Evidence for whole-beam self-focusing of induced spatially incoherent laser light in large underdense plasma
- 17 February 1992
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review Letters
- Vol. 68 (7) , 942-945
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.68.942
Abstract
The propagation of an intense electromagnetic pulse in a large underdense plasma has been investigated using spatially and temporally incoherent laser light. Spatial incoherence was obtained using the induced spatial incoherence (ISI) technique. The first observation of the occurrence of thermal whole-beam self-focusing with ISI laser light is presented. Thermal imaging with a multiframe x-ray camera (140 ps gate time) was used to record the propagation characteristics of the interaction beam through the plasma. A direct measurement of the self-focusing growth length has been made.Keywords
This publication has 17 references indexed in Scilit:
- Experimental Observations of Thermal Whole Beam Self-FocusingEurophysics Letters, 1990
- Study of instabilities in long scale-length plasmas with and without laser-beam-smoothing techniquesPhysics of Fluids B: Plasma Physics, 1990
- Suppression of Instabilities in a Long-Scalelength Preformed PlasmaEurophysics Letters, 1989
- Onset of laser light filamentation in preformed plasmasPhysics of Fluids B: Plasma Physics, 1989
- Reduction of Raman Scattering in a Plasma to Convective Levels Using Induced Spatial IncoherencePhysical Review Letters, 1989
- Self-focusing and filamentation of laser light in high Z plasmasPhysics of Fluids, 1988
- Brillouin scattering measurements from plasmas irradiated with spatially and temporally incoherent laser lightPhysical Review Letters, 1987
- Hydrodynamics of exploding foil x-ray lasersPhysics of Fluids, 1986
- Use of induced spatial incoherence for uniform illumination of laser fusion targetsOptics Communications, 1983
- Influence of Nonuniform Laser Intensities on Ablatively Accelerated TargetsPhysical Review Letters, 1982