Multi-terawatt femtosecond 10 µm laser pulses by self-compression in a CO2 cell
Abstract
We propose and numerically investigate a novel direct route to produce multi-terawatt femtosecond self-compressed 10 µm laser pulses suitable for the next generation relativistic laser-plasma studies including laser-wakefield acceleration at long wavelengths. The basic concept involves selecting an appropriate isotope of CO2 gas as a compression medium. This offers a dispersion/absorption landscape that is shifted in frequency relative to the driving CO2 laser used for 10 µm picosecond pulse generation. We show numerically that as a consequence of low losses and a broad anomalous dispersion window, a 3.5 ps duration pulse can be compressed to ∼300 fs while carrying ∼7 TW of peak power in less than 7 m. An interplay of self-phase modulation and anomalous dispersion leads to a ∼3.5 times compression factor, followed by the onset of filamentation near the cell exit to get below 300 fs duration.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Oct 26, 2020
- Source ID
- 10.1364/osac.399992
Entities
People
- Jerome V. Moloney
- Michael G. Hastings
- Miroslav Kolesik
- Paris Panagiotopoulos
- Sergei Tochitsky
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Office of Naval Research