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Low-density hydrodynamic optical-field-ionized plasma channels generated with an axicon lens

R. J. Shalloo, C. Arran, A. Picksley, A. von Boetticher, L. Corner, J. Holloway, G. Hine, J. Jonnerby, H. M. Milchberg, C. Thornton, R. Walczak, and S. M. Hooker
Phys. Rev. Accel. Beams 22, 041302 – Published 10 April 2019
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    Abstract

    We demonstrate optical guiding of high-intensity laser pulses in long, low-density hydrodynamic optical-field-ionized (HOFI) plasma channels. An axicon lens is used to generate HOFI plasma channels with on-axis electron densities as low as ne(0)=1.5×1017  cm−3 and matched spot sizes in the range 20  μm≲WM≲40  μm. Control of these channel parameters via adjustment of the initial cell pressure and the delay after the arrival of the channel-forming pulse is demonstrated. For laser pulses with a peak axial intensity of 4×1017  W cm−2, highly reproducible, high-quality guiding over more than 14 Rayleigh ranges is achieved at a pulse repetition rate of 5 Hz, limited by the available channel-forming laser and vacuum pumping system. Plasma channels of this type would seem to be well suited to multi-GeV laser wakefield accelerators operating in the quasilinear regime.

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    • Received 14 February 2019

    DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevAccelBeams.22.041302

    Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

    Published by the American Physical Society

    Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

    1. Research Areas
    High intensity laser-plasma interactionsLaser wakefield acceleration
    Accelerators & BeamsPlasma Physics

    Authors & Affiliations

    R. J. Shalloo1,*, C. Arran1,†, A. Picksley1, A. von Boetticher1, L. Corner2, J. Holloway1, G. Hine3,‡, J. Jonnerby1, H. M. Milchberg3, C. Thornton4, R. Walczak1, and S. M. Hooker1,§

    • 1John Adams Institute for Accelerator Science and Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Denys Wilkinson Building, Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3RH, United Kingdom
    • 2Cockcroft Institute for Accelerator Science and Technology, School of Engineering, The Quadrangle, University of Liverpool, Brownlow Hill, Liverpool L69 3GH, United Kingdom
    • 3Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
    • 4Central Laser Facility, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot OX11 0QX, United Kingdom

    • *Present address: The John Adams Institute for Accelerator Science, Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom.
    • †Present address: York Plasma Institute, Department of Physics, University of York, York YO10 5DD, United Kingdom.
    • ‡Present address: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, USA.
    • §simon.hooker@physics.ox.ac.uk

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    Issue

    Vol. 22, Iss. 4 — April 2019

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    Images

    • Figure 1
      Figure 1

      Left: Experimental layout: HM1 and HM2 (mirrors with central holes), DM1 (810 nm:405 nm R:T dichroic), DM2 and DM3 (405 nm:810 nm R:T dichroic mirrors), OAP (f/25 off-axis paraboloid), AX (refractive axicon), SHG (second-harmonic generating crystal), QWP (quarter-wave plate), L1 (achromatic lens f=500  mm), L2 (planoconvex lens f=250  mm), and GC (gas cell). Top right: Photograph of the 16 mm HOFI plasma channel. A composite of an image with chamber lights on and no plasma, together with an image of the plasma with the chamber lights off. Bottom right: Schematic of the interaction region showing the coupling of the four beam lines to the plasma source.

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    • Figure 2
      Figure 2

      Transverse fluence profiles of the guided laser pulse at (a) the entrance and (b) the exit of a 16-mm-long HOFI channel, at τ=1.5  ns. (c) shows, for each shot, the average of the horizontal and vertical fluence profiles through the center of mass; the coordinate Δ has its origin at the center of mass. In (d), the D4σ spot size [30] of the transmitted beam (averaged along the principal axes of the spot) is shown for each of the 485 shots; (e) shows the vertical (blue) and horizontal (red) offsets of the spot center. In (a)–(c), the peak fluence has been normalized to the highest value in each plot.

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    • Figure 3
      Figure 3

      Transverse interferometric measurements of HOFI channels for an initial cell pressure of P=80  mbar and delay τ=1.5  ns. (a) shows the measured transverse phase map of the channel, while (b) shows the longitudinally averaged phase (dashed gray line) and a lineout from the transverse phase fitting procedure described in the text (solid red line). The lower panel shows, for the retrieved electron density profile, (c) a surface and contour plot of the retrieved electron density and (d) lineouts along the positive and negative portions of the y axis.

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    • Figure 4
      Figure 4

      Variation of the rotationally averaged radial electron density profile ne(r) of the plasma channel with (a) delay τ, for P=120  mbar, and (b) initial cell pressure P, for τ=1.5  ns. In (a) and (b), the solid line shows the mean value, and the shaded region the standard error, obtained from averaging typically five shots. Also shown are the variation with P, for τ=1.5  ns of (c) the on-axis density ne(0), together with a linear fit, and (d) the matched spot size WM, together with a fit to WM∝P−0.5.

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