a State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China; b Laboratory of Optical Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080, China
Abstract In underdense plasmas, the transverse ponderomotive force of an intense laser beam with Gaussian transverse profile expels electrons radially, and it can lead to an electron cavitation. An improved cavitation model with charge conservation constraint is applied to the determination of the width of the electron cavity. The envelope equation for laser spot size derived by using source-dependent expansion method is extended to including the electron cavity. The condition for self-guiding is given and illuminated by an effective potential for the laser spot size. The effects of the laser power, plasma density and energy dissipation on the self-guiding condition are discussed.
Received: 09 June 2006
Revised: 28 August 2006
Accepted manuscript online:
PACS:
52.38.Hb
(Self-focussing, channeling, and filamentation in plasmas)
Fund: Project supported by
the National High Technology Inertial Confinement Fusion Foundation
(Grant No 10335020/A0506), the National Natural Science Foundation of
China (Grant Nos 10474081 and 10576035), and Natural Science
Foundation of Shanghai (Grant No 05ZR14159).
Cite this article:
Cang Yu(苍宇), Yu Wei(余玮), Wu Hui-Chun(武慧春), Xu Han(徐涵), and Tian You-Wei(田友伟) Intense laser beam guiding in self-induced electron cavitation channel in underdense plasmas 2007 Chinese Physics 16 456
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