Inertial Fusion Sciences and Applications 2005
J.-C. Gauthier, et al.
J. Phys. IV France 133 (2006) 409-412
DOI: 10.1051/jp4:2006133082

Relativistic laser channeling into high-density plasmas

A.L. Lei^{1, 0}, K.A. Tanaka^{1, 2}, A. Pukhov³, R. Kodama¹, T. Yabuuchi¹, K. Adumi¹, R.R. Freeman⁴, Y. Izawa¹, Y. Kitagawa¹, K. Kondo¹, G.R. Kumar⁵, T. Matsuoka⁶, K. Mima¹, T. Norimatsu¹, O. Shorokhov³, R. Snavely⁷ and J. Zheng<sup>8

1</sup>  Institute of Laser Engineering, Osaka University, 2-6 Yamada-oka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan
²  Department of Electronic, Information Systems and Energy Engineering, Osaka University, 2-1 Yamada-oka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan
³  Institut fur Theoretische Physik I, Heinrich-Heine-Universitat Duesseldorf, Duesseldorf 40225, Germany
⁴  College of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, the Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA
⁵  Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai 400005, India
⁶  University of Michigan, Center for Ultrafast Optical Science, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2099, USA
⁷  Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, University of California, Livermore, CA 94550, USA
⁸  Department of Modern Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China

Abstract
We experimentally studied relativistic laser propagation in preplasmas at the highest powers ever attempted-0.2 to 0.4 petawatt. We demonstrated a single conical-shaped plasma channel formation extending several hundred microns in length from the under dense to over dense plasmas, indicating whole-beam self-focused laser channeling into the high-density plasma. The channel cone was reproduced by a three dimensional particle-in-cell simulation. The confirmation of the relativistic laser channeling into high-density plasmas holds the promise of fast igniting a highly compressed fuel plasma core.

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