Düsseldorf 2007 – scientific programme

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SYRL: Symposium Relativistische Laserplasmen

SYRL 1: Relativistische Laserplasmen

SYRL 1.1: Invited Talk

Friday, March 23, 2007, 10:30–11:00, 6C

Relativistic mirrors with two colliding laser pulses — •Sergei Bulanov — Advanced Photon Research Centre, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, 8-1 Umemidai, Kizu, Souraku, Kyoto, 619-0215 Japan

In a plasma wake wave generated by a relativistically intense ultra-short laser pulse, modulations of the electron density naturally and robustly take the shape of paraboloidal dense shells, separated by evacuated regions, moving almost at the speed of light. When another counter-propagating laser pulse is injected, it is partially reflected from the shells, which act as relativistic flying semi-transparent mirrors. This process produces an extremely time-compressed frequency-multiplied electromagnetic pulse which may be focused tightly to the diffraction limit [1]. Recently the frequency multiplication was detected in the APRC-JAEA experiments on the reflection of a weak laser pulse in the region of the wake wave generated by the driver laser pulse in an underdense plasma [2]. This mechanism represents a new kind of short-pulse, tunable frequency source leading to the possibility of very strong pulse compression and extreme light intensification.

[1] S. V. Bulanov, T. Zh. Esirkepov, T. Tajima, Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, (2003).

[2] M. Kando, et al., (2007)