Laser pulse frequency up-shifts by relativistic ionization fronts

A multi-terawatt, ultra-short laser pulse was used to create a large, well-defined relativistic ionization front, and the collision of a probe laser pulse with it was studied. Due to the good definition of the ionization front it was also possible to isolate the probe frequency up-shift due to the c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Europhysics letters 2004-05, Vol.66 (3), p.371-377
Main Authors: Lopes, N. C, Figueira, G, Dias, J. M, Silva, L. O, Mendonça, J. T, Balcou, Ph, Rey, G, Stenz, C
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
52.38.-r
52.59.-f
52.70.Kz
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Summary:A multi-terawatt, ultra-short laser pulse was used to create a large, well-defined relativistic ionization front, and the collision of a probe laser pulse with it was studied. Due to the good definition of the ionization front it was also possible to isolate the probe frequency up-shift due to the collision, unlike in previous experiments. A good agreement with the theoretical model for photon acceleration was found. Furthermore, we report novel measurements of ionization front velocities, based on the photon acceleration effect, in excess of $0.99c$.
ISSN:0295-5075
1286-4854
DOI:10.1209/epl/i2003-10225-9