Please wait a minute...
Chinese Physics, 2001, Vol. 10(4): 314-319    DOI: 10.1088/1009-1963/10/4/310
PHYSICS OF GASES, PLASMAS, AND ELECTRIC DISCHARGES Prev   Next  

PHOTON ACCELERATION DRIVEN BY AN INTENSE LASER PULSE

Ji Pei-yong (季沛勇), Bao Jia-shan (鲍家善)
Department of Physics, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200436, China
Abstract  Interaction of a laser field with a plasma wave is studied by metric optics. Analysis shows that the frequency upshifting of the laser pulse results from the plasma density gradient. A laser beam can be thought of as a packet of photons moving in a plasma and thus the laser frequency upshifting is equivalent to photon acceleration. Examination of the three-dimensional motion equations shows that a laser beam diffraction occurs in the presence of a radial variation of the plasma density. It is argued that the focusing mechanism originating from the plasma wave can curb laser diffraction so that photons may be trapped in the plasma wave and accelerated continuously.
Keywords:  photon acceleration      frequency upshifting      plasma wave      optical metric  
Received:  30 August 2000      Accepted manuscript online: 
PACS:  52.38.-r (Laser-plasma interactions)  
  52.35.-g (Waves, oscillations, and instabilities in plasmas and intense beams)  
  52.25.-b (Plasma properties)  
Fund: Project supported by the Municipal Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai, China (Grant No. 00ZA14015).

Cite this article: 

Ji Pei-yong (季沛勇), Bao Jia-shan (鲍家善) PHOTON ACCELERATION DRIVEN BY AN INTENSE LASER PULSE 2001 Chinese Physics 10 314

[1] Propagation properties of the chirped Airy-Gaussian vortex electron plasma wave
Lican Wu(吴利灿), Jinhong Wu(吴锦鸿), Yujun Liu(刘煜俊), and Dongmei Deng(邓冬梅). Chin. Phys. B, 2020, 29(12): 125202.
[2] Analysis of Landau damping in radially inhomogeneous plasma column
H Rajabalinia-Jelodar, M K Salem, F M Aghamir, H Zakeri-Khatir. Chin. Phys. B, 2018, 27(5): 055203.
[3] Landau damping in a bounded magnetized plasma column
H. Zakeri-Khatir, F. M. Aghamir. Chin. Phys. B, 2015, 24(2): 025201.
[4] Non-steady interaction of plasma with aircraft in its near wake region
Hu Tao-Ping(胡涛平) and Luo Qing(罗青). Chin. Phys. B, 2007, 16(1): 179-185.
[5] Laser pulse modulation instabilities in partially stripped plasma
Hu Qiang-Lin (胡强林), Liu Shi-Bing (刘世炳), Jiang Yi-Jian (蒋毅坚). Chin. Phys. B, 2005, 14(12): 2546-2551.
No Suggested Reading articles found!