700 J THz pulses from a laser-driven particle accelerator

Amrutha Gopal; Torsten May; Pushkar Singh; Sven Herzer; Wolfgang Ziegler; Gerhard G. Paulus; Albrecht Schmidt; Andreas Reinhard; Ulrich Dillner; Hans-Georg Meyer; Anupam Karmakar; Dirk Broemmel; Paul Gibbon

doi:10.1117/12.2017254

9 May 2013 700 _μJ THz pulses from a laser-driven particle accelerator

Amrutha Gopal, Torsten May, Pushkar Singh, Sven Herzer, Wolfgang Ziegler, Gerhard G. Paulus, Albrecht Schmidt, Andreas Reinhard, Ulrich Dillner, Hans-Georg Meyer, Anupam Karmakar, Dirk Broemmel, Paul Gibbon

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 8779, Laser Acceleration of Electrons, Protons, and Ions II; and Medical Applications of Laser-Generated Beams of Particles II; and Harnessing Relativistic Plasma Waves III; 87791Z (2013) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2017254
Event: SPIE Optics + Optoelectronics, 2013, Prague, Czech Republic

Abstract

Here we report a laser plasma-driven source of T-rays with the highest pulse energy ever recorded in a laboratory. T-rays are emitted from the rear surface of a solid target in the non-collinear direction at incident laser intensities ~ 10¹⁹ W/cm². Pulse energy measurements reported T-ray pulses with peak energies no less than 700 _μJ. Temporal measurements using a single-shot electro-optic method showed the presence of sub-picosecond T-ray pulses with 570 fs duration, thus rendering the peak-power of the source higher even than that of state-of-the-art synchrotrons. A conversion efficiency of higher than 10⁻³ and an average power of 7 mW makes it the most efficient compact and powerful THz source known today. Spectral analysis revealed the presences of frequencies ranging from 0.1 − 133 THz, while most of the energy is localised in the low frequency region. The dependence of T-ray yield on incident laser energy is linear and shows no signs of saturation. The spatial distribution of the recorded T-rays indicates that most of the T-rays are emitted in the non-collinear direction from the rear-surface of a solid target and the contribution in the forward direction is very small. 2D particle-in-cell simulations show the presence of transient current at the target rear surface.

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Amrutha Gopal, Torsten May, Pushkar Singh, Sven Herzer, Wolfgang Ziegler, Gerhard G. Paulus, Albrecht Schmidt, Andreas Reinhard, Ulrich Dillner, Hans-Georg Meyer, Anupam Karmakar, Dirk Broemmel, and Paul Gibbon "700 _μJ THz pulses from a laser-driven particle accelerator", Proc. SPIE 8779, Laser Acceleration of Electrons, Protons, and Ions II; and Medical Applications of Laser-Generated Beams of Particles II; and Harnessing Relativistic Plasma Waves III, 87791Z (9 May 2013); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2017254

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KEYWORDS

Terahertz radiation

Mirrors

Solids

Electrons

Laser energy

Particle accelerators

Plasmas

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