Plasma-based laser amplification is considered as a possible way to overcome the technological limits of present day laser systems and achieve Exawatt laser pulses. Efficient amplification of a picosecond laser pulse by stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) of a pump pulse in a plasma requires to reach the self-similar regime of strongly coupled SBS. In this paper we report on the first observation of the signatures of the transition from linear to self-similar regimes of sc-SBS, so far only predicted by theory and simulations. With a new fully head-on collision geometry, sub-ps pulses are amplified by a factor of 5 with energy transfers of few tens of mJ. We observe pulse shortening, frequency spectrum broadening and downshifting for increasing gain, signatures of sc-SBS amplification entering the self-similar regime. This is also confirmed by the power law dependence of the gain on the amplification length: doubling the interaction length increases the gain by a factor 1.4. Pump Backward Raman scattering (BRS) on sc-SBS amplification has been measured for the first time, showing a strong decrease of the BRS amplitude and frequency bandwidth when SBS seed amplification occurs.

Signatures of the self-similar regime of strongly coupled stimulated Brillouin scattering for efficient short laser pulse amplification / Giribono, Anna; Vassura, Laura; M., Chiaramello; C., Riconda; S., Weber; A., Castan; A., Chatelain; A., Frank; T., Gangolf; M., Quinn; J., Fuchs; J. R., Marquès; Lancia, Livia. - In: PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS. - ISSN 1079-7114. - STAMPA. - 116:7(2016), p. 075001. [10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.075001]

Signatures of the self-similar regime of strongly coupled stimulated Brillouin scattering for efficient short laser pulse amplification

GIRIBONO, ANNA;VASSURA, LAURA;LANCIA, LIVIA
2016

Abstract

Plasma-based laser amplification is considered as a possible way to overcome the technological limits of present day laser systems and achieve Exawatt laser pulses. Efficient amplification of a picosecond laser pulse by stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) of a pump pulse in a plasma requires to reach the self-similar regime of strongly coupled SBS. In this paper we report on the first observation of the signatures of the transition from linear to self-similar regimes of sc-SBS, so far only predicted by theory and simulations. With a new fully head-on collision geometry, sub-ps pulses are amplified by a factor of 5 with energy transfers of few tens of mJ. We observe pulse shortening, frequency spectrum broadening and downshifting for increasing gain, signatures of sc-SBS amplification entering the self-similar regime. This is also confirmed by the power law dependence of the gain on the amplification length: doubling the interaction length increases the gain by a factor 1.4. Pump Backward Raman scattering (BRS) on sc-SBS amplification has been measured for the first time, showing a strong decrease of the BRS amplitude and frequency bandwidth when SBS seed amplification occurs.
2016
Physics and Astronomy (all)
01 Pubblicazione su rivista::01a Articolo in rivista
Signatures of the self-similar regime of strongly coupled stimulated Brillouin scattering for efficient short laser pulse amplification / Giribono, Anna; Vassura, Laura; M., Chiaramello; C., Riconda; S., Weber; A., Castan; A., Chatelain; A., Frank; T., Gangolf; M., Quinn; J., Fuchs; J. R., Marquès; Lancia, Livia. - In: PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS. - ISSN 1079-7114. - STAMPA. - 116:7(2016), p. 075001. [10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.075001]
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11573/849735
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