High intensity pulse self-compression in short hollow core capillaries

Abstract

The drive for shorter pulses for use in techniques such as high harmonic generation and laser wakefield acceleration requires continual improvement in post-laser pulse compression techniques. The two most commonly used methods of pulse compression for high intensity pulses are hollow capillary compression via self-phase modulation (SPM) [1] and the more recently developed filamentation [2]. Both of these methods can require propagation distances of 1-3 m to achieve spectral broadening and compression. Additionally, hollow capillary compression requires post compression of the broadened pulse by chirped mirrors. Filamentation trades the efficiency of hollow capillary compression (67%) for ionisation-induced pulse self-compression. A mixture of SPM and plasma generation increases the spectral bandwidth of the pulse; however this occurs only in a small region at the centre of the beam. Spatial filtering is required to achieve the shortest pulses, reducing the efficiency to 20%. Although the majority of hollow core capillary compression requires long propagation distances, compression in short capillaries [3] with significant plasma generation has been demonstrated to be a promising technique.

More information

Identifiers

ORCID for Peter Horak: orcid.org/0000-0002-8710-8764

ORCID for Jeremy G. Frey: orcid.org/0000-0003-0842-4302

ORCID for William S. Brocklesby: orcid.org/0000-0002-2123-6712

Catalogue record

Export record