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Controlling ultrashort intense laser pulses by plasma Bragg gratings with ultrahigh damage threshold

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2005

H.-C. WU ,
Z.-M. SHENG ,
Q.-J. ZHANG ,
Y. CANG  and
J. ZHANG
H.-C. WU
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Optical Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Z.-M. SHENG
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Optical Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Q.-J. ZHANG
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Optical Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Y. CANG
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Optical Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
J. ZHANG
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Optical Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
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Abstract

Propagation of ultrashort intense laser pulses in a plasma Bragg grating induced by two counterpropagating laser pulses has been investigated. Such a plasma grating exhibits an ultrawide photonic band gap, near which strong dispersion appears. It is found that the grating dispersion dominates the dispersion of background plasma by several orders of magnitude. Particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations show light speed reduction, pulse stretching, and chirped pulse compression in the plasma grating. The nonlinear coupled-mode theory agrees well with the PIC results. Because the plasma grating has a much higher damage threshold than the ordinary optical elements made of metal or dielectric, it can be a novel tool for controlling femtosecond intense laser pulses.

Keywords

Photonic band gapPlasma Bragg gratingPulse compressionPulse stretching
Type
Workshop on Fast High Density Plasma Blocks Driven By Picosecond Terawatt Lasers
Information
Laser and Particle Beams , Volume 23 , Issue 4 , October 2005 , pp. 417 - 421
Copyright
© 2005 Cambridge University Press

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