Journal ArticleDOI
Wave-breaking amplitude of relativistic oscillations in a thermal plasma.
Tom Katsouleas,Warren Mori +1 more
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TLDR
The maximum amplitude of relativistic plasma oscillations is obtained with a combined one-dimensional waterbag and warm-fluid model and an analytic expression for the wave-breaking amplitude in the limit v/sub ph/approx.Abstract:
The maximum amplitude of relativistic plasma oscillations (${\ensuremath{\upsilon}}_{\mathrm{ph}}$ near $c$) is obtained with a combined one-dimensional waterbag and warm-fluid model. The waterbag description is used to obtain expressions for the pressure and internal energy as functions of the proper density. A relativistic Euler's equation that is valid for arbitrarily large amplitudes and an analytic expression for the wave-breaking amplitude in the limit ${\ensuremath{\upsilon}}_{\mathrm{ph}}\ensuremath{\cong}c$ are obtained. Even a small amount of thermal energy can significantly reduce the maximum plasma-wave amplitude relative to the cold wave-breaking value. The significance of the results for recent accelerator schemes is discussed.read more
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Journal ArticleDOI
Optics in the relativistic regime
TL;DR: In this paper, a number of consequences of relativistic-strength optical fields are surveyed, including wakefield generation, a relativistically version of optical rectification, in which longitudinal field effects could be as large as the transverse ones.
Journal ArticleDOI
Overview of plasma-based accelerator concepts
TL;DR: An overview of the physics issues relevant to the plasma wakefield accelerator, the plasma beat-wave accelerator, including the self-modulated regime, and wakefield accelerators driven by multiple electron or laser pulses is given in this article.
Journal ArticleDOI
Electron acceleration from the breaking of relativistic plasma waves
A. Modena,Zulfikar Najmudin,A. E. Dangor,C. E. Clayton,K. A. Marsh,C. Joshi,Victor Malka,Christopher B. Darrow,Colin N. Danson,David Neely,F. N. Walsh +10 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors report observations of relativistic plasma waves driven to breaking point by the Raman forward-scattering instability induced by short, high-intensity laser pulses.
Journal ArticleDOI
The physics of the nonlinear optics of plasmas at relativistic intensities for short-pulse lasers
Abstract: The nonlinear optics of plasmas at relativistic intensities are analyzed using only the physically intuitive processes of longitudinal bunching of laser energy, transverse focusing of laser energy, and photon acceleration, together with the assumption of conservation of photons, i.e., the classical action. All that is required are the well-known formula for the phase and group velocity of light in plasma, and the effects of the ponderomotive force on the dielectric function. This formalism is useful when the dielectric function of the plasma is almost constant in the frame of the light wave. This is the case for Raman forward scattering (RFS), envelope self-modulation (SM), relativistic self-focusing (SF), and relativistic self-phase modulation (SPM). In the past, the growth rates for RFS and SPM have been derived in terms of wave-wave interactions. Here we rederive all of the aforementioned processes in terms of longitudinal bunching, transverse focusing, and photon acceleration. As a result, the physical mechanisms behind each are made clear and the relationship between RFS and envelope SM is made explicitly clear. This allows a single differential equation to be obtained which couples RFS and SM, so that the relative importance between each process can now be predicted for given experimental conditions.