Stimulated Raman scattering in the relativistic regime in near-critical plasmas

Abstract

Interaction of a high intensity short laser pulse with near-critical plasmas allows to achieve extremely high coupling efficiency and transfer laser energy to energetic ions. One dimensional Particle-In-Cell (PIC) simulations are considered to detail the processes involved in the energy transfer. A confrontation of the numerical results with the theory highlights a key role played by the process of stimulated Raman scattering in the relativistic regime. The interaction of a 1 ps laser pulse (I $\sim$ 6.10${}^{18}$ W.cm${}^2$) with an under-critical (0.5 $n_c$) homogeneous plasma leads to a very high plasma absorption reaching 68 % of the laser pulse energy. This permits a homogeneous electron heating all along the plasma and an efficient ion acceleration at the plasma edges and in cavities.

25 pages, 10 figures

References in corpus (2)

• Radiation Pressure Dominate Regime of Relativistic Ion Acceleration
• Effect of electron heating on self-induced transparency in relativistic intensity laser-plasma interaction

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Collimated protons accelerated from an overdense gas jet irradiated by a 1 micron wavelength high-intensity short-pulse laser