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Effects of chirp and pulse shape on high harmonic generation and absorption in overdense plasmas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

X. Lavocat-Dubuis ,
F. Vidal ,
J.-P. Matte ,
C. Popovici ,
T. Ozaki  and
J.-C. Kieffer
X. Lavocat-Dubuis
Affiliation:
INRS-Énergie, Matériaux et Télécommunications, Varennes, Québec, Canada
F. Vidal*
Affiliation:
INRS-Énergie, Matériaux et Télécommunications, Varennes, Québec, Canada
J.-P. Matte
Affiliation:
INRS-Énergie, Matériaux et Télécommunications, Varennes, Québec, Canada
C. Popovici
Affiliation:
INRS-Énergie, Matériaux et Télécommunications, Varennes, Québec, Canada
T. Ozaki
Affiliation:
INRS-Énergie, Matériaux et Télécommunications, Varennes, Québec, Canada
J.-C. Kieffer
Affiliation:
INRS-Énergie, Matériaux et Télécommunications, Varennes, Québec, Canada
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: F. Vidal, INRS-Énergie, Matériaux et Télécommunications, 1650 Bould. Lionel-Boulet, Varennes, Québec, Canada, J3X 1S2. E-mail: vidal@emt.inrs.ca
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Abstract

Using particle-in-cell simulations, we investigated the effect of group velocity dispersion (GVD) and third order dispersion (TOD) in the laser pulse on high-order harmonic generation and laser absorption in overdense plasmas. A 1020 W/cm−2, 35-fs transform-limited Gaussian pulse was stretched to 160 fs through chirping. When including GVD alone, the temporal pulse shape remains symmetric and no difference was seen in the harmonic spectra for opposite signs of GVD. However, when adding TOD to GVD, the pulse is no longer symmetric and noticeable differences in harmonics intensity were observed for opposite signs of TOD. We show that the higher harmonic intensity obtained with positive TOD is connected with a steeper front edge of the pulse and the appearance of strong modulations in the harmonic spectrum. The chirp broadens and shifts the harmonics. Laser energy absorption is also mostly affected by the pulse shape. Simple estimates indicate that, in the main example considered in this paper, about half the laser energy absorption (10%) is due to vacuum heating.

Keywords

Harmonic generationLasersOverdense plasmas
Type
Research Article
Information
Laser and Particle Beams , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , March 2011 , pp. 95 - 104
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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