Boosting the performance of Brillouin amplification at sub-quarter-critical densities via reduction of parasitic Raman scattering

Brillouin amplification of laser pulses in plasma has been shown to be a promising approach to produce picosecond pulses of petawatt power. A key challenge is preservation of the quality of the amplified pulse, which requires control of parasitic instabilities that accompany the amplification proces...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Plasma physics and controlled fusion 2021-12, Vol.63 (12), p.124003
Main Authors: Trines, R M G M, Alves, E P, Humphrey, K A, Bingham, R, Cairns, R A, Fiúza, F, Fonseca, R A, Silva, L O
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
Brillouin amplification
high energy density physics
laser-plasma interaction
parametric instabilities
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Summary:Brillouin amplification of laser pulses in plasma has been shown to be a promising approach to produce picosecond pulses of petawatt power. A key challenge is preservation of the quality of the amplified pulse, which requires control of parasitic instabilities that accompany the amplification process. At high plasma densities (>cr/4), ponderomotive filamentation has been identified as the biggest threat to the integrity of the amplifying pulse. It has therefore been proposed to perform Brillouin scattering at densities below ncr/4 to reduce the influence of filamentation. However, parasitic Raman scattering can become a problem at such densities, contrary to densities above ncr/4 where it is forbidden. In this paper, we investigate the influence of parasitic Raman scattering on Brillouin amplification at densities below ncr/4. We expose the specific problems posed by both Raman backward and forward scattering, and how both types of scattering can be mitigated, leading to an increased performance of the Brillouin amplification process.
ISSN:0741-3335
1361-6587
DOI:10.1088/1361-6587/ac2cd9