Coherent diffraction radiation of relativistic terahertz pulses from a laser-driven micro-plasma-waveguide

Abstract

We propose a method to generate isolated relativistic terahertz (THz) pulses using a high-power laser irradiating a mirco-plasma-waveguide (MPW). When the laser pulse enters the MPW, high-charge electron bunches are produced and accelerated to ~ 100 MeV by the transverse magnetic modes. A substantial part of the electron energy is transferred to THz emission through coherent diffraction radiation as the electron bunches exit the MPW. We demonstrate this process with three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. The frequency of the radiation is determined by the incident laser duration, and the radiated energy is found to be strongly correlated to the charge of the electron bunches, which can be controlled by the laser intensity and micro-engineering of the MPW target. Our simulations indicate that 100-mJ level relativistic-intense THz pulses with tunable frequency can be generated at existing laser facilities, and the overall efficiency reaches 1%.

arXiv comment5 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (10)

• Single-cycle THz pulses with amplitudes exceeding 1 MV/cm generated by optical rectification in LiNbO3
• THz pulses over 50 millijoules generated from relativistic picosecond laser-plasma interactions
• Strong terahertz radiation from relativistic laser interaction with solid density plasmas
• Sequential terahertz pulse generation by photoionization and coherent transition radiation in underdense relativistic plasmas
• Bright X-ray source from a laser-driven micro-plasma-waveguide
• Relativistic laser driven electron accelerator using micro-channel plasma targets
• Highly collimated electron acceleration by longitudinal laser fields in a hollow-core target
• Electron beam driven generation of frequency-tunable isolated relativistic sub-cycle pulses
• High field terahertz emission from relativistic laser-driven plasma wakefields
• Radiation from laser-microplasma-waveguide interactions in the ultra-intense regime

Cited by in corpus (8)

• High-Harmonic Generation and Spin-Orbit Interaction of Light in a Relativistic Oscillating Window
• Highly-efficient terahertz radiation generated by surface electrons from laser-foil interactions
• Joule-Class Pulsed THz Sources from Microchannel Targets
• Multimillijoule terahertz radiation from laser interactions with microplasma-waveguides
• Development of a hardened THz energy meter for use on the kilojoule-scale, short-pulse OMEGA EP laser
• Spin-orbit interaction in a high-power laser irradiated micro-scale plasma waveguide
• High-efficient harmonic vortex generation from a laser irradiated hollow-cone target
• Electro-optic sampling based characterization of broad-band high efficiency THz-FEL