Laser Propagation in Plasma Channels
In order to guide high intensity laser pulses over extended distances, it is important to employ plasma channels. Plasma channel is just a density depression on-axis: because the refractive index of the plasma is less than one, and decreases with the plasma density, plasma channel acts as an indestructible optical fiber. However, there are numerous laser-plasma instabilities that disrupt laser propagation in the channel in addition to plasma waves. We study those instabilities using analytic and numerical methods (such as Particle-in-Cell (PIC) simulations). Excitation of plasma wakes in the channels proceeds very differently than in the homogeneous plasmas. In collaboration with our colleagues at UC Berkeley, we study wake generation in plasma channels that exhibits a lot of rich plasma physics: collisionless wave damping, non-exponential decays, etc.
Fig 1. Wake field
