mirror. We validate this model numerically and experimentally, and use it to show how such deformation might be mitigated by appropriate control of the laser phase.
authors.affiliation: Lasers, Interactions and Dynamics Laboratory, Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique, Gif-Sur-Yvette 91191, France.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Vincenti
authors.affiliation: Lasers, Interactions and Dynamics Laboratory, Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique, Gif-Sur-Yvette 91191, France.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Monchocé
authors.affiliation: Lasers, Interactions and Dynamics Laboratory, Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique, Gif-Sur-Yvette 91191, France.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kahaly
authors.affiliation: 1] Lasers, Interactions and Dynamics Laboratory, Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique, Gif-Sur-Yvette 91191, France [2] INSTN, Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique, Gif-Sur-Yvette 91191, France.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bonnaud
authors.affiliation: Lasers, Interactions and Dynamics Laboratory, Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique, Gif-Sur-Yvette 91191, France.
authors.forename: Ph
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.affiliation: Lasers, Interactions and Dynamics Laboratory, Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique, Gif-Sur-Yvette 91191, France.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Quéré
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D003198:Computer Simulation; D007477:Ions; D007834:Lasers; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D055095:Optics and Photonics; D055585:Physical Phenomena; D013499:Surface Properties; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D007477:Ions